Catsbury Park cat rescue finds new home in Asbury Park, opening details announced

Catsbury Park has found a new home.

The Asbury Park nonprofit cat rescue, which announced the closure of its Cookman Avenue cat cafe in February 2021, will reopen in a warehouse space at 1101 Memorial Drive at the corner of Third Avenue, with a soft opening planned for mid-February.

“I had been saying for a year, in a perfect world there would be a little warehouse that wanted to rent us like 2,000 square feet on Memorial somewhere and it would be really affordable," said Catsbury Park founder and president DJ Bornschein. "And that just kind of presented itself out of the blue.”

Catsbury Park will be sharing the building with Good Boy Dog Training. The rescue works with local animal shelters and allows guests to spend time with cats that are available for adoption.

In the nearly five years since they opened, Catsbury Park has found famous friends including pop star Kesha, who visited and signal-boosted its mission in 2018, and Internet famous feline Lil Bub, who appeared at cat conventions the rescue presented in Asbury Park and Philadelphia.

Unlike its former Cookman Avenue location, which was open from 2017 until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, the Memorial Drive incarnation of Catsbury Park will not include a cafe.

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“At this point, we’re so well-respected and recognized in the cat rescue world that we don’t need to mess around with trying to sell people lattes and chocolate chip cookies that are costing us money and wasting time that we could be (spending) focusing on helping cats,” Bornschein said.

However, Bornschein said he knows that the cafe element was initially important to introducing the public to Catsbury Park and its mission.

“Cat cafes are pretty popular now, but when we opened most people hadn’t heard of one," he said. "We were the first in the state, in the area — so all that really helped grow Catsbury Park as a brand."

Catsbury Park is planning to host events such as cat trivia, cat bingo and cat yoga, with plenty of adoptable kitties on hand. There will be pop-up events starting in mid-February, followed by more regular hours in March, Bornschein said.

Private visits for small groups will be available on Friday, Feb. 11, through Sunday, Feb 13. For $100, a group of six guests (including children) can be among the first to visit Catsbury Park's new cat lounge and spend an hour in the room full of adoptable felines. Treats for humans and cats are included with admission.

There are 10 reservation times available (6 to 7 p.m. and 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 11; 2 to 3 p.m., 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., 5 to 6 p.m. and 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12; and noon to 1 p.m., 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., 3 to 4 p.m. and 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 13), which can be booked via catsburypark.com.

Alex Biese has been writing about art, entertainment, culture and news on a local and national level for more than 15 years.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Catsbury Park cat rescue finds new home in Asbury Park NJ