Ocean Township Selling School it Bought After Yeshiva Dorm Fight
28 Apr, 2026 - Tranzon Auction Properties
As seen in Asbury Park Press
Dan Radel Asbury Park Press
OCEAN TOWNSHIP -- The township has placed a for-sale sign at the Logan Road school, the former Hillel day school the town purchased seven years following contentious zoning board hearings where a group sought to turn the school into a Talmudic academy with dorm rooms.
Single-family houses will likely become its future use.
Mayor John Napolitano Sr. said the starting price is $2.75 million. The school and property will be sold at public auction. Tranzon Auction Properties is holding the auction, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. June 9, according to its website.
"We're looking to make back what the town paid for it, make a profit and get it on the tax rolls," Mayor John Napolitano Sr. said.
Single-family homes was one vision the town had for the property when it purchased it. Other concepts were considered, such as leasing it to the school district or using the land for a new municipal building. However, the school, built in 1958, needed about $4 million in renovations, particularly to the HVAC system, Napolitano said.
The township also want a bigger space for the future municipal building than the 2.6 acres the school sits on. The current municipal building sits on 3.3 acres.
The township bonded for $2.1 million in 2019 to buy the school. A few years after buying the property, the township started the process to subdivide the property from a single lot into six lots.
It sits in a R-4 zone, which permits medium-density single-family residential development. It is across the street from David A. Dahrouge Park. Tranzon is marketing the site for new luxury home construction near the coast.
2015 hearing
In 2015, Yeshiva Gedolah Na'os Yaakov went before the board to get approval to renovate the building and turn it into an academy with dormitories for 96 men between the ages of 18 and 22.
The township rejected the group on grounds that the dorms were not a permitted use and many of the restrictions the applicant would impose on its students — such as no smoking, no cell phones, no parking on streets — would be difficult to enforce and place an undue burden on the town.
The yeshiva challenged the denial in federal court under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, citing unlawful religious discrimination, and won a reversal of the township's decision.
Yeshiva Gedolah Na'os Yaakov, however, never moved to Logan Road because property owner Zebra Holdings wasn't been able to get a certificate of occupancy, township officials said at the time.
