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An architect's drawing of proposed residential duplexes on the 400 block of Asbury Avenue in Ocean City at the site of the vacant Palermo's Family Market.
A developer presented plans Saturday to demolish the long-vacant Palermo’s Family Market at Fourth Street and Asbury Avenue and to build seven duplexes in its place.
Mick Duncan, owner of Duncan Homes at the Shore and Surfside Construction, said he has a contract to purchase the blighted property that is contingent on first obtaining planning and zoning approvals for the project.
Duncan spoke Saturday morning at a meeting organized by Second Ward Councilman Antwan McClellan to inform neighbors of the potential plans and to seek feedback. The meeting was held at Shiloh Baptist Church.
Duncan showed an architect’s drawings and a site plan for seven duplexes with each individual unit including three bedrooms and about 1,200 square feet of living space.
Because he neither owns the property yet nor has started construction, he said he does not have a listing price. But he said he’s been told that sales of comparable duplex units fall in the $400,000 to $420,000 range.
Each unit would have two spaces for off-street parking, one in a garage and one in a driveway off the rear alley. Because an existing building that is not part of the Palermo property takes up a small part of the corner lot, Duncan would seek a variance to build the corner duplex on a 40-by-80-foot lot (the other lots are 100 feet deep). The corner unit has its garage in the front with a new curb cut to Asbury Avenue in his plan.
All other units conform with an existing zone for residential duplexes with 30-foot frontages (R2-30) that was approved in August 2014.
The plans showed a variety of designs for the front and rear facades.
Neighbors in attendance at the small gathering appeared unanimous in their desire at least to see the Palermo property demolished.
"I want it gone," said John Moeller, a resident of the 400 block of Asbury Avenue who said he routinely cleans up nails and debris that fall from the deteriorating building.
Michael McSweeney, whose Central Avenue property backs up to the Palermo tract, said the abandoned structures are home to raccoons, opossums and other "vermin" the size of small dogs.
"My patience is thin," he said. "Let's clear the lot while we decide what to do with it."
Neighbors pressed McClellan for answers on why the city cannot condemn the property and force the owners to clean it up.
Duncan said he would have to pay about $325,000 for the cleanup of an oil spill covering the first three lots of the property. He said the pollution likely came from heating oil tanks that already have been removed from the ground.
He said he hopes to have his proposal heard by the Planning Board in May. He said demolition and oil cleanup could take place in September (followed by a couple months of testing). In a best-case scenario, the entire project could be complete within a year, he said.
Helen McSweeney said that she, like Moeller, routinely cleans up the Palermo property, even planting sunflowers and corn there.
"It's not my property, but it's my neighborhood and my community," she said.
She urged neighbors to join together to raise money and lobby for Trust for Public Land grants to keep the space open to serve as a "rainwater harvesting park" on a flood-prone stretch of Fourth Street.
She said she wouldn't oppose Duncan's plan to demolish the abandoned Palermo structure and rebuild there, and she said Duncan added landscaping elements in the rear of the proposed residences after meeting with her.
"I just want to come up with something better," she said. "This is second best."
Duncan invited Nick Marotta, a Berkshire Hathaway real estate agent who lives a block away from the Palermo property, to attend the meeting.
"I don't have a vested interest in this," Marotta said. "But if this does not go through, we're going to live with that (vacant Palermo property)."
Marotta said the property was once listed for as much as $6 million and that four other developers have had agreements similar to Duncan's but backed away.
Marotta said an agent from the 34th Street office of Berkshire Hathaway would have the listings if the project were to move forward.
The zoning changes that City Council made in August 2014 included a separate property across Asbury Avenue from the Palermo's Family Market tract, but Duncan said he has no plans to purchase that lot.
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