LAKEWOOD — Township leaders hope to add dozens of municipal parking spaces downtown after voting to buy the former Wells Fargo Bank space at Main Street and Clifton Avenues and make its lot available to the public.
Mayor Ray Coles said the additional parking will provide five blocks of uninterrupted township lot space through most of the main business center.
“With this purchase, we will have a parking lot that pretty much runs from Main Street to Fifth Street between Route 9 and Clifton Avenue,” Coles said. “It will add a lot of parking to the area.”
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The move, approved at the May 17 Township Committee meeting, authorized officials to purchase the bank space and lot for $2.5 million, with plans to make the current 21 spaces public and add at least another 20 spots.
“There is never enough parking here,” said Amanda Sanner, who works at Remax Real Estate next to the former bank site. “It is rough. If you don’t get here early enough, you miss out.”
Victor Lopez, who runs Victor’s Salon across the street, agreed.
“It is going to be better for people who come to the salon,” he said. “I hear about the parking problems all the time.”
The township is using state grants provided through the Urban Enterprise Zones to pay for the site. UE Zones are areas determined by the state Department of Community Affairs to need economic aid and are required to charge customers only half of the state’s 6.625% sales tax.
State officials then set aside half of the tax collected in the enterprise zones and distribute it back to municipalities for improvements in those locations.
Since nearly all of Downtown Lakewood is designated under the enterprise zone, that funding can go toward the Wells Fargo purchase, Coles said.
Lakewood received about $5.2 million in UEZ funds in 2023 and is expected to be granted about $7.2 million in 2024.
David Klein, executive director of the Lakewood Development Corporation, said the township is currently negotiating the final purchase of the Wells Fargo space, but has a preliminary agreement to buy the land and existing building.
The bank is one of more than 300 Wells Fargo branches nationwide, and 19 in New Jersey, that closed in 2023 as part of a massive cutback in local offices.
“The (bank) lot is a decent size that would help alleviate the tight parking availability downtown,” Klein said. “And it would also allow the township to connect other municipal parking lots that are behind the storefronts on Clifton Avenue.”
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Currently, the township operates four free lots on Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth streets between Clinton Avenue and Route 9 (Madison Avenue) that offer more than 300 spaces.
But even with those options, parking has long been a challenge in the downtown area, which also includes the Lakewood Municipal Complex and the historic Strand Theater.
“We can always use parking, parking is challenging,” Tom Calabro, owner of Twin City Jewelers, said earlier this year. “The infrastructure is just not built to handle it.”
Calabro is on the board of the newly revived Downtown Committee, which had disbanded in 2016 but reformed in late 2023.
In recent years, as Lakewood’s population has skyrocketed from 92,843 in 2010 to 135,138 in 2020, more parking demands have grown, officials said.
In November, township officials launched a survey of downtown businesses to see how many retail sites were vacant and find out what issues merchants consider priorities.
Soon after, the township hired Triad Associates of Vineland to create a five-year plan for the township to utilize future Urban Enterprise Zone funds. The firm is being paid $25,000.
Among the proposed projects was the new larger parking lot at the Wells Fargo site, as well as more police, township employees dedicated to monitoring the downtown for cleanliness and potential repairs, new sidewalks and lights along Clifton Avenue from Route 88 to 7th Street, and exterior facade improvements for some buildings.
The former Wells Fargo building could be torn down to allow for more parking or used as a township office or for a non-profit entity, officials said.
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“Town Hall is kind of crowded,” Coles said. “We could put a department over there or make it available through non-profit use.”
Klein stressed that no decisions on the building use have been made: “It is still to be determined what is going to be the end goal with the building.”
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experiencewho covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of four books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reachhim at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp
