Demolition Slated for Old Ocean City Housing Complex

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Since the 1960s, an enclave of modest, cottage-style homes on the south side of Fourth Street has provided affordable housing for Ocean City senior citizens. The 20-unit Pecks Beach Village housing complex survived countless floods, coastal storms and even a hurricane or two over the past 60 years or so, but now it will face something that will be too formidable – the wrecking ball. Demolition crews are expected to begin tearing down the now-empty, one-story buildings later this month, officials with the Ocean City Housing Authority said during their monthly board meeting Tuesday. All of the buildings will be gone by May 18 under a $166,150 contract awarded by the housing authority to the American Demolition Co. of Egg Harbor Township, N.J. The housing authority, a public agency, oversees Pecks Beach Village. Once the buildings are demolished, the vacant land will be used to build new affordable housing for families living in another aging section of Pecks Beach Village, on the north side of Fourth Street. “This will bring us into a new age with the most modern and most advanced homes we could give our residents. The demolition is a key step in bringing us into a new era,” said City Council President Bob Barr, who also serves as chairman of the Ocean City Housing Authority. Altogether, 60 units of affordable housing are planned for the families who will live in the new development. The project is only in the planning stage at this point, including preliminary designs and ongoing discussions to line up the construction funding with the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and a private bank. Jacqueline Jones, the housing authority’s executive director, told the board members that more information is expected to be available about the financing in April. Tentatively, the authority hopes to secure approvals for the funding in May, Jones said. “That’s when the project really kicks off,” she said. Plans are also being made for 60 units of new affordable housing for families currently living in the Pecks Beach Village section on the north side of Fourth Street. Construction may possibly start in 2023 and take about 14 to 18 months to complete. The estimated cost is $22 million to $23 million, according to the housing authority. Although considered one project, it will be built in two phases. There will be 40 units built first, followed by 20 more units later on. The project will help Ocean City meet its state-mandated obligation to provide its “fair share” of affordable housing under a court settlement in 2018. Last year, the authority completed construction of a $7 million, 32-unit building, called Speitel Commons, to provide new affordable housing for senior citizens. The residents who were formerly living in the flood-prone senior citizen section of Pecks Beach Village have since been moved into new housing at Speitel Commons at Sixth Street and West Avenue. Now, the authority will focus on demolishing the old, 20-unit Pecks Beach Village complex to create room for the proposed 60-unit development of affordable housing for families. The new development will be protected from the type of flooding that threatened the old Pecks Beach Village, Jones said. However, the start of demolition work has been delayed slightly by the discovery of asbestos hidden under the exterior vinyl siding of the buildings. The cancer-causing asbestos must be removed before the buildings are torn down. The asbestos contamination was a surprise when it was first discovered. “It was an unforeseen circumstance,” said Ron Miller, the housing authority’s assistant asset manager. “Danger” signs warning of the asbestos have been posted on the cottages. During the board meeting, the authority approved a $48,150 change order for the contract with American Demolition Co. to have the asbestos removed. The original demolition contract was for $118,000, but the extra $48,150 for asbestos remediation will bring the total cost to $166,150. The demolition contract still remains under budget, the authority said. Even with the extra $48,150 added on, the total $166,150 contract awarded to American Demolition Co. is considerable cheaper than the second-lowest bid of $222,000 the authority received to tear down the buildings, Jones and Miller noted. "Danger" signs are posted on the now-empty Pecks Beach Village buildings to warn of asbestos contamination.