Proposed Broadway CVS Headed to Long Branch Planning Board

By Christopher Sheldon

A plan to build a CVS in the Broadway Gateway redevelopment zone of Long Branch is headed to the city's planning board for approval.

The Long Branch Council conceptually approved Hartford Realty Group's plan to build the drugstore during its Aug. 13 meeting and "referred the matter for independent review to the planning board."

City Attorney James Aaron said the application could be heard by the planning board within 45 days, and if it is approved, it could be built by the middle of next year.

"They're on a good timeline and it's probably one of the faster redevelopment projects you will see now that we finally got to this point," Aaron said.

The site is located at the intersection of Ocean Boulevard and South Broadway Avenue and currently contains an autobody shop and a used car lot that will both be demolished.

The CVS would be just over 13,013 sq. feet, contain 60 new parking spaces and single-lane drive thru that would allow customers to pick up their prescriptions. The main entrance to the building would be located on South Broadway. 

The former property owners, Fuschia Triangle and Patty Cicalese, agreed to sell the property, to First Hartford Realty Group earlier this year after years of litigation between themselves and the city.

Long Branch Business Administrator Howard Woolley said the previous property owners sued the city in 2009 and claimed "we prevented them from developing their site (by classifying the area as a redevelopment zone) and they we should pay them for it."

"Our stance was that they never came in with an application to develop it," Woolley said. "They never pulled the trigger."