Business & Tech

Former Hazlet Foodtown Is Being Demolished

Every bit of the block, brick and scrap will be gone in two weeks.

A Route 36 eyesore is coming down. 

This morning, roaring machinery began destroying the former 40,000 square foot Foodtown in Hazlet on Route 36 near Poole Avenue. By noon, there was a mountain of cement chunks in the parking lot, and a huge brick wall was knocked down, exposing the painted walls to the outdoor sun. 

The store had sustained some roof damage during Superstorm Sandy last year and the owner had been issued an order a year ago to address the damage, said Hazlet's Acting Township Administrator Dennis Pino. 

Kenny Newport, the owner of Aaron Asbestos and Demolition Service of Drexel Hill, Pa., said the former supermarket will be just a memory in about two weeks. He said he was contracted by the building management firm Kane Builders of Jenkintown, Pa. to remove every bit of the block, brick, slab and scrap of the old Foodtown -- but leave the attached Bradlees store untouched. 

"All this steel will be recycled. That's how I make my money," said Newport. Steel is currently selling for $300 a ton, and light metal can fetch $260 a ton, he said. The used wood will also be recycled. "Everything has value but the concrete." 

Newport said his crew found no surprises when they walked through the doomed structure this morning. "I was surprised there wasn't somebody or some thing," he said. "We normally actually find a lot of people when these are emptied, living in these, but it was closed up pretty well." 

The wall the store shares with Bradlees will remain, said Newport. He said he does not know what the plans are for the 10-acre shopping complex. 

A sign out front advertises that the property is up for sale, and represented by Jeffrey Realty. 

An article on Holmdel-Hazlet Patch in September 2012 asking people what they would like to see there drew 55 comments. 

 


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