Somerset Street mixed use building still on

By Mallory Panuska Managing Editor

(July 28, 2023) Despite a jump in estimated costs and some minor delays, plans for a mixed-use, three-story police substation and housing facility in the downtown Somerset Street parking lot are still on, and Ocean City Council members are tentatively set to discuss details in mid-August.

“We’ve done everything on our end that we need to do to get this project done. At this point it’s just about having council support,” Ocean City Development Corporation Executive Director Zach Bankert said of the project this week.

Pre-dating Bankert, who took over for longtime OCDC Executive Director Glenn Irwin at the beginning of the year, development corporation staff and board members first floated the project plans to council members about two years ago.

It has since gone through several changes and was supposed to be discussed at a council work session last month but was pulled. It’s now set for inclusion on an Aug. 15 agenda.

According to a staff report from the June work session, the first version of the project called for a three-story building with police bicycle storage and public restrooms on the first floor, and housing for seasonal police officers and public safety aides on the second and third. Council members initially signed off on that version and gave OCDC members the greenlight to work with city staff to develop design concepts.

Last year, development corporation members submitted drawings for the building and agreed to pay for design services if the city would cover pre-construction costs. At the time, OCDC’s architect estimated the building would cost $2.2 million, and council members authorized funding for pre-construction services.

Corporation members and city staff members then began refining the design and hired a construction manager. After several meetings, the decision was made to change the design to incorporate a new police substation.

The latest design now calls for a police substation with a public lobby, offices, interview rooms, bicycle storage and public restrooms on the first floor; a roll call room, report-writing areas and offices on the second floor; and employee housing on the third.

Architects created a new design based on the revised plans, and local firm Gillis Gilkerson was selected as the construction manager through a bid process. The manager priced out the new design and estimated the cost at $4.26 million, or roughly double the original cost. The change was a product of what the staff report called “real world current construction costs based on actual quotes from sub-contractors.”

The new plans and cost were presented earlier this year to council members as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 capital improvement plan, or CIP, and council members ranked it as important.

In keeping with original support for the project, OCDC has committed 100 percent of the design costs and 50 percent of the costs for construction.

“We did re-evaluate the project at the new cost on the board level and we are 100 percent in support of it,” Bankert said. “There is no hesitation on OCDC’s side on that, once we get council’s approval, to pull the trigger on half of our funding and 100 percent of the design costs.”

The comment came after Councilman Frank Knight expressed concerns during a council meeting last week. Knight asked City Manager Terry McGean when the project would be coming back up for discussion, after it was removed from the June 13 work session agenda, and conveyed a desire to discuss it soon.

“I don’t want to see it fall through any more cracks,” Knight said. “I’d like to see it be on the agenda for [the Aug. 1] work session.”

McGean said he was working on gathering more information and had asked OCDC officials if he could put it on the work session agenda for Aug. 15 instead. He said this week that officials agreed to wait until mid-August, and added they still support the project. Council members will specifically discuss obtaining bonds for the project.

Bankert also said OCDC board members and staff still fully support the project and are anxious to discuss it and see it materialize.

The staff report said the project is important for development downtown because it will not only provide employee housing, which is in high demand, but will add a substation in a convenient and publicly accessible location, and free up space by moving police bicycle storage out of the Beach Patrol building.

By moving the substation out of the Worcester Street restrooms, the project will also allow for creation of a special events commend center providing workspace and offices for special events and public safety staff, as well as promoters, at the inlet parking lot instead of relying on the city’s mobile command vehicle and wooden trailered gazebo.