By KENNY WALTER
Staff Writer
OCEAN TOWNSHIP — A delay in closing on the former Poplar Village Senior Complex has forced the contractor charged with demolishing the apartment buildings to back out.
During the Feb. 9 Township Council meeting, the council passed a resolution cancelling a contract with Frank Lurch Demolition Co., after the contractor indicated that they would no longer honor the $249,000 contract they agreed to in 2014 due to delays in the township closing on the properties.
Township Manager Andrew Brannen said the 90-day window to honor bid prices was significantly extended and the company had the legal right to not honor the original pricing.
“Given the amount of time that bid has been out there, it’s been much longer than that, so they were well within their right to not do it for that original bid price,” Brannen said. “The closing took a lot longer than we thought.”
According to Brannen, the township will now rebid for demolition on the chronically flooded senior units.
The township secured a $3.3-million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2012 — in addition to a $4.4-million grant approved by FEMA in 2011 — for acquisition and demolition of 62 units in Poplar Village due to chronic flooding of the site.
The senior complex was owned and managed by the Ocean Township Senior Citizen Housing Corporation. There are currently 31 units still occupied on the site, which have not been impacted by flooding.
The complex, which is within the Poplar Brook floodplain, has been flooded five times since it was built in 1970, displacing tenants on several occasions.
Construction is underway at Heritage Village in Oakhurst, a senior housing development that will replace Poplar Village with a 93-unit, one- and two-bedroom senior affordable housing development at 777 West Park Ave.
