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Real Estate in Spring Lake New Jersey is a very valuable commodity. It’s one of the most exclusive New Jersey Communities and probably the most exclusive community by the New Jersey Shore. The proximity to the beach make this small shore community a beautiful place to live or vacation.

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Spring Lake NJ News

From Philly.com

Tacky motels? No, treasures

A national call to save Wildwood's Doo Wop inns.

By Steve Goldstein and Jacqueline L. Urgo

Inquirer Staff Writers

WASHINGTON - Bust out the bobby sox. A leading national historic preservation group yesterday said "you're so fine" to the Jersey Shore's string of kitschy motels and put it on its annual list of endangered places.

D.C., it turns out, digs Doo Wop.

The sober-minded National Trust for Historic Preservation urged rescue of the remaining "Doo Wop" motels in the Wildwoods, which it described as "irreplaceable icons of popular culture."

"I remember the 1950s," trust president Richard Moe said at a news conference, "... and these motels evoke the era of optimistic prosperity."

This is the first time since the list originated in 1988 that the trust has deemed a group of motels worthy of preservation, Moe said.

Headliners on the 11 Most Endangered List are the historic neighborhoods and landmarks of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and the Mississippi coast and the "survivor's staircase" - the last remaining above-ground fragment of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

"We regard this list as an alarm bell," Moe said. "All 11 sites are irreplaceable treasures that tell America's story. Losing them is unthinkable."

In New Jersey, Jack Morey, whose family owns three amusement piers on the Wildwood Boardwalk and has refurbished several of the old motels, hoped the alarms would ring long and loud among his neighbors.

"This latest designation is not a great sign," said Morey, a past president of the Wildwood Doo Wop Preservation League, "but hopefully it will be something that gets the locals' attention. It's a huge frustration that nationally people recognize the architectural importance of Wildwood, but locally it continues to be disregarded as the buildings continue to be torn down."

Dan MacElrevey, current head of the local preservation group, said the National Trust's listing of Wildwood as an endangered site was "a complete surprise and certainly nothing we solicited."

"We call what we do here 'historic development,' " he said. "These motels and other buildings are not museum pieces, they are operating businesses. But I think this will be a wake-up for some people that with that development needs to come preservation."

It had been Wildwood's lack of success as a hot Jersey Shore beach town that had helped to preserve it. But with increasing real-estate values at the Shore and a certain newfound cachet as a funky, architecturally over-the-top resort, Wildwood is becoming a victim of its own success.

All over the five-mile-long island, about 100 fanciful "motor hotels" such as the Starlite, the Swan and the El Capitan, have succumbed to the wrecking ball, while about 90 are left.

During the last two years alone, more than two dozen of the Doo Wop-style motels - with their lollipop-colored exteriors, fake palm trees around the pools, and exaggerated structures - have been demolished to make way for a series of nondescript condominium buildings.

Built in place of the Doo Wops are multistory condominium complexes such as Belldon's Coastal Colors, a 72-unit $70 million waterfront development in Wildwood Crest, where units were priced up to $2 million.

The National Trust called the motels the largest collection of mid-20th-century commercial resort architecture in the nation, incorporating such styles as the Polynesian-inspired "pu pu platter," the pagoda-roofed "Chinatown revival," and space-age constellations of kitsch.

Angeline DiPietro, 67, who says her family has owned property and operated various businesses in Wildwood and North Wildwood for three generations, admits she is intrigued by the notion of historic preservation but remains skeptical.

"I don't know that Wildwood can ever be an Ocean City or a Cape May if we don't allow new development," DiPietro said. "People don't want to come here and sleep in old cinder-block motels. They want new, nice places to stay or to buy, and I think that's why so many of the old buildings have been coming down."

The Wildwood Doo Wop motels have been a favorite Shore destination since they were built between 1956 and 1970, including the heyday for Doo Wop music and groups such as Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.

Last year, the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts closed the Doo Wop Boardwalk Museum in Wildwood, which featured some of the architecture from the period.

Moe, the historic trust president, urged that the remaining motels be rehabilitated as part of the ongoing revitalization of the Wildwoods.

"Instead of being demolished to make room for nondescript new development, the Doo Wop motels should be preserved as the focus of an all-season resort and a vibrant, livable community for year-round residents," he said.

The trust president said he was sympathetic to the desires of property owners to control their fate.

"But property rights have always been balanced with community values," he said. "So there should be a balance there."

Which is Moe's way of saying that before the motels go "sh-boom," put them in "the book of love" and "have mercy, baby.".

Tip #18

Home Selling Tip, Targeting Out Of State:
When you sell your home you sometimes have to put yourself in the potential buyers’ shoes. In New Jersey many home buyers are from the surrounding area, like New York or Pennsylvania.

Knowing this can allow your agent to market your house more effectively. If he/she will advertise in a New York publication they can describe the proximity to NY. This allows your potential Buyer Base to expand.

Homes For Sale in Spring Lake NJ