OCEAN CITY — City Council faces a $64,000 question Thursday, with a resolution approving a new contract to design a police building at 801 Asbury Ave.
On the agenda for the meeting, 6 p.m. at City Hall, 861 Asbury Ave., is a new $64,000 contract with architect William McLees of Somers Point.
First, council will vote on the introduction of an amended bond ordinance funding the purchase of the building for $12.6 million, “which the city hereby deems reasonable,” the ordinance reads.
That’s close to double the purchase price of the building in 2023.
Thursday will be the first council vote on a proposed pivot from renovating the current public safety building at 835 Central Ave. to relocating the department to the high-rise office building formerly known as the Crown Bank Building.
Earlier this month, Mayor Jay Gillian proposed the city acquire the building. The city is already renting space in the building for police while work continues on a new substation near the Boardwalk.
On Tuesday, Gillian said the city now plans to demolish the Central Avenue building to create a new parking lot. He has previously said using the existing Asbury Avenue building will be far cheaper than renovating the current police and courts building.
He said there is no estimate yet on the likely savings, but he had suggested it could be in the millions of dollars.
Mayor Jay Gillian said Ocean City will take another look at buying the high-rise at 801 Asbury Ave. as a potential police building. It’s the latest of several plans.
If two-thirds of council supports the amended bond ordinance, a public hearing and final vote will take place Oct. 9.
In April 2024, the city approved a contract worth more than $1 million with McLees to plan the renovation of the existing public safety building, which houses the police, the municipal court and other functions.
Later that year, council approved a bond ordinance that included more than $30 million for the work.
In a Sept. 8 letter to city Administrator George Savastano, McLees proposed realigning the design for the current building to fit the much different dimensions of the 801 Asbury building.
“Based on the new program we will reconfigure the preliminary design solution to be accommodated within the footprint of 801 Asbury Ave. for the police department,” McLees wrote. “The schematic design solution and basis of design narrative will be prepared with additional development in selected areas in order to provide information critical to a cost estimate for the proposed facility.”
This year, work has been underway on a new police substation near the Boardwalk at Eighth Street, with the intention that police will rely on that building while renovation work is underway.
The current public safety building was originally built as a school and is more than a century old. For many years, city officials said it no longer meets the needs of the department.
But it took years to reach a consensus on what happens next, a process that saw council members reject a previous plan to combine the fire and police headquarters in the 500 block of West Avenue.
With work set to start on a new substation, to be followed by extensive renovations to the police headquarters, Ocean City police are packing up some offices and making plans to keep operations running smoothly over the next four years.
Other potential sites considered and rejected included the former car dealership property at 16th Street, now city owned, and the municipal airport on Bay Avenue.
In January 2023, a bankruptcy court approved the sale of the former Crown Bank Building to brothers Raj and Yogi Khatiwala as part of a $6.67 million deal.
The brothers are principles in Eclat Investments, which owns several properties in the city, including retail and hotels. The downstairs of the former bank building has been transformed into a clothing store. Prior to that, it was a thrift store.
There was no response to an emailed request for comment from Eclat Investments.
Contact Bill Barlow:
609-272-7290
bbarlow@pressofac.com
X @jerseynews_bill
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