The Dismantling Of The Beachwood Shopping Center Has Begun

By Patricia A. Miller

No, it's not a mirage.

The neon-orange bulldozer sitting in the cracked parking lot of the township's infamous eyesore is the beginning of the end for the Beachwood Shopping Center.

Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said pre-demolition work on the battered buildings in the dilapidated center on Route 9 South has already begun.

"They're only taking the metal off now," the mayor said at the Nov. 18 Township Council meeting.

The township recently received two $12,500 checks from the interested redevelopers, M&M Realty and Lennar Corp. The funds were placed in an escrow account, Amato said.

"It's a step in the right direction," he said.

The two companies were named the redevelopers of record for the site earlier year. The Beachwood Shopping Center is the Town Center portion of the township's massive redevelopment plan.

Lennar and M&M Realty are still in negotiations with owner Priscilla Oughton over the remediation of the site, which has environmental problems.

Oughton - who lives in Fort Lauderdale By-the Sea in Florida, has steadily been accruing fines for the condition of the shopping center since Superstorm Sandy slammed into Berkeley over a year ago.

"We are still holding her feet to the fire with fines," Amato said.

Resident Maureen Hall asked the dollar amount of the fines so far.

"In excess of $2 million," Township Council President James J. Byrnes said.

But the final total of fines will be negotiated, he said.

"We'll get a good chunk of it," Amato said.

Hall also said it seemed like no work has been done on the site since the machinery appeared.

"That backhoe has not moved in a week," Hall said.

Amato disagreed.

"I've seen dumpsters in there and crews in there," he said.

Metals and asbestos in the buildings has to be removed. Only a state-certified asbestos remediation firm can do the work, Byrnes said.

So far, the township has collected $65,000 in fines from Oughton. She inherited the shopping center from her father, the late James Johnson. He built the plaza decades ago and named it the "Beachwood Shopping Center" even though the site is in Berkeley, after a tiff with township officials.

The fines began when Township Fire Official Jack Wiegartner ordered a number of corrective actions be taken after a vacant store in the battered strip mall caught fire during the height of Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29.

Shortly after the storm, he ordered owner Priscilla Oughton to take a number of corrective actions immediately, including vacating the shopping center, removing the structures, demolishing the structures and removing all debris.