Dilapidated former condos come down in party to welcome The Drift to Ocean City’s Gateway District
OCEAN CITY – Harry Vanderslice and his extended family watched the demolition of the old Seaspray condominiums last week.
He was nostalgic after construction equipment tore into the faded green exterior walls late that Wednesday morning, Sept. 30. As a kid he swam in the pool when the Seaspray was still a vibrant hotel so many decades ago.
“I was born in ’53 and we lived in Merion Park at the time. I’m one of eight kids. The Howells used to own this hotel,” Harry Vanderslice said while a mechanical claw was tearing chunks out of the Seaspray. “They used to pick us up and bring us over to their pool when they babysat us here. I’ve got a lot of history here at this place.
“The Howell group used to own it. Now a different HOW Group owns it again,” Vanderslice said.
He and his son Disston are co-principals of the Vanderslice Group at Compass Real Estate in Ocean City. They have partnered with the HOW Group of Philadelphia to turn the Seaspray property into a major new upscale condominium.
The Drift at Salt Meadows project will go a long way to reinvigorating the second biggest entrance to Ocean City, replacing the decaying, fenced-in vacant building that has greeted visitors and residents alike for more than two years.
The Drift at Salt Meadows is a multifamily residential development that will have 43 upscale units on three floors above ground-level parking accessible from Bay Avenue. There will be 33 two-bedroom units and 10 three-bedroom units and there will be a green rooftop deck, a first at the shore, providing sweeping views.
“There’s so much excitement from the neighborhood and from everybody because it’s basically been an eyesore for a number of years,” Harry Vanderslice said. “That didn’t bother me that much because I had a little history with it, but it bothered a lot of people.”
Disston, the broker/principal of the Vanderslice Group, got things kicked off at the special “Demolition Kickoff Event” at 3315 Bay Ave.
“I drive past (the Seaspray) every day. I lived right around the corner and am just able to see this as a breath of fresh air for the community,” he said “Between this and what the mayor and City Council have done with the playground, this is a true revitalization of the 34th Street area.
“This is a very exciting day for everybody,” Disston said, pointing out that the HOW Group wanted to know what the city wanted and what the community wanted.
“We’re going to be selling these things pretty soon. They’re going to be unbelievable units. …. The views here are going to be breathtaking. This is going to be an amazing project,” he added.
He said they expect to be breaking ground sometime in the first quarter and it should take 18 to 24 months to complete.
Disston Vanderslice said they met with HOW Group founder Gary A. Jonas Jr. at a popular resort diner a few years ago and were impressed with what the multi-faceted company had done in the Philadelphia and Mainline areas.
“We were sitting in Kessel’s (Korner) and we said, ‘Hey, if that (Seaspray) ever comes up, let’s try to figure something out.’ So when it did, we brought them in and they collaborated with the city beautifully,” he said. He pointed out they wanted to ensure a project of this magnitude used local resources including Ocean City attorney Jon Batastini and the Hyland Group.
“I live and breathe Ocean City,” he said.
Ocean City Council cleared the way for the project in December 2025 after working closely with the HOW Group to improve a property deemed in need of rehabilitation. The Seaspray, which turned into condos more than 40 years ago, has been closed for more than two years after it was deemed structurally unfit. It has been surrounded by chain-link fencing since then.
Disston Vanderslice said he has been tag-teaming the project from the start with his father, who has 40 to 50 years of experience with big projects and spearheaded the relationship between the city and the HOW Group.
John Pack, vice president of development at the HOW Group, is in charge of the development. He and Fourth Ward City Councilman Dave Winslow talked about the way the parties worked well together to come up with the project.
“We could not be more excited,” Pack said. “We love this market. We love the process to get to this point and the outreach we’ve had from the community to be able to take this down and celebrate it.”
The Drift will have a green roof and a putting green and gardens with views of the bay and ocean. He expects the owners to be a mix of locals and visitors, some as primary homes and some as second homes.
“Disston and Harry down here have been phenomenal,” Pack said. “Any time we go into a new community, you want to build what we consider our A Team, people who are familiar with this market. They obviously know this market inside and out. They helped make the introductions to Jon Batastini, the Hyland Group, Water’s Edge (Environmental).”
He said working with the city also was a phenomenal process.
“We came in with multiple renderings and said, ‘Don’t even tell me what you like, tell me what you hate and then we will come back,’” Pack said. They did that three or four times, working with their architect, and when they gave their final presentation, City Council responded positively. “They were basically like, no notes. This is great. This is what we wanted. You met our character.”
Winslow agreed.
“This was a model for how it should be done,” he said. “They came in with some initial plans and they kept saying, ‘What don’t you like? What don’t you like? What can we change?’ We went through numerous iterations and every time we gave them suggestions, they came back with those incorporated into the plan.”
The Fourth Ward councilman is excited about how The Drift fits in with what’s going on in the area he represents.
“This whole corridor for years just kind of existed and now it’s really going to be completely transformed,” Winslow said.
He pointed to the county finishing raising and improving Roosevelt Boulevard from the bridge onto the island to West Avenue and that the new condominiums will be a few blocks from where the city is completely rebuilding the Sandcastle playground and recreation area.
“It’s really going to be a welcoming wow experience for folks coming into town,” he said.
Residents Dave and Marie Hayes, who have been outspoken about development in Ocean City, welcomed The Drift at Salt Marsh.
“I think it’s just really good how council came together with this where it’s been such a problem for so long,” Dave Hayes said. He and Marie said the redevelopment process is a model for the way things should be done. “It should be an example of working with the community, not behind closed doors.”
As the contractors worked at the event to start taking down the Seaspray, many in the large crowd that gathered pulled out their cell phones to record the demolition.
By early this week, a big section of the Seaspray had been taken down.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
