Storm Drain: Central N.J. resort towns lose visitors, money amid Sandy damage

SUMMER SEEMED so far away last month at the Jersey Shore, with ice inching across back bays and winds whipping sand across empty beaches.

In the Shore towns hit hardest by Superstorm Sandy, mostly in Central Jersey, the sounds of bulldozers and circular saws echoed in the frozen landscape. But in resorts spared from Sandy's worst, particularly in Cape May County, real-estate agents say their phones are burning up with calls from people like Norman Noe looking for undamaged summer rentals.

"I had been to Avalon in the past, and it's quite a bit further for me to drive, but I'm strongly considering renting there," said Noe, a teacher who lives in Brielle, Monmouth County, and who normally rents in nearby Manasquan.

If Noe's attitude is typical of folks who had been renting in central Jersey Shore towns, then the Cape May County towns that got lucky back in October might get lucky again come July.

"It's pretty crazy so far, for sure," said Ian Ciseck, a sales associate at NJ Realty in Sea Isle City. "We're up more than 20 percent from this time last year."

"That's what we're noticing," confirmed Hope Cathryn Rhoades, a Realtor with Blue Ocean Realty in Wildwood. "Renters who normally rent on other islands are looking elsewhere, due to lack of inventory."

Although most savvy lifelong Shore renters lock up their summer homes early, agents say their offices usually don't start getting busy until after Super Bowl weekend. This year, in Cape May County, the calls started coming in after Thanksgiving.

"Then, after the first of the year, it really took off," said Jack Vizzard of the Vizzard group in Avalon.

The question, literally worth millions of dollars, is whether central Shore communities in Ocean County can repair or rebuild summer-rental units quickly enough. Agents in some central Shore towns say they've lost some rental stock, anywhere from 10 to 30 percent, but they aren't surrendering their summer to the south.

"From a rental standpoint, we hope to be firmly at 70 percent of inventory. It's a little bit early to tell," said Mike Loundy, owner of Seaside Realty, in Seaside Heights.

Seaside Heights officials plan to have the boardwalk - mostly gone today - rebuilt by Memorial Day. Without it, Seaside probably couldn't survive the summer, and rentals in nearby towns would suffer as well.

On one recent blustery afternoon, the only tourists in Seaside were those scrambling up sandy blockades by the boardwalk to get a snapshot of the town's most unfortunate attraction, the Star Jet roller coaster. The image of the roller coaster, hunched over in the Atlantic Ocean after falling off a pier during the storm, has become an enduring symbol of Sandy's wrath.

"We were the heart of the storm for the public," said Loundy, who rents MTV's "Jersey Shore" house in Seaside. (It wasn't damaged).

Bill Wutzer, whose boardwalk steak shop overlooks the coaster, said Seaside's damage could affect rentals in nearby Ortley Beach, Lavallette and Toms River.

"Lots of people stay outside of Seaside and come here for the boardwalk and amusements. We need them," said Wutzer, 68, as workers were busy repairing his kitchen.

Point Pleasant Borough Mayor William G. Schroeder has similar concerns about renters avoiding his town because of damaged attractions in nearby Point Pleasant Beach.

"You might have a few of the facilities ready, but I really don't see how they'll be open for the summer. They were devastated," Schroeder said. "The summer rentals are now taken up by full-time rentals."

Noe, the teacher from Brielle who usually rents in Manasquan, doesn't believe that the beachside resort will be ready any time soon. That's why he's looking at Avalon.

"It was decimated," said Noe, 40, after a recent visit to Manasquan. "You just can't rebuild something in that short a time."

On Long Beach Island, Ocean County, officials and real-estate agents say that rentals are lagging slightly but that as long as contractors can finish repairs, they should rise by spring. A website, lbiisalive.com, has been put together to remind tourists that the island survived Sandy.

Ocean County Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari said that there's been an "aggressive" plan to rebuild but that many homeowners need assistance getting their homes rehabbed by summer.

"The insurance companies and the banks need to open up money," Vicari said. "The banks need to be more understanding."

Sheryl Lewandowski of Oceanside Realty in Harvey Cedars, on the more-expensive northern end of Long Beach Island, says returning renters should have a look at the properties there and judge for themselves before looking south.

"People are just assuming it's damaged," she said.

To underscore her point, Lewandowski said one renter recently signed a contract for two weeks at a large beachfront home with a private lane - at its normal rate of $26,000 per week.

Meanwhile, Vizzard, in Avalon, said that "every salesman is trained to be positive" but that "deep down," agents and brokers in stretches of Ocean County know they're in for a difficult summer.

"They don't want to be shut out for two years," he said of agents in the central Jersey Shore communities. "It's good to be positive as a salesman, but it's not going to happen - not this year."

But Diane Wieland, Cape May County's director of tourism, said all seaside resorts from Sandy Hook to Cape May Point need to have a unified front against the likes of Ocean City, Md., Virginia Beach, and other beach towns beyond New Jersey.

"They have this opportunity to go and feed on the perception that the Jersey Shore was destroyed," Wieland said.

In a December article in the Baltimore Sun, tourism officials in Ocean City, Md., said they might "sensitively target" tourists looking for a "new destination." Wieland wants to keep those tourists in New Jersey.

"We were spared here in Cape May County, and that's a great thing," she said. "We're not saying don't go to LBI, though. We're saying, 'Stay in New Jersey.' "