It's almost hard to understand how it could happen. Once one of the most fashionable places to live outside of Manhattan, Long Branch had decayed into a shadow of its former past. President Ulysses S. Grant's first visit in 1869, and subsequent annual treks during his presidency, made the city famous. The opening of a racetrack in 1870, and later casinos ultimately attracted some of the wealthiest families looking for rest and relaxation.

Yet starting in the early 1920s and continuing until the late 1960s, the people stopped coming and the city increasingly struggled. The painfully long slide culminated in 1989 when fire originating in an amusement called the "Haunted Mansion" ultimately decimated the boardwalk and the legendary fishing pier, once the longest on the New Jersey coast.

Today, though, things are on fire, but in a good way, thanks to a major development called Pier Village, a $95-million mixed-use oceanfront complex.

"Construction is flying at this point," says Greg Russo, vice president of the Applied Cos., Hoboken, the developer of Pier Village.

Located at the shore site of the former pier, it's part of a downtown renewal spearheaded by a local redevelopment team, all of which will cost nearly $500 million. "The city has created five redevelopment zones, and Pier Village is the beating heart of the entire [renewal]," adds Russo.

Pier Village will be located on the boardwalk within walking distance of the Long Branch train station. Talks are under way to rebuild the pier for ferry service to Manhattan and Atlantic City. Because of its location and design — which includes a public park and boardwalk — the state of New Jersey has invested $11.2 million in the project.

Applied has assembled a team of retail specialists including Baltimore-based Williams Jackson Ewing and Development Design Group to work with Dean Marchetto Architects. WJE, who is leasing and managing the 100,000-square-foot retail complex portion of the project, also built the retail in Union Station, Washington, D.C., and Grand Central Station, New York. AGD Construction Co., Leonardo, is general contractor on the project.

Located on 25 acres of Atlantic seashore, the plan is to have a residential, year-round community on the beach. Slated to be one of the Jersey Shore's premier destinations for dining, shopping and living, the first phase will consist of 320 luxury rental apartment units and retail. The design features a Victorian look with awnings, inspired by the history of the city.

First-floor steel framing outlines the two phase-one residential/retail buildings of the project. Additional floors will be created from prefabricated wood panels covered on-site with drywall. Roofing on the two buildings will consist of asphalt shingles with copper accents. Russo says wood framing on the south unit will be complete before the end of May, with tenants in by the end of 2004. The north unit will be complete by the end of 2005.

Pier Village will also include a central pavilion for seasonal activities. Both the retail and the apartments above the retail will form a semicircle around a grand lawn and pavilion providing space for concerts and other events. Applied is rebuilding a section of the boardwalk from the most southern point of Pier Village to the start of the concrete promenade by the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, an adjacent first-class conference hotel. Russo says the boardwalk work will cost about $2 million.

East of the boardwalk, signature restaurants will keep locals and visitors in the area through the evenings. One large 13,000-square-foot building will be occupied by McLoone's Waterfront Dining. South of McLoone's will be a cluster of four other restaurants, including Stewart's Root Beer. All five buildings will feature copper roofing.

With a heavy anticipated visitor load, parking has gotten special attention on the project. Currently near completion is the 613-space, four-story parking deck, which will be surrounded by the south building. Also in the plan are several other surface lots, and over 400 angled spaces of street parking on Ocean Ave., the street that will run alongside the boardwalk. Russo says the project will create a total of between 400 and 500 spaces for residents, and between 800 and 900 for visitors.

Also on tap is $8 million worth of reworking of Ocean Boulevard, the main thoroughfare just west of Pier Village. Currently a four-lane highway with turnoff lanes and an average speed of between 40 and 50 miles per hour, it effectively cuts off the community from easy access to the shore. Multiple projects on tap will effectively lower the speed limit to 30 miles per hour, and make crossing substantially safer for pedestrians.

Pier Village is just one aspect of Long Branch's redevelopment. Others include The Grand Resorts and Bluffs at Beachfront North, a development just north of the Ocean Place. It consists of nearly 300 condominiums and town houses.

The Bluffs at Beachfront North will feature 104 townhomes with three-story designs offering from 1,900 square feet to over 3,300 square feet of living space, two and three bedrooms, and one- and two-car garages.

The Grand Resorts at Beachfront North is a collection of 179 condominium residences containing 1,100 to over 2,000 square feet of living space, with one, two and three bedrooms and underground parking with elevator access.

Beachfront North will offer for-sale units which, according to Russo, several thousand people are already on the waiting list for. "It's unusual to have so many people," said Russo. "The easy answer would be because of the great location by the ocean, and it's easy for people to see and just pop in to visit the site because of its location to the boardwalk."

In mid-2000 Applied was selected to create Pier Village, as well as oversee construction of housing and entertainment projects. By December 2001 the site-approval process was complete, with PNC Bank coming on as lead lender. The developers broke ground on Pier Village in May 2003.

The project had been halted by an order from the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP wanted to ensure the nesting and flight habits of the federally protected piping plover weren't disturbed.

By mid-September the city received a letter from the DEP which gave it the go-ahead to move forward, according to Applied's Russo. Work resumed in October 2003 at the site after it lay untouched for several months.

Turning the town around has been a long process. In 1993 a local businessman formed Long Branch Tomorrow, a community group determined to rebuild. Recalls Howard Woolley Jr., administrator of the city of Long Branch: "There had been several efforts in the past to stimulate the oceanfront, but they lacked an overall relationship to the city." Then Mayor Adam Schneider who had been elected mayor three years before on an anti-development platform, joined the group. "I had to learn a lot, particularly about how high-density housing on the oceanfront would lead to a renaissance," said Schneider.

Schneider worked with Long Branch Tomorrow on a master plan, and in 1995 the group retained Boston-based Thompson Design Group, which saw opportunity on both the waterfront and Broadway, the main downtown thoroughfare that leads to the ocean. In all, the master plan covers some 300 acres and includes between 1,500 and 2,000 units of new housing, as well as construction of some 500,000 square feet of nonresidential space.

Russo adds other noteworthy developments for Long Branch include current spending of roughly $150 million on three new schools in town. Just south of Pier Village, the master plan is also calling for a roughly 100-unit "bed-and breakfast-type" hotel.