By TIM KELLY
Down goes Wiesenthal’s!
The former Wiesenthal’s Auto Service Center and adjoining Grace Oil gasoline station at the high-profile Ocean City corner of Ninth Street and West Avenue are no more.
The family-owned and operated repair shop and gas station had been in business at the location for 51 years and for 73 years overall in Ocean City, but that tradition ended last November when the business lost its lease, Republic Bank purchased the site and plans were announced for development of a new Republic Bank location and parking lot at the site.
Wiesenthal’s ceased operations earlier in this year and its former gas station, owned and operated by Grace Oil in recent years, also closed and then re-opened for the summer tourism season while demolition plans were being finalized.
The next phase of the development plan was completed on Tuesday when a demolition crew bulldozed the site of the former iconic businesses in less than a full day’s work.
With not much more notice to the public than a chain-link fence installed around the properties and with zero fanfare, the crew made very short work of demolishing the structure.
By the time an OCNJDaily.com photographer arrived at the scene around 3:30 p.m., the site of the two former businesses was already flattened and the crew had gone home for the night.
All that remained were piles of debris awaiting removal, the canopy that formerly sheltered the gasoline tanks, customers and employees from the elements, and the old Grace Oil sign.
The re-development plan also includes the site of the former Sunoco gas station and mini-mart, which formerly operated next door to the Wiesenthal and Grace Oil businesses.
Republic Bank’s plans for the replacement business calls for a style of building similar to others in its chain, utilizing mostly glass to create a space filled with natural light.
“You’ll be able to see right through the building,” Ocean City Planning Board Chairman John Loeper said in a recent interview.
Don Wiesenthal, a second generation co-owner (with his brother, Glenn) of the repair shop, could not be reached on Tuesday night. However, in a previous interview, Don expressed sadness to see a nearly three-quarter century of service to the community end, and for the residents and visitors who no longer have a gas station or car repair shop at the city’s main gateway.
The bank project is a major part of a sweeping overhaul of the Ninth Street corridor by private developers and the city in recent years. Two other former gas stations, blighted Getty and BP stations that once stood next to each other, were cleared away and replaced with a landscaped public park.
Prior to announcing their business would close, the Wiesenthal brothers attempted to find a suitable location to move it. When it became clear that couldn’t happen, they also looked off-shore in the Marmora section of Upper Township, also without success.
“There should always be a gas station and a (repair shop) at this location,” Don Weisenthal said at the time. “When they knock down the building, that is when I will probably realize that it’s over.”
On Tuesday, that day arrived.
