Mission
The mission of Save Our Structures – Asbury Park (SOS-AP) is to safeguard the historic and culturally significant buildings, streetscapes, and gathering places that define our city. We work to prevent needless demolition, encourage thoughtful restoration, and promote policies that respect both people and place.
Through research, public education, and advocacy at City Hall and beyond, we strive to make preservation a core community value and a practical tool for equitable growth, economic vitality, and neighborhood pride.
Job One: Save The Asbury Park Casino’s Grand Concourse
The Casino is one of the boardwalk’s defining landmarks, a gateway between Asbury Park and Ocean Grove and a symbol of the city’s rise as a seaside destination in the early 20th century. Built in 1929-1930 to replace an earlier structure destroyed by fire, the current complex was designed by the New York firm Warren & Wetmore, the architects behind Grand Central Terminal, and once housed an indoor ice‑skating rink, amusements, and a carousel that helped put the Jersey Shore on the map.
For generations, the Casino’s copper‑trimmed arches, winged seahorse details, and soaring breezeway have framed some of the most photographed views on the boardwalk, serving as a public passageway, performance backdrop, and gathering space that connects neighborhoods, cultures, and even towns. Memorialized by Bruce Springsteen in his iconic “4th of July Asbury Park/Sandy”, and even in its current state of disrepair, the building remains a touchstone of local memory and identity, appearing in art, music, and family histories across Asbury Park.
In January 2026, that legacy was thrown into doubt when an “unsafe structure” notice appeared on the Casino complex and its owner, Madison Marquette, sought a demolition permit for the historic Grand Concourse, which they refer to as “the Breezeway”. The move sparked immediate outrage: city officials issued strongly worded statements opposing demolition, preservation organizations sounded the alarm, and residents rallied on the boardwalk to demand a long‑term plan that repairs rather than erases the structure.
Under intense public pressure, the developer has since announced that the Grand Concourse will be repaired and preserved, and that the Casino is still slated for a “historically significant renovation” as part of a broader vision for arts, entertainment, and dining on the waterfront. While that announcement paused active demolition plans, key questions remain: there is no public timeline, limited transparency about the scope of work, and a long history of deferred maintenance and unfulfilled promises tied to existing redevelopment agreements.
Save Our Structures – Asbury Park believes this moment is an opportunity - not to settle for the bare minimum needed to keep the walls standing, but to secure binding commitments that the Casino will be respectfully renovated and adaptively reused. We are calling for a plan that:
Treats the Casino and concourse as historic resources, retaining defining architectural features like the arches, ornament, and open passageway.
Commits to adaptive reuse that welcomes the public—through arts, culture, small businesses, or community space—rather than privatizing or walling off the structure.
Requires meaningful community input and clear milestones, so residents can track progress and hold both the City and the developer accountable over time.
By insisting on careful restoration and creative reuse instead of demolition by neglect, we can ensure that the Casino once again becomes a vibrant, accessible landmark—linking boardwalk and beach, past and future, and the many people who call Asbury Park home.
Why the Grand Concourse Is More Than a Breezeway
The Casino’s Grand Concourse is not a side hallway - it is the heart of the building and one of the defining public rooms of Asbury Park. Calling it a “breezeway” shrinks it to a mere pass‑through, as if it were an incidental corridor instead of a grand civic space that frames the ocean, links two cities, and announces that you’ve arrived somewhere unlike any other Jersey Shore town.
On our site, we can be explicit about that: the Grand Concourse is an architectural and cultural centerpiece, not a leftover space between storefronts. It is where people meet, linger, perform, and take in the scale of the Casino’s arches and ornament; it is a room open to the sky that belongs to everyone, not just a shortcut on the way to somewhere else.
By rejecting the “breezeway” label and insisting on “Grand Concourse,” we’re naming what’s really at stake. If you treat it as incidental, demolition or enclosure can be sold as a minor adjustment. If you treat it as integral to the boardwalk and cityscape, any plan must start from the premise that this space is preserved, restored, and brought back to life as part of a larger, respectful adaptive reuse of the Casino complex.