After the Covid outbreak, Ted Dalton and Lucy Banduci spent a lot of time traveling between their weekend home in the Catskill Mountains and their two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, where they returned to their children’s school. The uncertain time accelerated their conversations about leaving the city altogether, as was the case for so many New Yorkers.
Mr. Dalton, 51, who grew up in the Princeton, New Jersey, area and worked and lived in New York for more than 25 years, didn’t want to leave, but Ms. Banduci, 46, a Queens native, was ready for something new. With what he described as “no loyalty to anyone,” the couple began looking at homes in Connecticut, Westchester County and New Jersey in early 2021.
Know Rumson, NJ – “the town with the big houses” As Mr. Dalton put it, they soon discovered neighboring Fair Haven, Little Silver, and then Oceanport.
“Oceanport was more of a sleeper town that people didn’t know that well,” said Mr. Dalton, the managing director of real estate financing at a Manhattan bank. “But everyone we spoke to seemed so happy to be there. We looked at houses and then went out to eat and sat right by the water and thought, ‘This is the best.'”
Of course, they weren’t the only ones seeking a lifestyle change back then — or the only couple to discover Oceanport, a 3.2-square-mile Monmouth County district of 6,150 people near the Jersey Shore. In the months that followed, Mr. Dalton and Ms. Banduci were outbid on six homes, despite going up to $100,000 over asking prices, before finally securing their 3,300-square-foot home for $1.275 million in July 2021.
Since moving into the recently built four-bedroom, four-bathroom home, they have added a pool and joined the beach club Monmouth Beachbathing Pavilion. Her 11-year-old son Theodore has started sailing lessons at the nearby Shrewsbury River Yacht Club and her daughter Josie, 6, has taken up horse riding and Irish tap dancing. Your Blackberry Bay neighborhood is also getting a makeover.
“Every house is being bought and every other block is being built,” Mr Dalton said. “It’s a changing of the guard.”
Oceanport is best known as the home of the Monmouth Park Racetrack, which spans 275 acres, and as the former military base of Fort Monmouth. Fort Monmouth opened in 1917 as the Army’s central research, intelligence and communications post. It was decommissioned in 2005 and closed in 2011, leaving empty portions of the 1,126-acre military base split between Oceanport, Eatontown and Tinton Falls.
“Oceanport was a military town. You could hear taps playing and cannons sounding. It was alive,” recalls Thomas J. Tvrdik, 44, a lifelong resident, a real estate agent with Re/Max and a member of the town council. “Then it sat empty and abandoned for years and it’s nice to see it come back to life.”
This new life has emerged as investors have taken over parcels of former base properties to build new residential, commercial and recreational facilities. In December 2022, the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority approved a $55 million offer from Netflix to purchase 292 acres, including 117 acres in Oceanport. The site, set to become the streaming giant’s East Coast production hub, will be expanded over the next decade with 12 sound stages and extensive support space, promising to bring thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to the region.
“Netflix is an economic engine for the entire region, just like the fort,” said Oceanport Mayor John F. Coffey, who called the closure of Fort Monmouth and the sudden loss of 10,000 local jobs “something that puts us on notice.” “Turned upside down” was described. ” “This has been a hotspot of activity, and it will be a hotspot again. The difference is now it will pay taxes.”
What you will find
Surrounded and divided by the side bays and creeks of the Shrewsbury River and just two miles from the Atlantic coast, Oceanport is defined by its connection to the water – from the numerous homes bordering waterways to the district’s three marinas, several Boat ramps and nearby beach clubs.
“You have access to the water everywhere and are so close to the beach that children can ride their bikes there. But it’s a cheaper option than the coastal towns,” said Helen George, 61, a broker with Resources Real Estate who taught second grade in Oceanport for 30 years.
Because Oceanport is adjacent to, but not on, the coast, it has historically been more affordable. But that’s changing as ranch homes get a second story and Cape Cods are replaced by larger homes. Given the area’s attractiveness, Mr. Coffey said he believes such development is inevitable, noting that “others have already gone through this period of growth and Oceanport is the latest local city to do so.”
The proximity to the beach convinced Frank and Jennifer Giocastro to move to Oceanport after years of visiting the area from their home in Queens. “Every time we left Jersey, my kids cried that they wanted to stay,” said Mr. Giocastro, 47, a plasterer for the New York City Housing Authority who bought a five-bedroom house in Oceanport in 2019 and paid $940,000. Dollar. “Coming from Queens after 40 years is like being on vacation, but we live here.”
While anticipation has been high for Netflix’s arrival, the Oceanport portion of Fort Monmouth has already seen significant development, including the construction of 180 townhomes by Pulte Homes and the conversion of former officers’ quarters into 68 homes and an adjacent 48 rental units. Other projects include construction of a fitness center, a senior care center, a craft beer brewery, a sports bar, a satellite campus for New Jersey City University and a new district complex with government offices. There is no central business district in the city, but plans are underway for a retail, office and hotel project on a 12-acre site on the former military base.
An update is also planned for Monmouth Park Racetrack, which has raced Thoroughbred horses every summer since 1947. As interest in horse racing waned, the racetrack looked for additional revenue and in 2016 became the first site in New Jersey to introduce sports betting. Coffey said plans are underway for Caesars Sportsbook to build a premier betting center at the track.
What you will pay
As of early October, there were 20 homes on the market and 15 pending sale in Oceanport. The most expensive listing was a five-bedroom home built in 2003 on 0.49 acres on the Horseneck Point Peninsula that listed for $1.65 million; The cheapest was a three-bedroom home built in 1985 on 0.06 acres that was listed for $519,850.
The average price of the 65 homes sold between January and the end of September this year was $785,000, according to the Monmouth Ocean Multiple Listing Service; In the first nine months of 2022, 53 homes were sold at an average price of $690,000.
The atmosphere
If you’re not comfortable joining the yacht club or parking your boat at one of the county’s marinas, there are public ramps that provide access to the river. Kayaks and paddleboards can be rented from the Oceanport Paddle Club at the Riverside Marina. There is also a restaurant there that serves lobster rolls. Nearby Long Branch, Monmouth Beach, and Sea Bright have several beach clubs that require annual memberships, as well as scattered public access points.
The site of the former Fort Monmouth Commissary is home to Birdsmouth Beer, a craft brewery that opened last year, and the newly opened Baseline Social, a 17,000-square-foot sports bar and virtual golf center. A former World War II dance hall has been converted into the Park Loft, a wedding and catering venue.
The schools
Oceanport students attend Wolf Hill Elementary School, which has 312 students in preschool through fourth grade, and Maple Place Middle School, which has 249 students in fifth through eighth grade. In 2019, voters approved a $33 million referendum to modernize elementary and middle schools, a project now underway.
For high school, students from Oceanport join those from West Long Branch, Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach at Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch, which enrolls 594 students in ninth through twelfth grades. The high school offers 23 Advanced Placement courses. Average SAT scores in 2021-22 were 552 in reading and writing and 543 in math, compared to state averages of 538 and 532.
Students may also apply to one of Monmouth County’s specialized high schools majoring in law, biotechnology and applied sciences. Private schools include Ranney School in Tinton Falls for kindergarten through 12th grade and Red Bank Catholic High School in Red Bank for ninth through twelfth grades.
The commute
Oceanport is about 60 miles south of New York City, a drive that can take about 90 minutes depending on traffic.
New Jersey Transit provides direct rail service to Penn Station in Manhattan from neighboring Little Silver or Long Branch; The trip takes 80 to 100 minutes and costs $16 one-way or $451 for a monthly pass from Little Silver or $16.25 one-way or $463 for a monthly pass from Long Branch.
A quicker alternative is to take the Seastreak ferry from Highlands or Atlantic Highlands, about 10 miles north of Oceanport. The trip to Lower or Midtown Manhattan takes 40 to 60 minutes and costs $28 one-way or $720 for 40 tickets.
The history
In 1938, the Fort Monmouth Army base developed the first radar system used to detect oncoming attacks and later to reflect radio signals from the moon. The radar employees also included Julius Rosenberg, who worked as an electrical engineer in the early 1940s and was accused of stealing confidential information and passing it on to the Soviet Union. He was later convicted as a spy along with his wife Ethel and executed.
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