By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
The corner of Sixth Street and West Avenue is bustling with activity. The site is crowded with construction workers wearing hard hats, giant excavators digging into the ground and mini-mountains of dirt.
In the planning stages for about five years, construction has started on a $6.8 million affordable housing project for senior citizens who are now living in a flood-prone neighborhood of Ocean City.
The 32-unit Speitel Commons project is being built by the Ocean City Housing Authority next to the agency’s Bayview Manor housing complex at Sixth and West.
Completion is expected to take about 12 months. City Councilman Bob Barr, who also serves as the housing authority’s chairman, said a grand opening is scheduled for June 2021, assuming there are no delays caused by inclement weather or the coronavirus pandemic.
Social distancing requirements during the pandemic forced the authority to cancel plans for a formal groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction. But work has begun without any glitches, Barr indicated.
“We intend to open next year,” he said in an interview Monday. “The intention is to have a June 2021 opening.”
Senior citizens who now live in the authority’s flood-prone Pecks Beach Village housing complex on Fourth Street will be moved over to the new project when it is completed.
Barr noted that the seniors will no longer have to worry about getting stuck in the flooding that occurs at Pecks Beach Village not only during strong storms, but even when there is just heavy rain.
Pecks Beach Village, a collection of modest cottage-style homes, was built in the 1960s at a time when affordable housing projects were designed in “cookie cutter” fashion, Barr pointed out.
“Ed and the rest of us were never happy with the way these buildings were designed and looked,” he said.
Barr was referring to the late Edmond C. Speitel Sr., a former housing authority commissioner. Speitel, who was chairman of the authority’s finance and redevelopment committees, helped to oversee the new project from the conceptual phase. The building will be named in his honor.
In dramatic contrast to Pecks Beach Village, Speitel Commons will be an attractive building that will add to the vibrancy of Ocean City’s downtown business district, Barr said.
Moreover, the project will reflect the type of comfortable housing that the city’s senior citizen population deserves, he emphasized.
“It’s making the residents feel that they are part of the community and are no different than anyone else,” Barr said.
In 2019, City Council approved a $6.6 million bond ordinance to build or rehabilitate affordable housing sites for senior citizens and low-income families. The projects will help Ocean City meet its state-mandated obligation to provide its “fair share” of affordable housing as part of a court settlement in 2018.
The city is expected to contribute more than $2 million toward the Speitel Commons project. The New Jersey Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency is providing $4.5 million in funding.
The senior citizens portion of Pecks Beach Village, located on the north side of Fourth Street, will be torn down when Speitel Commons is completed. The housing authority has set aside $200,000 for demolition work.
Pecks Beach Village also includes affordable housing for low-income families. The 40 family units are located on the south side of Fourth Street. The family units will stay for the time being, although there are longer-range plans to replace them with new housing construction.
Barr said there is a possibility that the housing authority may accelerate plans to build the new family units. He added that discussions continue and there is no firm timetable.
“It’s on the drawing board,” he said. “It may not be possible. But if we could pull it off, if we can do it with the mayor, who’s been a great partner of ours, we’ll do it,” Barr said, referring to the housing authority and Mayor Jay Gillian working together.
The authority had been expected to start renovating the rooms at Bayview Manor this year, but has delayed those plans because of the pandemic. Bayview Manor is another affordable housing complex for senior citizens.
Barr said the authority did not want to possibly jeopardize the health of the senior citizens at Bayview Manor by having construction crews enter the building during the pandemic, so a decision was made to put the renovations on hold.
“The No. 1 priority of all that we do is the health and safety of all of our residents,” he said. “We have to be ultra-careful when it comes to that.”
With the Bayview Manor renovations being postponed, the housing authority has begun exploring the possibility of speeding up the construction of the new family units at Pecks Beach Village.
