By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Frustrated owners at the shuttered Seaspray Condominiums appealed to Ocean City officials Thursday for help to get the complex reopened for the summer vacation season.
For now, red tags have been slapped on the condo complex at 34th Street and Bay Avenue declaring that the buildings are currently “unsafe for human occupancy.”
Seaspray was shut down on April 17 by the city’s construction official after some concrete fell from the landing of an exterior stairway on the north side of the condos.
Questions remain about the Seaspray’s structural integrity, but three condo owners maintained during a City Council meeting Thursday that the buildings are safe enough to reopen. They appealed for the city’s help to get back into their units.
“We are now a fenced-in community – a terrible look for Ocean City,” owner Catarina Finamore told city officials during the public portion of the meeting.
Finamore and fellow condo owners Joseph Lincke and Maggie Jacqueline said that an engineering analysis completed in August 2023 by Tadco Engineering of Lyndhurst, N.J., determined that the Seaspray complex is structurally safe overall.
Quoting from the Tadco report, Lincke said that none of the damage, wall cracks or other conditions that have been observed at the Seaspray “constitute a high risk of structural collapse.”
Tadco also concluded that the grade beam and concrete beams at the Seaspray “have sufficient load-bearing capacity to carry and support the superstructure and common areas for a period not less than three years.”
Jacqueline said that as the Seaspray closure drags on, it has made things increasingly difficult for the owners. She noted, for instance, that it has disrupted her daughter’s wedding plans in September.
“This is emotionally upsetting,” Jacqueline said in an interview after the Council meeting. “It’s just a nightmare.”
Plans to repair and reopen the complex have been complicated and delayed by a series of engineering reports as well as litigation between different factions of the condo owners and their managing boards. Finamore urged city officials to step in to help the owners.
“We ask you, don’t turn away a whole community, unfairly and unethically, because that’s what you’re doing,” Finamore said.
Neil Byrne, the city’s construction official, wrote in letter dated May 8 that the condo complex remains “unsafe due to continued deterioration of the structural elements.”
Byrne added that repairs must be made to the damaged exterior landing steps on the north side of the building as well as other problems outlined in the Tadco report before the complex can be reopened.
During the Council meeting, City Business Administrator George Savastano said that Ocean City officials are “very sympathetic” toward the plight of the condo owners.
“It’s a very, very difficult situation,” he said.
Savastano explained that he was limited in what he could say about the Seaspray complex because of the potential for the city to be drawn into the legal battle over the condos.
“Ultimately, it is the city’s objective to ensure public safety, health and welfare,” he said.
Savastano noted that careful consideration was given before the city decided to shut down the condos. He stressed that the closure was not “a knee-jerk reaction” to the collapse of the outdoor landing steps on the north side of the building.
“This has been going on for a significant amount of time,” Savastano said, referring to the Seaspray’s troubled history.
In the meantime, Savastano pledged that the city will do all it can to help condo owners find new housing while the Seaspray remains closed.
“This city prides itself on helping its citizens when they’re in trouble,” he said. “We will do that to the greatest extent we can.”
Fourth Ward Councilman Dave Winslow, whose ward includes the Seaspray complex, urged the condo owners to reach out to the city if they need help. He noted that the community group OCNJ Care and the city’s Community Services department may be able to assist the owners.
“I really feel bad for these folks. But we have to follow the regulations,” Winslow said in an interview.
The 32-unit condo complex has been a fixture at the corner of 34th Street and Bay Avenue since the 1960s. It was converted from the Seaspray Motel into condos in 1980.
The Seaspray condos were first 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. Then the condos reopened in May 2023 after an updated engineering report concluded they were safe.
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.
Litigation continues over whether repairs should be made to the buildings or whether it would be better to demolish the complex altogether and sell the property to a developer.
Jacqueline said the Seaspray condos are an affordable place for owners to live or spend their vacations in Ocean City.
“Right now, we also want regular folks to live in Ocean City. The Ocean City we love shouldn’t be just for the rich and wealthy,” she said in an interview.
