Mayor, Business Owners Say Seaside Heights Eyesore Has Lingered For Years

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Seaside Heights Mayor Tony Vaz is helping to push forward a major revitalization project, which he hopes will transform his town into a family resort.

As CBS2's Meg Baker reported, an eyesore is standing in his way.

Kim Sersaw has vacationed in Seaside Heights for more than 8 years, and said she has noticed the unfinished rusting structure for about as long.

"It's an eyesore. I thought they were building a parking structure," she said.

On the corner of Boulevard and Hamilton Avenues sits the outline fo a building once dreamed to be an upscale hotel, pool, bar, and nightclub. Then the recession hit.

"Everything's a dead end at this point," property owner Vincent Craparotta said.

Craparotta said he lost investors in 2008, and was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy.

"We have no more money to pour into it right now, barely making ends meet as we wait for the economy of this town, and in general to come back around," he said.

Businesses up the street and across the way said they want to see something done with the structure sooner rather than later because summer is on the way and they want to bring in more business.

"It's been a total eyesore. My customers who have been coming back for 18 years, they've seen it and the question every year is when is it going down?" Joanne Sanzone, Seaside Beach House Motel said.

After the subprime mortgage crisis, building permits were extended to encourage real estate development, but the mayor said in Seaside Heights the policy backfired. The developer delayed, and left the project unfinished.

"As a community will have to go into legal format of what we will do," he said, "Either terminate the building or eminent domain and buy it for ourselves."

It turns out the building can no longer be delayed by state law. The mayor said he will bring the issue up at the next council meeting.