TOMS RIVER – A gas station at the corner of Vaughn Avenue and Route 37 was torn down, but there are no plans for a new tenant yet.
The station was on the westbound side of Route 37. It had a car wash on site as well. All of that has been removed, and the land is now vacant. There are still curb cuts for entrances from both Vaughn and 37.
“There is nothing going there yet. We are marketing the site, which is 1.7 acres, for ground lease,” said Ron Rosetto, president of Rosetto Realty Group, LLC.
“The property is zoned Highway Business, so I am targeting retailers,” he said.
Property zoning defines what the town wants in a given location.
Because of this particular zoning, Rosetto said he’s looking for a fast food restaurant like Arby’s, a convenience store with a gas station like Royal Farms, or perhaps a car wash.
To date, they have no commitments, he said.
“Vacant land takes time,” he said. Once they secure a tenant, they need to go through the approval process which could take 16 months or more.
The construction of the building would be the final part and that might take as much as three years even if a tenant was signed today, he said.
Other Construction
The last few months of Planning Board meetings have had mostly small applications. Whenever anyone wants to build something in town, they have to have their plans approved by them.
On the schedule for July’s Planning Board meeting, most of the plans were minor subdivisions of one-four lots. The only large one was Phase 1 of the development plan for Community Medical Center.
At the board’s June meeting, the following plans were approved: a change for Lasolas Market on Route 35; a 1776-square-foot office addition for Ocean County Memorial Park; a 2,720-square-foot addition to Ocean County Power Sports at 2130 Route 37; and a business office with a residential apartment at 3011 Route 37 (Bayshore Auto).
