By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Cecilia Gallelli-Keyes recalled that it was her late father’s dream to own a hotel or motel after he immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1962.
When Mario Gallelli moved his family from Pennsylvania to Ocean City, he bought the Tahiti Inn and Apartments to give him a landmark business located close to the beach and Boardwalk.
The Gallelli family has owned the Tahiti Inn since 1989, but now they are weighing their options by placing the motel, the apartment building and three adjacent parcels used as two parking lots up for sale for $13.5 million.
“Our family simply is looking to diversify into other things and we are exploring some interesting options in the next chapter of our lives. We will see what happens,” Gallelli-Keyes said in a statement Monday.
She noted that the family has considered keeping the motel and related property for another 10 years, but decided to test Ocean City’s red hot real estate market at this time.
Gallelli-Keyes owns the Tahiti Inn, the apartments and the three parcels with her mother, Triestina, and two brothers, Pasquale and Franco. Her father, a well-known Ocean City businessman, died on Feb. 2, 2020.
“It was my father’s dream to own a hotel when he came to this country,” Gallelli-Keyes said in an interview.
Altogether, the Tahiti Inn and Apartments and related property total about one acre of prime real estate at 11th Street and Ocean Avenue, only about a block from the beach and Boardwalk.
The Tahiti Inn includes 42 rooms and suites, all with private bathrooms and some with kitchenettes. A large, heated outdoor swimming pool and sundeck area are among the motel’s amenities.
The apartment building includes 15 one or two bedroom units, with one or two bathrooms and full kitchens.
A buyer would have the option of redeveloping the site using land that sits in Ocean City’s Hospitality Zone, an area that allows hotels, motels, restaurants, mixed-use development and multifamily housing that includes duplexes, triplexes and quadruplexes.
“Hospitality properties like this one on such a huge piece of Beach Block/Off-Boardwalk ground (are) exceptionally rare to find on any island beach resort community,” according to marketing material for the sale prepared by the Ocean City Real Estate Group.
The motel and adjacent parking lots total 300 feet of frontage and offer the opportunity to subdivide the site into multiple duplex or triplex lots, the marketing material says.
The sale is being touted as a “very rare, once-in-a-lifetime acquisition opportunity” just a few steps to the beaches and family-friendly Boardwalk.
