LONGPORT – It’s been nearly 10 years in the making and Friday marked the beginning of a months-long project to turn a vacant piece of land into a beautiful beachfront park to be enjoyed for generations.
Members of the Beach Terrace Park, Inc., a non-profit organized to raise money needed to create the park, gathered with Mayor Patrick Armstrong and friends to break ground on a park they hope to have completed by Memorial Day 2026.
“This is an exciting day for us,” Secretary Phil Neri said. “We are very happy that we have raised enough funds to start building the park.”
Neri said the residents of Longport have been generous and $100,000 of the $175,000 goal has been raised. Neri said the largest volume of funding came in over the 4th of July and Labor Day weekends.
“But now that we are in the construction phase, we are seeing an uptick in donations. People are assured their donations are being put to work to create the park and it’s not a fantasy project,” he said.
President Tony Ziccardi said contractor Jaime Lloyd of J.W. Lloyd Landscaping, who has already cleared and graded the lot, will soon begin laying brick pavers to create a meandering pathway.
Lloyd is already on the job. He was there before the ceremony with his 3-year-old grandson measuring the length of the sidewalk the borough installed a few years back. After the 10 a.m. groundbreaking ceremony, committee members joined Lloyd to select two colors of grey bricks for the path.
Ziccardi called the groundbreaking a “momentous” occasion.
The project was suggested nearly 10 years ago by property managers of the condominium associations at Longport Seaview and Casa Videri, which provided the first two $5,000 donations. The project progressed slowly, and the Board of Commissioners recently approved the license agreement to allow them to build the park, the second of three new parks in Longport that will be enjoyed by future generations.
Ziccardi said he broached the idea of creating the park last year with the incoming administration – Armstrong and Commissioners Dan Lawler and Jim Ulmer – and they immediately said, “Yes, we love it, we want to see it happen.”
He outlined the timeline for completion of the park. Next comes installation of a picket fence that will surround the two-block-long strip of land nestled against the bulkhead and installation of irrigation, with the “beauty part of it” coming in spring when Lloyd lays sod and plants native trees, plants and flowers.
After digging up and tossing a shovelful of sand, Armstrong said the borough is extremely grateful to have such “incredible” residents who get involved to make a difference.
“We are just so pleased to meet all of you. This group had a vision years ago and this vision is now coming to fruition,” Armstrong said. “The peoples’ commitment to take a wasteland and build a beautiful park, we are just so thankful.”
Ziccardi thanked all the donors who provided enough funding to begin construction of the park, which they hope to dedicate on July 4, 2026.
Anyone interested in donating to the park can send a check to Beach Terrace Park, Inc.,
111 S. 16th Ave., Longport, NJ 08403 or contribute online with a credit card at https://www.beachterracepark.com/donate-2/ All contributions are tax deductible.
Longport held a groundbreaking ceremony at Beach Terrace Park, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025.
Copyright Fideri News Network 2025
