By Tim Kelly
Imagine an Ocean City with tens of thousands of summer visitors, most of whom arrive by car or truck, and just one gasoline station.
When the summer of 2019 rolls around, you won’t have to imagine it.
A perfect storm of real estate deals, building demolitions and the unintended consequences of much-needed city improvements has left Ocean City with no gas stations on the 9th Street corridor, and just one remaining in town, at 34th Street and West Avenue.
“I think there will be real issues to deal with this summer because of it,” said Don Weisenthal, whose auto repair shop – a staple in town for 50 years – will vanish from its familiar location at 9th and West when his lease expires on March 31.
“Saturdays, the changeover days for rentals in town, are going to be challenging,” Wiesenthal continued. “Summer Saturdays were always a zoo here, even when there were other gas stations on this street. Tire issues, battery issues, and that’s just the mechanical side of it. When you also consider the gas sales part of it, you’ve got a problem.”
Of course, there is plenty of gas available 24/7 at the “Super Wawa” at the foot of the 9th Street causeway on the Somers Point side, and numerous other filling stations on the mainland.
“We’ve seen a big increase in customers coming from Ocean City,” said Mark O’Brien, of Egg Harbor Township, a Wawa employee. “I’ve been hearing from a lot of people who used to buy gas on the other side.”
The windfall apparently isn’t enough for Wawa.
On Wednesday, the price for a gallon of regular was $2.35 at the main gateway into Ocean City. The same gasoline was priced $2.25 at the Wawa in the Marmora section of Upper Township near the 34th Street bridge, a dime cheaper per gallon.
“It’s the downtown Ocean City surcharge,” said Craig Mowers, of Tuckahoe, who commutes to his jobs in Ocean City and shops for the best price on gas. “Most people probably don’t realize it.”
A call to Wawa’s corporate public relations office on Tuesday seeking comment was not returned.
Darla Nolan, an employee at the 34th Street Sunoco in Ocean City, said management there noticed a spike in business since the closures on 9th Street.
“I’m seeing a lot of familiar faces here,” said Nolan, who formerly pumped gas at the recently closed Sunoco sister station. “A lot of people are upset they have to drive up here for gas.”
Nolan predicted long lines at the station during the summer months, which she said could create worse gridlock and result in cars and trucks with idling engines backed up in front of the homes to the north of the station on West Avenue.
The seeds for the current situation were unintentionally planted back in 2015, when the city addressed the problem of three blighted former gas stations – an Exxon on the in-bound side of 9th Street and a BP and Getty on the westbound lanes out of town.
The rusted, crumbling properties stood in stark contrast to Ocean City’s pristine beaches, family-oriented Boardwalk, restaurants and many other attractions. They also made a bad first impression.
“Abandoned properties are not what we want people to see when they first enter Ocean City,” Mayor Jay Gillian told OCNJDaily.com at the time.
The city earmarked over $1 million from its budget to clean up the area and made efforts to purchase the stations. Ultimately, Ocean City partnered with Cape May County to create a landscaped mini-park where the BP and Getty stations had been.
The county purchased the old Getty property for $650,000 through an open space grant and leased it back to the city for $1 per year. The former BP station was purchased in 2016 by the city for $475,000. An earlier county open space grant reimbursed the city for the cost of the old BP site.
Prior to that, the old Exxon site on the in-bound side of 9th Street was purchased by the Keller Williams real estate firm, which has proposed building a new office complex on the property.
The visual improvement of swapping three abandoned and decrepit former gas stations for green space and a proposed commercial building speaks for itself, as do the environmental benefits of removing underground gas tanks from a barrier island.
However, the 9th Street dynamic took a new turn recently.
A financial concern said to represent a major banking institution purchased lots housing Wiesenthal’s shop and its attached, but separately leased and operated gas station, and a Sunoco station next door at 201 East 9th Street.
On Wednesday, work crews were wrapping up the demolition of the pumps and other vestiges of the old fuel station.
Both properties stopped selling gas at the tail end of 2018, leaving the 34th Street Sunoco as the only game in town for those wanting or needing a fill-up.
Some consider that disturbing, considering Ocean City’s year-round population of roughly 12,000 people swells up to 150,000 between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
“There’s been a gas station on this corner dating back to 1935,” said Wiesenthal. “I wish we could continue here.”
City Council President Peter Madden said he was not concerned about the town’s sudden dearth of places to fill up.
“I’m OK with it. People will adapt to the situation. Most of our visitors come from the Philadelphia metropolitan area and they are quite used to driving at least two and a half miles to buy gas,” Madden said, referencing the distance between Ocean City and the gasoline-buying options on the Somers Point side of the causeway.
“At the end of the day, economics and supply and demand determine how things like this work out,” Madden remarked. “If the businesses were profitable enough to justify being in that location, they would continue on as gas stations and a repair shop.”
From an environmental standpoint, some have argued the benefits of removing gas stations and underground tanks from an ecologically fragile island community far outweigh the minor inconvenience of driving to Somers Point or Marmora for gas.
A message seeking comment on this point of view was left with a spokesperson of the Jersey Shore chapter of the environmental group Surfrider Foundation, but was not immediately returned Wednesday night.
Wiesenthal, meanwhile, is attempting to keep his repair shop busy while he searches for a new location. A large sign atop the canopy of the now-shuttered gas station apologized that there were no fuel sales and announced the repair shop is still open for business.
“I want to stay in Ocean City, and I’m still trying to find a place to relocate to,” Wiesenthal said. “There’s really nothing available right now.”
He noted that prospects to find a replacement location on the island are dim.
As an alternative, he was looking for possible locations in Marmora, where he lives, and where he hopes a new shop would be close enough to keep his longtime regular Ocean City customers. But that wouldn’t help the guy driving on fumes late at night in remote sections of town, he said.
“It’s getting to the point where I would recommend to people that they join AAA,” Wiesenthal said. “Otherwise, they are running the risk they could get stuck.”
