SPRING LAKE – The City Council has awarded the restaurant concession for the former Wells Fargo Bank building – at the corner of Third and Morris Avenues, which is to be converted into a restaurant/public housing building – to local entrepreneurs Marilyn Schlossbach and Bret Morgan.

The agreement is a 15-year lease with two five-year extension options, meaning Morgan and Schlossbach could run the restaurant for the next 25 years. The lease is $150,000 per year with an annual increase of 2.5 percent, the agreement states.

The pact includes a year-round liquor license that the state will issue to the Borough of Spring Lake because the municipality owns the building, which was part of the vision behind borough officials’ purchase of the building.

Schlossbach owns White Chapel Projects in Long Branch. Her partner, Morgan, is the founder of Fresh Markets, which started in Asbury Park.

Mayor Jennifer Naughton described Schlossbach as “creative and successful” at Tuesday’s meeting. “She is a very well-known restaurant owner in New Jersey with very strong roots in Monmouth and Ocean County. If you have ever been to Asbury, you know that she has opened and built a number of very successful restaurants in Asbury Park.”

Mayor Naughton said Schlossbach and Morgan had put together a “very impressive proposal” with sample menus and their expectations for running the restaurant.

Since everything in the bank building at 1123 Third Avenue has been cleared out except for the vault and some utilities such as gas and electricity, the bidder will only receive a “shell”, according to her statement.

“It’s a big project. They have to build a commercial kitchen and also a restaurant,” Naughton said.

“She had some really attractive ideas, and I think the entire council appreciated her vision for the building, her vision for the staff, her vision for the menu. I think that was exactly what the district was looking for in a bidder for this project,” she said.

Dempsey, Spring Lake’s district administrator, said Wednesday: “The district is excited. This is a unique thing. With some outside-the-box thinking, we’re achieving three goals – affordable housing, a bar and restaurant for downtown, and we’re also preserving a building from the early 1900s.”

VISION FOR THE RESTAURANT

Following the meeting, both Morgan and Schlossbach expressed their joy at the award of the contract.

“We’re excited,” Morgan said. “We’ve had business together in Asbury Park, but never really worked together,” he said of Schlossbach. “We complement each other and are having fun getting to know people in town and developing a unique concept for Spring Lake.”

Schlossbach added: “I’m just really grateful for the reception we’ve received in the city.”

Schlossbach said she has been working in Spring Lake as a consultant on a restaurant concept being opened by Faherty Spring Lake, a clothing store in town. They are opening Faherty Sun & Waves All Day Kitchen this weekend. That concept is called Coastal Market and will also be on Third Avenue at the corner of Washington Avenue.

“It’s a great feeling to be back in Spring Lake and to be back to the culinary side of my job. I love the town, the community here and how everyone supports each other,” she said.

“People asked me, ‘When are you going to open a restaurant in Spring Lake?'” she said. “Until this moment, it was never the right time.”

The couple has another similar project in Avon, also a restaurant concept in a former bank building on Main Street. That project began in 2019 but has had delays. Morgan says, “We’re hoping to have that resolved later this year.” Schlossbach and Morgan are partners on that restaurant, which will be called Sylvan Hall.

He said the project is similar in that it is a reuse of an old bank building, but the concepts are different. He added, “We hope to become an activity space for the Spring Lake community.”

Morgan says their goal is to open next summer.

Schlossbach said the plan for the location is a “neighborhood bistro with French-American cuisine.” She hopes it will be a place people can go all the time, not just on special occasions. A name for the restaurant is still being worked on.

Plans for affordable housing

The municipality purchased the Wells Fargo bank building in 2022 for $2.9 million with the intention of converting the space into a mixed concept with apartments and a restaurant.

The residential part of the project is completely independent of the restaurant lease.

According to Dempsey, the second floor will have three two-bedroom apartments. There will also be an office and dry storage space for the restaurant.

Dempsey said the district plans to work with a developer to build three apartments on the top floor of the building. He said the district will likely work with the nonprofit Affordable Housing Alliance, which has worked on other affordable housing projects in the district, including on Warren Avenue.

Dempsey said the township will also hire Joe Griffin of Griffin Enterprises in Sea Girt as project manager for the building. Dempsey said, “Because it’s pretty complex, we’ll hire him again, and we’ve had good experiences with him in the past.” Griffin will coordinate the restaurant and public housing project, Dempsey said, and serve as the township’s representative on the project.

“This is the end of a long process that has brought us here. I know it’s just beginning, but I think we’re all looking forward to the next year or so,” the mayor said at Tuesday night’s meeting.