Editor’s note: This updates story from Thursday’s Ocean City Council meeting.
OCEAN CITY – On Tuesday afternoon, Ocean City officials announced the city won’t consider the purchase of the former Crown Bank Building at 801 Asbury Ave.
In a press release issued after the Sentinel’s Oct. 1 print edition went to press, the city wrote that “after extensive due diligence, the city has decided not to pursue the purchase of 801 Asbury Avenue for use as a police station.”
“The administration has performed the appropriate due diligence to consider such acquisition, and has reviewed this with City Council. Based on all available information, the mayor and council have determined it is not in the best interests of the city to move forward with the purchase of 801 Asbury, the release stated. It continued, “While the building will serve adequately for a temporary home to the department, the apparent scope of known work and associated costs to properly renovate the building for the long term make this acquisition uneconomical. In addition, there remain further unknown concerns relative to the facility that make the acquisition impracticable.”
A joint statement by Mayor Jay Gillian and City Council President Terry Crowley Jr. in the release said, “We’ll always consider any opportunity to save taxpayers money, and we’ll always do our fact-finding before making any decision. In this case, the estimated costs to properly renovate the building make the purchase inadvisable.”
Ocean City will be completing a new substation at Eighth Street and Boardwalk before the end of the year. The city has budgeted $30 million for renovating and expanding the current police station at 835 Central Ave.
The city is currently renteing two floors in the former Crown Bank building for the Ocean City Police Department and municipal court.