Commercial Complex, Restaurant, Gas Station Proposed for Brick Trailer Park Site

The Laurelton Mobile Home Park, off Route 88 in Brick. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Real estate developer Jack Morris has proposed a commercial development to replace a portion of the area of a trailer park in Brick Township.

Morris’ company will appear before the township’s zoning board Wednesday to formally propose a 5,051 square foot convenience store and associated gas facility, a 4,535 square foot bank, a 7,182 square foot commercial building including a 3,000 square foot, 160 seat restaurant, and a 9,288 square foot daycare center. The project will also include a total of 135 parking spaces and the replacement of an existing gravel road network within the trailer park area.

The tract where the development is proposed is located along Route 88 at the corner of Jack Martin Boulevard. It has long been the site of the Laurelton Mobile Home Park. Morris’ company bought the property for $3.85 million. Another one of his companies, Edgewater Properties, acts as landlord for residents who lease plots of land at the site on which their manufactured homes stand. Previously, township officials say those residents who remain at the trailer park will be able to remain there even after the commercial complex is built.

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The company’s submission to the Board of Adjustment does not provide details of which companies will be operating the stores and restaurants that will occupy the site. The application requests numerous variances to overcome township zoning regulations, including the use of the property, various setbacks, lot coverage and signage.

The purchase of the mobile home park by Morris has been the source of numerous controversies since 2005. Residents, at one point, were served eviction notices after they withheld rent from Morris, who they accused of allowing the community to deteriorate. In 2006, it was determined that concrete tainted with traces of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the former Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant in Edison was used at the site, prompting the state Department of Environmental Protection to order its removal.

The hearing will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the township municipal complex on Chambers Bridge Road.