OCEAN CITY — It now appears the Park-and-Ride in West Ocean City is no longer the front-runner as a potential location for one or more seasonal housing projects, with the focus shifted to other locations in and around the resort.
Last month, the Mayor and Council got a presentation from the president of Holtz Builders out of Wisconsin expressing a desire to build one or more dormitory-style seasonal workforce housing projects in the resort area. Holtz Builders has had success in developing seasonal workforce housing to help address labor shortages and provide clean, safe and affordable accommodations for employees, both international J-1 visa students and domestic employees. The company has expressed an interest in developing such a project in Ocean City to help with the resort’s critical seasonal employee shortage and affordable housing needs.
Holtz President Dan Bullock pinpointed five potential locations, each of which comes with challenges. A favored early option iwas a portion of the Park-and-Ride in West Ocean City. Another option discussed was the Ocean City Development Corporation (OCDC) model block downtown. The OCDC for years has been piece-meal acquiring property in the downtown area for its model block initiative, but it is uncertain if the quasi-private-public corporation is interested in utilizing the acquired property for workforce housing.
Another potential site identified was a property on Dorchester Street, but it has been determined the parcel is too small to accomplish Holtz Builders’ plans for a dormitory-style seasonal housing project. Another potential site identified was a portion of the old 94th Street mall property, but it has been learned the property owner is not interested.
Finally, yet another site identified by Holtz was the town-owned municipal parking lot at 100th Street. Holtz and the city would need to accomplish a property swap with Delmarva Power in order to make the parcel a reality for the seasonal workforce housing.