BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer
Restaurant owners in Freehold Borough’s downtown area say their worst nightmare materialized a little after 5 p.m. Feb. 17.
Mike Page owns the Court Jester, East Main Street, and remembers the phone call he received while he was out shopping — a phone call that informed him the American Hotel was burning.
He remembers how upset he felt when he got back to town a short time later and saw Freehold firefighters, along with more than 100 firefighters from other local departments, trying to fight the flames that had erupted at the American Hotel.
The fire was brought under control in 40 minutes and no other structures were damaged.
The Court Jester is a few feet to the west of the historic hotel, which has been closed for more than a year. Although rooms at the hotel have not been rented for years, the facility was a well-known and popular spot for banquets and meetings.
“I’ve been fearful because the hotel is way too close [to the Court Jester] and it has been vacant for so long,” Page said, adding that windows and doors on the second and third floors have been opened for a long time and have been a concern to him as well.
Page said he remembers another fire years ago that affected his former business in Hightstown, which was also called the Court Jester. He said a fire broke out in the business next door to his restaurant, taking out his windows. He said the incident affected him profoundly at the time.
All those feelings came flooding back to Page on Feb. 17 when he saw firefighters hosing down the side of his restaurant with water in order to prevent the fire from spreading from the hotel to his building.
The Court Jester and several other buildings were evacuated after the fire began. Page commended fire officials for that action and said they did the right thing. He also praised the firefighters for extinguishing the fire so quickly and for keeping it contained to the American Hotel.
He remembered hearing about a fire that destroyed many properties on Main Street in the 1960s, and about how that fire affected the borough.
“Fortunately, this fire did not get to that point,” Page said.
But he and others on the promenade’s “Restaurant Row” said there is a constant fear among them that someday it will get to that point.
Referring to the American Hotel as the “missing tooth in the smile of the promenade,” a description he credits Mayor Michael Wilson and Borough Administrator Joseph Bellina with stating, Page said the phrase aptly describes the situation.
The hotel has the largest street frontage and that frontage is in disrepair, according to Page.
“The value of the sidewalk cafe isn’t in the added seating,” Page said. “It is simply that the outdoor seating attracts and brings people here. That hotel has always been an important part of the downtown puzzle. It has always been a powerful attraction that has brought people here.”
Page said the hotel’s status — closed for business — affects everyone on the promenade.
When asked what he would like to see happen to the building, Page said he thinks the space the hotel occupies could have multiple tenants who could “contribute to the health of the downtown business.”
He said he would like to see the building house a restaurant, a small theater and possibly some retail shops.
The Freehold Center Partnership oversees activities in the downtown area. Rob Kash, who chairs the partnership, owns the Metropolitan Cafe with his partner Joe Mosco. He said the fact that the vacant hotel is so near to his restaurant on East Main Street “disturbs him.”
“This (a fire) has always been everyone’s nightmare,” Kash said, adding he was grateful that the Feb. 17 fire did not break out in the middle of the night.
“All of us are continuing to try to make Freehold better and better. We all want to see Freehold work,” Kash said, referring to the improvements being made by business owners, including himself, in the promenade area. “And then we have this,” he said, referring to the hotel.
Kash said he would like to see the hotel maintain a catering hall and add some “boutique mall-type” retail stores and office space. He said he made inquiries about purchasing the hotel but said the owner showed no interest in selling the building to him.
In recent months the owners of the hotel had indicated they wanted to refurbish the building and begin renting rooms in the Freehold landmark. An application was filed with the borough’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, but no hearings have been held on the proposal. Questions concerning the hotel’s financial picture remain.
Last summer, as the American Hotel remained closed, restaurant owners Kash, Page, Keith Lewis (Sweet Lew’s) and Frank Federici (Federici’s) opened the Downtown Boardwalk Cafe in front of the hotel after Wilson asked them to bring some life back to that prime location.
Jayne Carr, the partnership’s executive director, said she would like to see the hotel “up and running again” or see it sold to someone who would take care of the building the way it had been taken care of by its previous owner.
Calling the American Hotel a “gold mine waiting to happen,” Carr said there has been a continuing interest from people who want to purchase the property. She said that she, Bellina and code enforcement official Hank Stryker III have met with several people who have expressed interested in buying the historic property.
Stryker has told the News Transcript in the weeks following the fire that the building is structurally sound.
Carr said Freehold is “very lucky” not to have lost the building. She also praised the firefighters who battled the recent fire.
“I would like to see the town take a position that would push the issue and tell the owner that if he is not going to fix the hotel, to please sell it to someone who will bring it back to the wonderful, majestic hotel it was years ago before it falls down all around us,” Carr said.
Borough officials have not condemned the building, but have posted signs which state that it may not be opened to the public.
Borough fire official Gary Jackson said the owner may send people into the building to make repairs which would alleviate the conditions which forced its closure in January 2004. Those conditions primarily involve fire code violations, among other issues.