Morgan Momentum – New Apartments in Kozy’s Parking Lot

September 2013 Site Plan for Luxury Apartments to be Built on the Previous Site of the Parking Lot for Joe’s Kozy Bar and Club Bene. Image Courtesy of HighviewHomesLLC.com.

In the sad wake of the demolition of the complex of buildings which had previously made up Joe’s Kozy Bar and Club Bene, springs new life in the one-time parking lot in the form of, according to the builder Highview Homes, LLC, “148 luxury residential rental units, along with a 2,820 square foot clubhouse and pool.”

View of the Future Site of Morgan Luxury Apartments – January 2015. Image Courtesy of Paul During.

Thank you to one of my childhood neighbors, and very long time Morgan resident Paul During, for the above photo of Kozy’s parking lot looking toward the main channel of Lockwood Boat Works (75 years young this year) and the below photo of the foundation of one of the new three story apartment buildings being constructed.

Foundation Slabs for Future Three Story Tall Morgan Luxury Apartments – June 2015. Image Courtesy of Paul During.

What nearly no one knows this that this parking lot site, adjacent to the main channel of Lockwood Boat Works, was once part of the massive T. A. Gillespie Loading Company which had its short life in 1918 (the plant blew up!).  As the below map shows, there was housing for Laborers, the Commissary, and the southernmost part of a small hospital.  It floored me the first time I saw this map that there was once a hospital on Route 35 across from Midland Avenue.  If you grew up in the area, I’m sure you’ll be floored to learn this as well.  Many Morgan residents will remember Elmira’s, which later established the unique bar known as “The Bedroom” where both my sister Linda and brother Doug once worked.  I have some old menus from The Bedroom which will one day get posted to this web site.  The T. A. Gillespie Loading Company Hospital seems to have been right about where Elmira’s was later located (and now isn’t).

Map Showing the 1918 T. A. Gillespie Loading Company Buildings Which Were Once Located at the Site of the Morgan Luxury Apartment Construction. This Map Shows the Original Course of the South Amboy – Keyport Road, now Route 35 and Old Spye Road. Image Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

I’ve read that present day residents in this area are very nervous that shabby housing will be built at this site.  Based only on the Highview Homes web site showing images of their other developments, read from 3,000 miles away, the apartment complex looks like it should be quite nice.  Guess we’ll all see.  As of the time of this writing (end of June 2015), the Highview Homes web site further indicates, “We expect to begin leasing in Sayreville either late summer or early fall.  More information on the progress of this development will be available later this spring and residents are expected to begin taking occupancy in late fall or winter of this year.”

Originally posted on June 28, 2015.