West Ocean City Hotel Boom Continues With Planned Hampton Inn & Suites On Tap

West Ocean City Hotel Boom Continues With Planned Hampton Inn & Suites On Tap
wheels

SNOW HILL – An 81-room hotel is expected to replace the well-known West Ocean City building that formerly housed the Wheels of Yesterday museum.

The county’s technical review committee took a look this week at initial plans for a Hampton Inn & Suites set to be built where the Wheels of Yesterday museum currently sits. The museum, once filled with antique automobiles, has been closed since 2012 and the circa 1955 building is set to be demolished in the near future. Ocean II Group LLC is listed as the property’s owner.

“There’s nothing major in the comments that would preclude you from moving forward,” zoning administrator Jennifer Keener told representatives of the project Wednesday.

Keener, other county employees and a representative from Maryland’s State Highway Administration (SHA) met with architect Steve Engel of Vista Design to discuss plans for the new hotel. Keener reminded Engel the hotel would need to have access to neighboring properties and told him that the developer should make contact with the county’s emergency services department to make sure construction wouldn’t interfere with radio service.

“It has held up projects in the past,” she said.

SHA’s Rochelle Outten told Engel he would be able to forgo installing a sidewalk on one side of the property because that section would be part of a hike and bike trail SHA was developing. If a sidewalk were installed, she explained, it would just need to be ripped up when the trail was completed.

“It’s currently under design,” she said.

The 1.95-acre property was most recently owned by the Trimper family and originally listed for $1.5 million with Henry Hanna of Sperry Van Ness-Miller Commercial Real Estate. The property was sold in March of this year for $1.45 million to the Ocean II Group LLC, which maintains a local mailing address.

Following this week’s meeting with the technical review committee, plans for the Hampton Inn & Suites will move on to the county’s planning commission.

“We wanted to make sure we didn’t have any problems with the way things are laid out before we finished our drawings,” Engel said.

In addition to the hotel, committee members also reviewed plans for two utility projects proposed by Longview Solar. The company has plans for solar facilities on Libertytown Road outside of Berlin — the 20-megawatt Heron Project — and for Public Landing Road in Snow Hill — the 15-megawatt Seabeach Project.

Both projects were in front of the Worcester County Commissioners earlier this month as Longview Solar requested a tax abatement, which was subsequently denied.

Nevertheless committee members reviewed both projects Wednesday, voicing few potential concerns. The solar proposals will now advance to the Worcester County Planning Commission for consideration.

About The Author: Charlene Sharpe

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Charlene Sharpe has been with The Dispatch since 2014. A graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and the University of Richmond, she spent seven years with the Delmarva Media Group before joining the team at The Dispatch.