TOMS RIVER - Within the next few weeks, the walls of the Red Carpet Inn should at last come tumbling down.

The Township Council awarded a $345,000 contract to Site Enterprises Inc. of Egg Harbor for the demolition of the 50-room motel late last month. Site was the low bidder on the contract, and Administrator Donald Guardian said township officials had a meeting scheduled with the company to determine a demolition schedule.

The demolition of the motel, located at the busy corner of Water and Main streets, will eliminate a building that has vexed police and township officials for years. Business owners have long complained of motel residents selling drugs, engaging in prostitution, and panhandling employees and residents of the downtown.

Downtown business owners have said there was an immediate change in the downtown after the motel closed in late October.

The township took ownership of the building at the end of that month.

"There are fewer people wandering the streets, and there is less garbage in the streets," said lawyer Harvey L. York, of the Novins, York & Jacobus Law Firm on Main Street, earlier this year. "At night there are fewer people loitering and throwing garbage on the streets."

What happens next?

After the motel is demolished, the township has no plans to erect another building on the site, Guardian said. The plan is to create a park with a berm that will protect the low-lying downtown area from flooding from the Toms River.

Acquiring and tearing down the Red Carpet Inn is a major component of an ambitious new redevelopment plan that would create a walkable downtown, complete with hundreds of new apartments and condominiums, along with businesses such as craft breweries and distilleries.

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You can see some renderings of what the redeveloped downtown could look like in the video above.

Township Planner David Roberts said the plan for the Red Carpet Inn property includes a park with a berm that wraps between the Main Street bridge over the Toms River and the second bridge at Herflicker Boulevard.

Roberts said the plan recommends that the park be built on fill dredged from the river at that location where sediment has built up, making navigating the river difficult. But he said acquiring the permits necessary to do that could be a long and complex process.

Guardian said the new park area that will occupy the Red Carpet site will be landscaped and will have a kayak launch with room for at least nine kayaks for people who want to use them in the river. There will be some parking there as well, he said.

'Nuisance motel'

It was back in November 2017 that Toms River declared the motel a "nuisance," which would have allowed a judge to temporarily revoke the business's license following a court hearing.

Police officers said at the time that they had responded to more than 750 incidents at the Red Carpet from 2015 to 2017. Most of those instances were serious offenses, including arrests for narcotics possession, weapons possession and theft.

The nuisance charge was filed about one month after police raided the motel and arrested 15 people — 11 men and one woman — on drug distribution and drug possession charges.

In 2018, the Township Council agreed to bond $4.8 million to acquire the property and tear it down. Of that amount, $3.3 million was for the purchase of the motel, with $500,000 included for asbestos removal and $1 million for demolition and construction of the flood control berm.The motel was closed down on Oct. 20 after the township took title to the property.

Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and has been writing about local government and politics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 35 years. A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in public service, she's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, 732-643-4050, jmikle@gannettnj.com.