By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
An Ocean City condominium complex with a history of alleged structural problems dating back more than 40 years has been declared unsafe and was closed down by the city.
Ocean City’s construction official issued “unsafe structural notices” and ordered the Seaspray condos to be vacated until repairs can be made, city spokesman Doug Bergen said.
“Structural repairs are necessary,” Bergen said in an email Thursday.
Bergen did not specify the types of structural issues that raised alarm. He directed questions about the building’s structural condition to the condo owners or their representatives.
“The city’s only role is to make sure the building is safe for occupancy,” Bergen said. “The city’s Social Services Division is prepared to assist with any potential emergency housing needs but had not heard from any Seaspray resident as of Thursday afternoon.”
Neither the condo owners nor their representatives could be reached for comment.
The 32-unit complex has been a fixture at the corner of 34th Street and Bay Avenue since the 1960s and was converted from the Seaspray Motel into condos in 1980.
Red tags placed throughout the condos noted Thursday that the buildings have been declared unsafe.
The Seaspray condos were also shut down in April 2023. At that time, the state Department of Community Affairs ordered the city to close down the complex after it was declared structurally unsafe. The condos reopened in May 2023 after an updated engineering report concluded they were safe.
Red tags similar to this one when the complex was shut down in 2023 are placed throughout the Seaspray condos to warn of unsafe conditions.
An engineering report completed in April 2023 by Endicott Engineering found that structural defects and deteriorating conditions were so significant at Seaspray that they presented a safety hazard to both the condo residents and the general public.
Endicott Engineering also concluded that the condo complex should be demolished. Overall, at least six engineering studies have been done since 2000, each determining that the buildings were structurally unsound, according to a lawsuit filed in 2022 against the Seaspray’s managing board and condo association.
The Endicott report noted that structural problems were found as far back as 1980 by another engineering company that inspected the Seaspray complex at that time. Those problems were “sufficient enough for the developer at the time to have considered demolishing the buildings,” Endicott added.
“Historically, routine maintenance of the structures and surrounding grounds appears to have been non-existent. This has led to the accelerated deterioration of the concrete and steel in essential structural elements of the foundation and building superstructure. Essentially, the structure has aged poorly, and the overall condition of the structure is worse than similarly aged structures that have been properly maintained,” the report stated.
Among the defects found by Endicott in each of the buildings were numerous cracks, extensive settling of the foundation, advanced deterioration of the load-bearing beams and structural slabs and shifting of the bearing walls.
“There are numerous cracks on the surfaces of the existing precast hollow core concrete slabs. These cracks have never been sealed, resulting in the infiltration of water through the surface concrete and the corrosion of the steel rebar. The corroding rebar has expanded in size, resulting in additional cracking of the beams, which has further reduced the load bearing capacity of these elements,” the report found.
The Seaspray condo complex has been the subject of at least six engineering studies that examined the structural safety of the buildings.
Paid for by Michael DeVlieger
