Plans: Demolish the Strathmere Motel, build a larger hotel

By BILL BARLOW /Special to the Sentinel

STRATHMERE – The owner of the landmark Strathmere Motel plans to demolish the building and replace it with a much larger new motel with fewer rooms.

Plans are expected to go before the Upper Township Zoning Board on Sept. 10, although an agenda has not yet been set. The proposal for a three-story building above a parking area will require several variances, including for size and use. There is no hotel and motel zone in Strathmere, although the existing building began serving that purpose in the 1950s. 

The original structure was built in 1923 and converted into a motel in 1959, according to owner Stephen Maloney, who bought the building in 2011.

Maloney described the motel as the guest bedrooms for the neighborhood. 

For a time, he continued to operate it as a motel, but for the past couple of years he has offered rooms only to family and friends. The building’s condition had reached a point at which he was not willing to offer rooms to the public, he said. 

“It’s showing its age,” with some structural issues and problems with the utilities, according to architect William McLees of Somers Point, who designed the proposed new building.

The final plans have not been submitted to the Zoning Board, and so are not yet public documents. McLees said the building would have 15 units that would be larger than the existing rooms and include kitchenettes. 

His plans call for parking at the ground level, underneath the building, with three habitable floors above. Plans  call for an elevator, and he said he sought to incorporate environmentally friendly construction elements into the design, as well as touches to make things better for the neighbors, including a low garden wall that would block the headlights in the parking area. 

The new building would also require a new septic system; Strathmere does not have sewer service.

The larger rooms are expected in the current market, McLees said. The building would also need to be taller under current flood-mitigation rules. 

McLees plans to submit a formal application to the township later this week. 

On Saturday, McLees participated in a remote meeting with members of the Strathmere Improvement Association, which included questions from residents and the election of officers. That included the re-election of Linda Bateman as president and Janice Connell as vice president. 

On Monday, they said about 70 people participated in the meeting.

“As usual, our members were so well informed and they asked great questions. He tried to answer everything,” Bateman said.  

She described the meeting as very cordial, but said it was clear that some neighbors have concerns about the size of the proposed building. 

“This is just way more than we thought would be happening,” Bateman said, describing the building proposal as taking up an entire city block, from Sumner to Sherman avenues, and encompassing the grassy parking area to the north of the building. 

Plans call for 15 units, while the current building has 16, as well as a manager’s office. Each unit would have a sitting area and a bedroom, as well as cooking facilities, including a stove, sink and refrigerator. Some of the units would have more than one floor, with a rooftop deck planned on a section of the third story. 

Among the questions Saturday, as related by Bateman, was one from a Strathmere volunteer firefighter who pointed out that the company does not have a ladder truck that could reach the top of the proposed building. That could mean relying on mutual aid from Ocean City or Sea Isle City fire companies. 

“It’s a real worry,” Bateman said. “Of course, it will be a modern structure.” 

Connell mentioned that the Upper Township Planning Board spent about two years on a new zoning ordinance for Strathmere, aimed in part at limiting development in the beachside section of the township. She was a member of the subcommittee that worked on those changes. 

“Now it appears that this is the first big case, and the variances go against all of the things that were put into the master plan,” she said. 

Bateman said she and other members appreciated McLees’ participation. 

“We were just so grateful that someone was talking with us and giving us information,” she said.

Maloney, who did not participate in that meeting, said Monday that he plans to continue to operate the building as a hotel if he gets the needed approvals to build it. 

“I’m going to build another hotel. That was the game plan all along,” he said, adding that he is open to community members inquiring about his plans. 

“In a small town, the rumor mill spreads like crazy,” he said. 

The motel has not been open to the public for the past two summers. 

The letters marking it as the “Strathmere Motel” have been removed from the front of the building, but there remain signs of life, with guests gathered outside this summer. 

The application marks the latest change to the seemingly timeless shore community, with new ownership at the historic Deauville Inn and the venerable Mildred’s closing at the end of last summer after decades in business. The Uncle Bill’s Pancake House location in Strathmere was also purchased by Tim Fox, the new owner of The Deauville. 

The proposal also came up at the Township Committee meeting Monday, Aug. 24. Bateman and others spoke about the proposal to committee members, with Bateman filling them in about Saturday’s meeting. She also raised concerns about the size of the proposed building, noting the work put into the zoning ordinance amendments. 

She said she was “beyond dismayed” that the application would not be heard by the Planning Board but instead go to the Zoning Board, which has the responsibility to consider use variances.  

At the meeting, she said the application flies in the face of all of the work put into trying to head off overdevelopment in Strathmere. 

Township attorney Dan Young cautioned that the committee has no authority over the Zoning Board deliberations, and that it would be improper for the governing body to take any position before the application was heard and ruled on.