First signs of life after construction slump
WILDWOOD — Two new hotel development projects in the Wildwoods got the OK at the city’s recent Planning Board meeting.
The projects will bring more hotel rooms to the city. According to Steve Tecco, president of the Greater Wildwood Hotel & Motel Association, Wildwood had 12,000 hotels rooms during the height of the city’s development. Now the number of hotel rooms is close to 8,000, he said.
The first to get approval after a tough economy stalled plans for towering “condotels” throughout the city is the Grand Wildwoodian, which is to be built at the site of the demolished Rio Motel at the corner of Rio Grande and Ocean avenues.
The board also approved the expansion of the Days Inn Suites, which is located at 4610 Ocean Ave.
The Morey Organization plans to build the Grand Wildwoodian, a new six-story hotel, next to the Starlux Motel, a doo-wop-inspired hotel that opened in 2000. The two properties will merge into one hotel with a combined 140 units, including 34 from the Starlux.
Construction is expected to begin in 2012, with a possible opening in 2013.
The hotel is expected to cost at least $10 million and would include a sixth-floor banquet facility, multiple pools and a 124-seat restaurant on the ground floor.
The lot at the corner of Rio Grande and Ocean avenues where the new hotel is planned has been vacant and surrounded by a chain link fence since 2005, when developers had hoped to replace the Rio Motel with a 25-story hotel.
The property was going to be the site of the city’s first high-rise condotel, the Nouveau Wave Hotel, and was approved by the Zoning Board back in 2004, but that project never went further than the planning phase.
In 2006 there was a letter denying the high-rise application from the DEP that noted construction was possible only because of the destruction of the Rio Motel, which was demolished at the site to make way for the proposed high-rise.
The plan for the hotel met resistance from the state Department of Environmental Protection and was further derailed because of the economic downturn. The state report also said the 25-story hotel was “out of character” with the surrounding area. Additionally, it said, the building would be a potential danger to migratory birds, public safety, and damaging to the collection of doo-wop motels.
After the high-rise proposal stalled, the Morey Organization stepped in with plans for a hotel that it said would be compatible with the Starlux.
Clark Doran, planner for the Morey Organization, said the new hotel would also benefit the convention center by providing more hotel rooms. He said that studies conducted prior to the opening of Wildwoods Convention Center, which is located across Ocean Avenue from the site of the proposed new hotel, noted the need for more modern accommodations on the island.
The Days Inn Suites, which currently has 79 units, will have seven new oceanfront suites. Owner Nick Terenik said that the expansion is part of an ongoing plan to modernize the hotel and offer the features today's travelers want.
Terenik said the hotel will do away with several less-popular rooms in favor of the oceanfront suites. When the work is done, the property will have a total of 81 units, all one or two-bedroom suites. In addition to the new suites, the expansion features the addition of two new swimming pools, bringing the hotel's total to four pools, and a second-floor banquet facility.
The expansion is estimated to cost $1.5 million.
The Days Inn was built in 1976, with additions made in 1986 and again in 1999.
Terenik said construction would likely begin at Days Inn Suites in October 2012, with completion in the spring of 2013.
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