Doctors' Row Revived at Prime Downtown Intersection

The first of five new residential properties is taking shape on a prime piece of downtown real estate that was once home to the Strand Hotel and Bookers Restaurant.

Construction of a three-story duplex is continuing on a vacant lot at the corner of Ninth Street and Wesley Avenue. Four more buildings are planned for the same lot.

The city had once considered purchasing the property to add downtown parking, but in a story with a familiar end in Ocean City, the most economically viable use for the parcel proved to be the construction of new rental properties.

Co-investor Matt Dice said the project has approval from the Zoning Board and the Historic Preservation Commission, and work has begun on Doctors' Row and the Strand Resort.

Dice said the properties are designed by architect Jack Snyder to complement the rest of the block's architecture and the days when the 800 block of Wesley Avenue was known as "Doctors' Row."

In the early part of the 1900s, the block was filled with doctors who practiced in ground floor offices and lived upstairs in ornate Victorian homes.

Dice said plans for the property include three duplexes (each with units of 3,000 and 2,600 square feet) that will make up Doctor's Row and two triplexes (with units of 2,300 square feet) surrounding a pool at the corner of Ninth and Wesley.

The triplexes will be known as the Strand Resort and include a shared clubhouse of 1,800 square feet along with shared access to the pool.

He said the first of the duplexes will be completed in the fall and available for rent for $5,000 to $6,000 per week next summer. He said there are no immediate plans to begin construction on any of the other units.

The duplexes will included Carolina beaded siding on the sides with a brick front, Dice said. The units will have five bedrooms and three full bathrooms. The homes will have higher porches and taller roofs than structures in other residential zones to reflect the rest of the historic block, Dice said.

The new duplex was constructed by Modular Builders of Upper Township from modular units built by Apex Homes, Inc.

Dice and partners purchased the property in 2003 -- the same year Bookers was demolished. 

Jack Devine, a history professor at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and president of the Ocean City Arts Center, was on hand last week to watch construction of the new project.

Devine's father, Dr. John E. Devine, practiced medicine on the 800 block of Wesley Avenue, and the younger Devine looked down the block and recalled the different doctors who practiced there.

He said he was happy to see the spirit of the block preserved in the design of the new homes.