Ocean City’s seasonal economy hinges on the the three months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and in 2014 the weather cooperated in a big way.
With no major storms, no long stretches of rain and near flawless weekend weather, real estate agents, restaurants and merchants say they enjoyed a successful season.
The City of Ocean City saw record revenue from beach tag sales, breaking the $4 million barrier for the first time at $4,050,000, according to Finance Director Frank Donato. That figure is up $149,000 or about about 4 percent from 2013. (Ocean City raised its fees in 2011.)
Donato said the city saw a really good August (compared to 2013), a slight decrease in July and a substantially better June ($648,000 in 2014 after $556,000 in a rainy June 2013). Preseason sales of seasonal tags accounted for almost $2 million ($1,968,000) of the city’s $4 million in sales.
Donato said the city had collected $2,581,000 in parking fees through Aug. 31, an increase of $105,000 over the same period in 2013. Parking meters are active until Oct. 31, so the revenue picture is not complete, he said.
The city brought in $28,000 from a temporary lot set up on a grass practice field behind the bleachers at Carey Stadium, “mostly on Saturdays and an occasional Sunday,” Donato said.
Beach tag and parking revenue are traditional indicators of summer success in Ocean City.
“The summer was very good,” Ocean City Board of Realtors President Ken Sedberry said. “Rentals were up. Sale activity was up. We’re really pleased.”
Sedberry said vacation rentals in the heart of the summer season in Ocean City have remained strong over the years, even through the recession. But he said the shoulder season is looking good, and agents already are seeing early bookings for summer 2015.
Wes Kazmarck, president of the Boardwalk Merchants Association, called it a “very good summer for the boardwalk, one of the best in a long time.”
Kazmarck said merchants don’t share specific numbers, but the stock phrase in any given summer is, “It was not as good as last year.”
“This will be the one year people don’t say that,” Kazmarck said.
He said weather was on the side of merchants with low humidity and no excessive heat.
“When it rained, it didn’t crush us.”
He also said two new fireworks events (Father’s Day Weekend and July 16) were a success.
“Every boardwalk merchant had a good response,” he said.
Paul Cunningham, co-chairman of the Downtown Merchants Association, said some business was good, some soft. But the three holiday weekends — Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day — were strong across the board.
The summer’s nice weather was not necessarily a good thing for the downtown, he said.
“The rule used to be rain was good, threat of rain was great,” Cunningham said.
But he said that held true only to a certain degree. Some sunny days were successful and some rainy days not.
Cunningham said “retail is changing,” with a plugged-in society not spending as much time doing any one thing, including shopping.
Cunningham said downtown merchants are looking forward to the Oct. 11 Fall Block Party (“one of the single busiest days of the year”) and the holiday shopping season that starts with the annual Earlier Than the Bird promotion on Nov. 22.
Andrew Yoa, president of the Ocean City Restaurant Association and owner of the Island Grill, said his establishment got off to a good start with an early-spring opening.
“The winter was so bad that everybody wanted to get out,” Yoa said. “We caught that early rush.”
Like Cunningham, Yoa reported a “bizarre summer” where traditional patterns didn’t hold true, even in what diners ordered from night to night. And he said the holiday weekends were strong.
Overall, the summer was “certainly nothing to complain about,” Yoa said.
