Zoners approve new offices for nonprofit
Childhood Leukemia Foundation moving

to Mantoloking Rd.

BY DANIELLE MEDINA

Correspondent

The Brick Zoning Board of Adjustment approved the Childhood Leukemia Foundation’s application to renovate and expand the Pineland Plumbing and Heating building as its new corporate office on May 26.

The property, located on Mantoloking Road between Fairfield and Piel avenues, sits at the meeting point of three separate zoning districts: an R-7.5 residential zone, a B-1 commercial zone and a B-2 commercial zone. The applicant sought a use variance to place an additional parking field in the R-7.5 residential zone, as well as other minor variances.

"It’s a difficult site, at best, to develop as zoned," said the applicant’s attorney, Mark Troncone.

The Childhood Leukemia Foundation (CLF) will use the remodeled two-story building to house its corporate offices and its program services center. It will also rent out the remaining office space on the upper level and retail space on the lower level, according to CLF Executive Director Barbara Reid.

Reid said a number of businesses have expressed interest in renting the retail space, including a furniture store and a florist. She said the remaining office space upstairs would be rented to a professional, such as an attorney or engineer, or to another nonprofit organization. All revenues from the rental space will go to defray the cost of the building’s construction and to the foundation itself.

Currently, the CLF’s executive offices are located in an 800-square-foot suite in the Brick Medical Arts Plaza, Route 88. The program services center, where gift baskets for children with leukemia are assembled and distributed, is located in a separate building on Mantoloking Road.

"We’re literally busting at the seams," Reid said of her current office space. "In order to get into a closet, someone has to move out of the way."

According to Paul Barlo, the project’s architect, a 15-foot addition will be added to the rear of the building, increasing its square footage to 10,241.

Additionally, the building’s facade will get a facelift and two new parking lots will provide 30 spaces, according to the project’s engineer, Charles Lindstrom.

"The site is severely underparked now for a 7,000-square-foot building," Lind­strom said of the handful of parking spaces in the front of the building along Mantoloking Road.

The plan also calls for heavy plantings of pine trees at the rear of the site to pro­vide a buffer for neighboring residences, as well as the creation of curbs and side­walks on Sterling, Piel and Fairfield av­enues, and Mantoloking Road.

"The applicant chose to buy additional property and to increase parking signifi­cantly," board member Thomas Leahy said. "In my mind, this throws the issue over the top."

The board spoke of the overwhelm­ingly positive aspects of the project before approving CLF’s application by a 6-0 vote.

CLF is a national non-profit organiza­tion based in Brick that serves patients in more than 144 cancer treatment centers across the United States. CLF provides free services, emotional and financial support to children and families who are affected by cancer.