Construction is underway on a new stretch of boardwalk in Ortley Beach, rising on the same patch of sand where Joey Harrison's Surf Club once stood before Superstorm Sandy tore it apart in October 2012. The former nightclub property sat vacant for years afterward, a visible scar in a stretch of Toms River that became known as ground zero for Sandy's destruction. Now it's the site of a roughly $3.56 million rebuild meant to give the community back its public shoreline access.
Toms River officials awarded the contract to Howell-based Ashland Contractors LLC, according to Shorebeat. The plan calls for nearly 300 feet of new boardwalk and a covered pavilion, as NBC10 Philadelphia reports, built on a site the township finally acquired using state Blue Acres funding in partnership with Ocean County. The project also includes a new public parking lot on the former nightclub's parking-lot footprint between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
A Boardwalk Built to Rise Above the Risk
The extension itself will measure approximately 50 feet wide by 300 feet long, elevated about 15 feet above the existing parking-lot grade, per the same Shorebeat report. A pavilion roughly 50 by 100 feet will sit atop the elevated structure, covering about 3,040 square feet, while the boardwalk deck itself will span approximately 13,220 square feet. Once finished, the new section will connect to the existing boardwalk to the south, knitting Ortley Beach's public walkway back together more than a decade after the storm.
The Surf Club property wasn't a quick acquisition. Toms River had eyed the parcel for purchase since roughly 2006, long before Sandy ever hit, according to a local official quoted by app.com. It took the storm's devastation, and years of negotiation afterward, before the township finally closed on the land.
Timeline Questions Linger Over Completion
When early plans came together, officials hoped the expanded area might be ready for at least part of the 2026 summer season, Shorebeat reported at the time. More recently, the contractor has told NBC10 Philadelphia that the boardwalk extension and covered pavilion are now expected to be completed by early 2027. The dossier does not reconcile those two timelines, and neither outlet has clarified what changed between the earlier summer hope and the later early-2027 estimate.
For Anthony Colucci, a member of the Ortley Beach Voters and Taxpayers Association, the new boardwalk represents more than concrete and pilings. He said it will provide an important gathering place for the community, according to the NBC10 Philadelphia report.
A Coastline Still Under Pressure
The rebuilding effort comes as the Jersey Shore continues to face threats from coastal storms, with a recent nor'easter causing fresh erosion near the boardwalk project itself, per the NBC10 Philadelphia account. A separate survey by the state Department of Environmental Protection assessed 81 coastal reaches and found that 53 had minor beach or dune erosion, 18 had moderate erosion and 10 had major erosion, according to a DEP survey document.
Toms River's rebuild is part of a broader statewide push. New Jersey selected 18 Jersey Shore towns, including Toms River, to share $100 million in boardwalk repair, reconstruction and expansion funding, with Toms River allocated just over $1 million from that pool, according to WHYY. The program draws on federal COVID-19 recovery funds under the American Rescue Act to help shore towns rebuild infrastructure battered by years of storms.
Ortley Beach isn't the only community putting a Sandy-flattened landmark back together. In Belmar, the Taylor Pavilion was rebuilt as one of two beachfront buildings restored on that town's boardwalk after Sandy destroyed them in 2012, reopening in 2017, according to a report from NJ.com. For Toms River, the Ortley Beach project marks another chapter in the long, slow work of restoring a shoreline that Sandy reshaped more than a decade ago.
