Town Gets First New Bank in Decades

ASBURY PARK, NJ-The bad news this week was that a major residential project, Esperanza , was halting construction, at least temporarily. The good news is that this rebuilding oceanfront city will get its first new bank in decades.

Rumson-Fair Haven Bank & Trust, based in nearby Rumson, will open a new branch in this city’s downtown by Q2 of 2008, bank officials have revealed. The company has acquired a 2,700-sf office condo in the Griffin, a new downtown mixed-use building, for $1 million. Further details of the transaction were not released.

The Griffin, located at the corner of Cookman and Grand avenues, is a new building being developed by RDR Properties, a locally based company headed by Steven Ranuro. The four-story building combines 21 residential units on its upper floors with street-level retail. The $12.5-million project was completed this past spring.