Condos on Traders Cove? Bite your tongue Goal of marina, park and boat museum is unchanged BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer Count on this. There is no way that Traders Cove will be sold to a developer to put up condominiums. "Over my dead body," Brick Township Council President Stephen C. Acropolis said. "It's not going to happen." What will eventually happen is just what the original plans called for when the township purchased Traders Cove in 2005, he said. "The site itself is not going to change," Acropolis said. "There is going to be a boat museum, the park and a marina. What may change is the way the site is run." Township officials plan to meet with "entities" who have an interest in the property later this month. "We'll be talking about the management team," he said. "We are not going to sell it to a developer and we are not going to allow condos in there. We'll meet with the entities already involved in the project to see about the formulation of a management team." The interested parties include a marina owner, an anonymous donor and another resident who wants to make certain the boat museum is a part of the property, he said. The persons interested in a boat museum would put up the money to build it and staff it once it is up, Acropolis said. "This is a phenomenal opportunity for the township," he said. "These guys are philanthropists. They have a hobby - wooden boats, the life of Barnegat Bay and preserving Barnegat Bay." And whoever buys the portion of the site for a marina or manages the site will manage a revenue-producing, 200-slip marina, Acropolis said. The Township Council at the June 26 meeting authorized the Planning Board to prepare a report and maps to determine if the 11.5-acre Traders Cove site on Mantoloking road was "an area in need of redevelopment." Unfortunately, Acropolis said, some in town have mistakenly interpreted that as meaning that condominiums will eventually go up on the site. "I can guarantee you as long as I'm sitting on the governing body, I will do everything in power to fight overdevelopment and more condominiums at Traders Cove," he said. Township officials closed on the $8 million land deal with Paramount Homes on Dec. 13, 2005, after several years of wrangling in court and negotiations with the developer. Paramount had originally received Board of Adjustment approval to build 52 condominiums on the marina site, despite objections from the public. Council members later voted unanimously to overturn the Zoning Board's approval and announced plans to purchase the site. Brick bonded $700,000 - part of the purchase price - in temporary notes. Township officials expected the state Department of Environmental Protection to provide between $5 million and $6 million in Green Acres grants; the Board of Freeholders to kick in $1.5 million from the county's capital surplus account; $1 million from the nonprofit Save Barnegat Bay and $500,000 from an anonymous donor. Ocean County Administrator Alan W. Avery Jr. has said the money is available and sitting in county coffers, but Brick still needs to subdivide the lot the county wants to acquire.