The Ocean City Planning Board on Wednesday evening unanimously approved a plan to convert a vacant Asbury Avenue store into a new home for Glazed Over Studios and the Sneaker Shop.
The move will provide renovated spaces at 704 Asbury Avenue for Glazed Over, a shop for customers to decorate their own pottery and mosaics, and for the Sneaker Shop, a popular local outlet for running and athletic gear. Both shops move from existing locations on the 800 block of Asbury Avenue.
They will occupy the former Cricket Box gift shop, which was flooded by Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 and never reopened. Cricket Box owners Bill and Lois Maguire now lease space from Stainton’s: A Gallery of Shops, two blocks away.
The new owner of 704 Asbury, Ocean City resident Michael Hinchman, brought an application before the Planning Board to divide the former Cricket Box in two.
The plan requires variances for store width (one store would be narrower than the other), glass percentage (creating the two spaces makes it harder to have one big window) and sign area (two 3-by-10-foot signs).
The board had no objections to the plan and said they were glad not only to see the revival of a spot that sat idle for 16 months but to see a new diversity of shops on the 700 block.
Hinchman said he doesn’t anticipate the renovation to take long once all approvals are in place. The shops should be operating by early spring.
The Cricket Box was gutted to remediate flood damage after Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. The 4,000-square foot space will house two new tenants: Glazed Over Studios and the Sneaker Shop.
