Fort Monmouth’s Barker Circle complex, a 20-acre site located directly inside the Oceanport Avenue entrance to the former U.S. Army base, is now under a Purchase, Sale, and Redevelopment Agreement with Regional Development Group, LLC (RDG). The pending sale was unanimously approved by the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) at its Sept. 18 meeting.
RDG, co-founded by Fuller “Trip” Brooks, purchased the fort’s former Dance Hall last year and is currently redeveloping that into The Loft, a microbrewery nearby in Oceanport due to open next summer. RDG prevailed as the highest ranked qualified bidder over four other proposals received for Barker’s Circle. The purchase price is $4.85 million.
Located in the 100-year-old fort’s National Register Historic District, the parcel contains seven buildings totaling approximately 198,600 square feet. The buildings are considered “contributing historic resources subject to historic preservation covenants,” according to FMERA documents.
“I personally have historic restoration experience, so I’m not uncomfortable doing this,” said Brooks, who revealed in an exclusive interview that a restaurant and a Showroom Cinema movie theater will be included in the renovated Barker’s Circle, which includes Kaplan Hall.
“Kaplan Hall was a museum, but it was a 400-to-500-seat movie theater before that,” he said. “The original floor is still there. I thought of Mike Sodano of the Showroom Cinemas in Asbury Park and Bradley Beach. Mike was very interested in opening there and he became part of my proposal. It would be his third location, with three screens.”
Source: The Two River Times | Brewery Developer Takes on Second Fort Project