Dive Brief:

The New Jersey beach town that rocker Bruce Springsteen made famous in the 1970s with his debut studio album is about to undergo a multibillion-dollar facelift along its waterfront.

The centerpiece of Asbury Park’s 1.25-mile redevelopment effort will be a $178 million, 16-story tower housing condos, a hotel, stores and a parking garage, according to a plan that developer iStar Financial submitted for the city’s approval this week. The developer also will add more than 2,100 homes to the town.

The tower, which will be one of the tallest buildings on the Jersey Shore, would occupy what locals call “the Esperanza site,” an abandoned parcel that a number of developers have started to build on — but never finished — over the past 20 years.

Dive Insight:

Asbury Park Press on Wednesday called the empty site “a symbol of failure on the Asbury Park waterfront.”

In its place, the developer said — in what it called a “far-sighted approach” — will be a mixed-use array of real estate worthy of a spot in “one of the unsung capitals of cool in the United States.” Asbury Park inspired Springsteen’s debut album in 1973.

"The opportunity to design almost a mile of oceanfront land almost never comes along," iStar CEO Jay Sugarman said in a press release. "To have that opportunity in a place with as rich a history, as beautiful a setting, and with such iconic venues and architecture as Asbury Park, gives us a chance to do something really special."

Designer Anda Andrei will be the project’s creative director, and will “hand-pick... designers and architects who understand how to shape Asbury Park’s future while celebrating its one-of-a-kind character,” according to an iStar press release.

Since iStar began working in Asbury Park, the developer has upgraded the community’s landscaping, buried utility lines that were once above ground, added storm sewers, and updated streets, lighting, curbs and sidewalks.