Ocean Ice Palace price tag jumps to $7.5M
New price is 'fair market value,' owner's attorney says
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

The price tag for the Ocean Ice Palace property has jumped more than $2 million since owner Joan Dwulet decided not to do business with Brick earlier this year.

The 13.34-acre property and ice rink is now listed with Crossroads Realty for $7.5 million, up from the $5.25 million price Dwulet and the township had come to a verbal agreement on last year.

"She has a number of people she is talking to," said Stephan R. Leone, Dwulet's lawyer. "Nothing has gone to a contract."

When asked about the possibility of the township returning to the table, Leone said, "I'm not even going to speculate on that."

There were tax advantages in selling to the township that Dwulet can no longer use, so the $2.25 million jump in price isn't that much of an increase, Leone said.

"It is and it isn't," he said. "It's fair market value."

Dwulet walked away from negotiations with the township in May, shortly after the group Stop OverSpending gathered enough signatures to put the Ice Palace purchase on the ballot.

Blaming the Democrat-aligned group, Republican Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said that the referendum was "the one single thing that killed this deal." But Leone has said it was a combination of factors that included Dwulet's frustration with the township's "inability to conclude an agreement."

Acropolis said he was not surprised at the jump in price, especially since Dwulet would lose the tax advantages if she had she sold to a governmental entity like the township.

"I knew that $5.25 million and 13 acres of land in that area was a good price," he said. "I don't expect people to understand the nuances of commercial real estate. I don't understand all of it."

The mayor said the chances of the township approaching Dwulet again are "slim to none."

"There's no way we'd spend that money for that piece of property," he said. "We had an opportunity to buy it for $5.25 million. Why would we buy it for $7.5 million?"

It's Dwulet's prerogative to raise the price of the property, Acropolis said.

"That doesn't mean she is going to get $2.5 million more," he said. "She can ask for it."

The proposed purchase was a political issue in the 2007 mayoral campaign between Acropolis and Democratic Mayor Daniel J. Kelly. Both Kelly and Councilwoman Kathy Russell — the lone Democrat on the Township Council — repeatedly called for a referendum on the purchase last summer.

But Acropolis and members of the GOP-dominated Township Council disagreed. Acropolis, who was council president last year, said the November 2007 election would be the referendum on the Ice Palace buy.

Council members introduced a $5.45 million ordinance in July 2007 to purchase the property, with the intent of using the site as a long-awaited community center for recreation and senior services. But that ordinance was later pulled because of financing problems.

Council members introduced a $9.9 million ordinance this spring to prepare for the purchase. The ordinance included the original $5.25 million purchase price for the site, which also included a separate one-story building used by visiting hockey teams and a 25-yard outdoor pool. The other $4.7 million was slated to be used for a senior center, repairs to the interior of the ice rink building, rink roof repairs, streetscaping and landscaping.

Council members rescinded the ordinance at the June 10 council meeting, after Dwulet informed officials that she no longer wished to deal with the township and would put the Brick landmark on the market.

Acropolis and other township officials had said the purchase would be an income generator, with the revenue from the existing ice rink and several therapy pools that would have been built during the first phase of the project.

The Ice Palace property, which is located in the B-3 highway zone, has 673 feet of prime frontage on Chambers Bridge Road. The price breaks down to $559,701 an acre, according to the commercial

listing on LoopNet.com. Dwulet's late father, Leon, a wellknown

northern Ocean County general practice physician, built the ice rink on Chambers Bridge Road in 1962. It has served as home to the Brick Hockey Club and the high school hockey teams ever since.