At the southern tip of Absecon Island, the town of Longport suddenly narrows to a point.

Seven homes on the southern side of the aptly named Point Drive enjoy unparalleled, angular views of the ocean.

One though, at the southwestern tip of the peninsula a little further into the water, allows one to gaze further into the inlet and back bay. Or, as a 2021 real estate listing touted, “280 degree views of both ocean and bay, sunrises and sunsets!”

Soon, though, there will be six homes, not seven, at “The Point,” as the area is known.

A businessman and his wife from Burlington County purchased the southern-most property and the one next door — for a combined $19 million — and knocked them down.

Plans on file at the county clerk’s office show one single-family home on the now-combined lot.

Few though, want to discuss the very-visible work underway at The Point - at what was formerly 6 Point Drive and 7 Point Drive.

Multiple lawyers who filed deeds and other legal documents, real estate agents who worked on the sales, and Longport town officials have all declined to comment on the sales and demolitions.

So has new owner Jim Brennan Jr., whose name is on the paperwork via limited liability companies he and his wife created to buy the properties. He is the founder of Sea Box, a maker of shipping and modular containers headquartered in Cinnaminson.

Emily Marchese, CEO and founder of Marchese Real Estate in Margate, one town up, said buyers at that price point often value their privacy in such deals.

“It’s probably the most coveted piece of real estate on the Shore,” Marchese said.

The clerk’s office filings tell this tale:

Jim Brennan and his wife bought 6 Point Drive in July 2021 from the estate of Marvin Ashner, for $6.2 million.

Ashner, who died in 2018 at the age of 82, was a hotelier and titan in the Atlantic City hospitality industry. He and his house made occasional headlines.

It was for years the most visible to anyone who went to The Point, which has a small parking area popular with fishermen and sunset seekers. Ashner put two life-size statues of the Blues Brothers on a balcony.

Ashner rode out Hurricane Sandy solo in the home in 2012 and repaired the damage. In 2013, The Press of Atlantic City featured it in a story about unique homes and described it as being on “the most prime location on Absecon Island.”

When he died, Ashner’s obituary described him as, “the last fine Jewish Hotelman of Atlantic City.”

You can see the house here in a 2021 real estate listing. It was a 6-bedroom, 7,500-square-foot home with an indoor, heated lap pool and a glass ceiling above the second-floor hallway that allowed natural light “to bisect the house.”

The neighboring property, 7 Point Drive, however, sold for twice as much money. In September 2024, a Brennan-owned LLC purchased it from a family partnership for $12.8 million, records show.

The partnership is controlled by Andrew Barroway, a hedge fund manager who previously owned the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and currently owns Greek football club Athens Kallithea FC.

Attempts to reach Barroway were not immediately successful.

Marchese, the Margate real estate agent, said the most interesting part of the 7 Point Drive sale was that the home recently underwent a major renovation, only to be demolished. And of course, the price tag.

Land is sometimes more of a value than the home that sits on it, Marchese said. “And a property is worth what someone will pay for it,” she said.

You can see the former 7 Point Drive on a Zillow listing, here. It was a 4,000-square-foot home with four bedrooms, a heated outdoor pool with three decks and a summer kitchen.

Demolishing the two homes and building one on the combined lot required a state Department of Environmental Protection permit due to its location on waterfront, under the Coastal Zone Management Rules.

The permit to do so was approved on March 28, 2025, records show. Those plans show a home on the former Ashner property with an elevated infinity pool, and an attached garage and storage area on the former Barroway property.

The sudden disappearance of the homes caught the attention of professional surfer Ben Gravy. He grew up in Longport and has made a career out of surfing novelty and non-typical surf breaks around the world.

He posted in a YouTube vlog on May 29 that the break in front of The Point, which he and locals coined as “El Slammo,” is, “in a lot of ways responsible for my surfing career,” he said.

Upon seeing the leveled lots, he proclaimed, “El Slammo will never be the same.”

Then he lamented, “There was a point in time when I thought, kind of, that there was a chance that maybe one day I’d be able to buy that house,” he said. “And I would have the El Slammo house, right on my favorite break in the world.”

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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com