TOMS RIVER - On a buying spree for the past four years, OceanFirst Financial Corp. is mapping out plans for a new, seven-story office tower in Toms River to keep up with its fast growth.

The 79,000-square-foot, 98-foot-tall building would connect to its existing headquarters on Hooper Avenue.

"That building is completely full today," Christopher Maher, chairman and chief executive officer, said of its current location. "We really don't have much capacity left in it."

The parent company of OceanFirst Bank is based in Toms River and has an administrative office in Red Bank. Its assets have nearly quadrupled to $8 billion after a series of mergers that began in 2015.

The bank doesn't have a time frame for construction set in stone. But its sleek design could add to an overhaul planned for Hooper Avenue. Down the road, the Ocean County Mall's owner plans to replace shuttered Sears with a "lifestyle center" that includes restaurants and stores.

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Elected officials hoped OceanFirst's decision to expand in Toms River would provide good-paying jobs that could spare workers the commute to Northern New Jersey and New York.

"Hopefully they’ll shop in town and potentially live in town," Council President George E. Wittmann Jr., said. " There are more opportunities for folks in Toms River not to have to commute up and down the Parkway.”

Toms River planning officials approved the height of the new building at a meeting Wednesday evening, said OceanFirst's attorney, Harvey York.

Maher in an interview said OceanFirst didn't have a set timeline, but it needed to be sure it could stay in Toms River if needed.

Its existing 60,000-square-foot building, built in the 1970s, has 175 employees, including customer service, digital support and loan originators.

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The company, however, is outgrowing its space. It closed last week on the acquisition of Capital Bank of New Jersey for $77 million, expanding its reach into Cumberland and Atlantic counties.

That was its fifth merger since 2015. The others: Colonial American Bank in Middletown; Cape Bancorp in Cape May Court House; the parent company of Ocean City Home Bank in Ocean City; and Sun Bancorp in Vineland.

OceanFirst most recently reported record net income of $26.7 million, or 55 cents a share, for the fourth quarter of 2018, compared with net income of $10 million, or 30 cents a share, the same quarter the previous year.

Its stock price is virtually flat from a year ago.

The design of the new tower calls for a brightly lit building with lots of open space and amenities that a new generation of workers has come to expect. It would have room for 450 employees, Maher said.

Planning bricks-and-mortar buildings for the long term is no easy task, particularly in banking, where customers are completing more transactions on their smartphones.

It has shifted the landscape for workers in the banking industry.

The company, for example, is planning to open a branch this spring at Bell Works in Holmdel that will have video screens to connect customers with virtual tellers in Toms River, Maher said.

But while the branches have fewer workers, the back-office operations have more.

Two years ago, Maher said, the bank didn't have a digital banking department. Now, that department employs 50.

"We're trying to be flexible," Maher said.

Michael L. Diamond; @mdiamondapp; 732-643-4038; mdiamond@gannettnj.com