the rix mix

Say goodbye to the Metropolitan Hotel, perhaps the last of Asbury Park's genuine old fabulousities. The venerable if peculiar 100 year old building was demolished this week. Like Palace Amusements & the ruined Casino Pier, there was nothing could save it, really. Abandoned too long, structurally unsound, no profitable purpose for preservation, its existance diminished the value of the real estate beneath it. With 180 rooms & a motel addition, The Metro was way too large for a B&B, too grand for conversion to a McMansion, no queen Victorian, no million-dollar condo view of the ocean from lower stories, & so became just another "tear down." The final landlord was a company owned by annoying Morristown mayor, Donald Cresitello, who hung on to it for years. Funny how big the market for dreams was in Asbury Park while the city fell down in the middle of them.

Labels: Asbury Park, jersey shore