Sandy leads Toms River dental practice to elevate [Asbury Park Press, N.J.]

Oct. 31--TOMS RIVER -- It's been a year since Dr. David Stein and his dental practice were displaced by Sandy, and he returned earlier this week to see the result: his 2,200-square-foot building overlooking the river was being elevated more than four feet off the ground.

The countdown finally could begin. If all goes smoothly, the building could be ready in four months, said his builder, Alan Baker of Bacorp Building Group Inc. in Lacey, who was standing nearby.

"It's been a long, frustrating year, and we're finally seeing something happen," Stein said.

The scene here on Monday of contractors raising Riverfront Dental Care's building a few inches at a time was a sign that some of the Shore's business owners -- like their residential counterparts -- are finally starting to rebuild.

As Stein noted, it hasn't been easy. There was a false start in the rush to rebuild before the new elevation requirements were in place. There was a scramble to find enough money to finish the job. There was the balancing act of keeping one eye on the construction project and another keeping the business afloat. There was stolen copper wire.

The Christie administration said 189,500 New Jersey businesses were impacted by superstorm Sandy, including 75 percent of small businesses, a tally that likely ranges from power outages to complete destruction.

A year later, businesses directly hit by the storm have recovered only slowly. About 55 percent of businesses said they have fully recovered; 36 percent have somewhat recovered; and 9 percent have not recovered, according to a survey released earlier this month by Capital One Bank.

There likely were few more picturesque places to get your teeth cleaned than Riverfront Dental Care. Stein joined the practice in 1981, lured in part by the view overlooking the Toms River. He bought the building in 2000. Today, he and his business partner, Dr. Jan Rella, have 13 employees.

The building sits five feet above sea level, not high enough to withstand the storm surge a year ago. It was flooded with nearly two feet of water, which destroyed dental chairs, equipment, supplies and carts, said Marguerite Stein, the office manager and David's wife.

Even then, the Steins said, it could have been worse. They found space that was suited for a dental practice in the office of a friend, oral surgeon John Vitale, and they were seeing patients again within two weeks.

Meantime, they assessed the damage, figuring it would cost upward of $500,000 to elevate and rebuild. But they had little choice. David Stein, 62, was counting on the building to provide rental income when he retired. Not to mention, his patients wanted to return to the old building.

"If we don't raise it, the property wouldn't have been worth anything," Marguerite Stein said.

Owners of nonresidential buildings trying to ward off a huge increase in flood insurance can either elevate their buildings or take several steps to floodproof them, experts said.

In Sea Bright, Mayor Dina Long said the borough initially required all businesses to raise their buildings to meet federal flood zone standards, but business owners found elevating older buildings would have been cost prohibitive.

They found the Federal Emergency Management Agency allowed owners of nonresidential buildings to mitigate their flood risk without needing to raise the structures, Long said.

"It's going to be an issue, especially if you're in an area that could be flooded again," said Jack Purvis, a Wall architect and president of the American Institute of Architects in New Jersey, a trade group. "You're going to have to deal with it in some manner."

Money for business owners has been hard to come by. New Jersey'sEconomic Development Authority offers grants of up to $50,000 for businesses that sustained at least $5,000 in physical damage in Sandy. Among the approved uses is future construction.

The application deadline, originally Oct. 31, is now Dec. 31.

So far, the EDA has received 2,915 applications for grants. It has approved 117 applications for $5.9 million, according to the agency.

For Stein, it meant cobbling together a loan from Hopewell Valley Community Bank, a grant from the New Jersey Dental Association, and, still pending, a claim for flood insurance and an application for a state grant.

It has been frustrating. Stein said he has been assigned four different agents to help him through the state's grant application. Meanwhile, Baker said copper pipes mysteriously went missing from the site.

But Stein remembers seeing an elderly patient a week after the storm who wore the same clothes he had on before the storm, a sign the patient hadn't returned home. Perspective is easily found.

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