Real Estate Firm's Plans For Abandoned Gas Station Among Topics Discussed At Ocean City Town Hall Meeting

Ocean City, NJ -- Residents who attended Mayor Jay Gillian’s town hall meeting on beautifying the Ninth Street corridor Thursday night at the Ocean City Tabernacle had opinions both in favor of allowing Keller Williams Realty to move forward with its purchase of the abandoned former Exxon gas station on Ninth Street and for the city taking ownership of the property for open space.

Keller Williams purchased the former gas station property for $500,000 earlier this week, OCNJ Daily reports. Owner Paul Chiolo intends to turn the property into a multimillion dollar office complex.

Chiolo told the news site the project will cost about $2 million. He expects to appear before the Planning Board in November, and was in attendance for Thursday night's town hall meeting.

"We've spent over a year working with the sellers about safety issues," Chiolo said. "We had the gas tanks removed and we designed the building that would go there."

Chiolo said he came before city council, and thought he had the clear go ahead to move forward with the project. He said he was surprised to see the area as part of an area reserved for open space on Thursday night.

"When you come off the bridge, you have two existing businesses there," Chiolo said. "Why would you have open space after those businesses and go back to businesses after that?"

He added that Keller Williams is a growing business that also employs a cleaning crew, computer software people and numerous other employees.

"It would be a beautiful building that people would see as they come into Ocean City," Chiolo said.

Kristen Quinton, who works with Keller Williams, brought up safety concerns of having an area where children can hang out near a busy intersection.

She also pointed out that the real estate firm put a lot of time into purchasing the lot, and said Ocean City is a second home market and a good location for Keller Williams to expand.

Other residents were also in support of the business going up there, with the potential to employ a lot of people, including some from outside the city who would spend their money while they're on the island.

Still, other residents said having a 3 and a half story building on the way into Ocean City would be a deterrent.

"You don't attract people with more buildings," one resident said. "You attract them with a beautiful entranceway."

Another said open space is a good idea, but if a park was going to go up in that spot, it should be a park for activities, not just a place for people to go and hang out.

The area in question includes not just the former Exxon station, but also the BP and Getty stations, and Bud's Marina.

In August, City Council gave the city approval to consider buying all four properties for the purpose of transforming the area into open space, but not to actually purchase them at that point.

The gas stations have been under discussion since last year, when City Council gave the city greater power to deal with abandoned properties in the city.

However, City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson said Bud's Marina came on the city's radar only after the administration was contacted by the owner.

"That's our livelihood, our place of business," Scott Stiles, the owner's son, said during the meeting.

Stiles spoke about the marina's battle with the state and its recovery from Superstorm Sandy.

"We're still plugging along," Stiles said. "Please consider that when you make your decision."

Gillian stressed that no decisions had been made. He said Thursday night's town hall meeting was so that the city could take input from the residents.

He said that since the new bridge was finished in 2014, the flow of traffic into Ocean City has been continuous, whereas the old drawbridge slowed down that traffic flow. The city is looking at ways to make the area safer, make it look good and control the flow of traffic.

Anyone not in attendance for Thursday night's meeting can submit comments at http://www.ocnj.us/survey/ by Oct. 14. The city will consider comments made on Thursday night, as well as online comments before moving ahead with a decision, Gillian said.

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