Councilman says rent not reason for majority of vacancies in Ocean City
OCEAN CITY — City Councilman Keith Hartzell said social media comments critical of vacancies in the downtown are only serving to hurt the entire community.
He used a sizable portion of the March 27 City Council meeting to address concerns that have been raised about the empty storefronts in the downtown. Hartzell represents the Second Ward, which includes the main downtown business district. He lives there and owns commercial property there, including the building housing Seventh Street Surf Shop.
Hartzell brought up the vacancies downtown at prior council meetings and his lobbying has been successful in getting empty storefronts to cover up their windows to improve the appearance so shoppers aren’t looking into the interiors of properties in disarray.
“Someone said I’m papering up and hiding a problem,” Hartzell said about his push to get windows covered. That, he said, is not the case.
The councilman said the 700 block in particular “is the victim block” with commenters alleging the problem with the vacancies is rent being too high.
To dismiss those complaints, he went through building after building to show that the vast majority of the vacancies have nothing to do with high rent causing them to remain empty.
Hartzell gave glowing reviews about many of the longtime owners downtown and for their years of support for the district, including those at the former Sea Oats, Sun Rose Words and Music, Papagallo’s, Ruth’s Hallmark and Ward’s Pastry.
Many of them retired and others bought the buildings. Some are coming up with new uses for the properties and others have hit some roadblocks on what they plan to put there, but plans are in the works, he said.
Of seven properties that are vacant, he said with six he knows the rent did not go up even if people are yelling about it. The owner of the former Ron Jon surf store at the corner of Eighth Street and Asbury Avenue is looking for tenants, but Hartzell noted that space is so much larger than most of the other retail spaces it could take some time to find a tenant.
He said people who have been attacking the downtown are now turning their attention to attack the Ninth Street corridor. The most visible vacancy is the gleaming and relatively new former Republic Bank at the corner of Ninth and West Avenue.
Hartzell asserted much of the attacks on the two business areas track back to the hotel project proposed by Eustace Mita.
Mita owns the former Wonderland Pier amusement park at Sixth Street and Boardwalk and has proposed replacing the park with a 252-room luxury hotel.
Although he has had several public presentations, Mita has not made any formal application to City Council or the Zoning and Planning boards about the project. There has been substantial discussion and commentary on the hotel proposal, with support and much opposition.
“There is nothing wrong with Ninth Street,” he said. “If you don’t like it (the hotel proposal), say why. Don’t start attacking the whole town in either direction,” in favor or against the hotel.
“I get the pain some of this is causing our town. It’s wrong. I want all sides to tone down the rhetoric and keep it to an honest discussion about the project,” Hartzell said. “Let’s get mature about this. There are pros and cons up there.”
Getting back to the downtown, he suggested one way to help would be for the businesses that are closed to put up signs alerting people to what is coming there to avoid unnecessary rumors. Having signs such as “coming soon” could actually drive up excitement for the businesses, he said.
There is such a sign on the Sun Rose location.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
