OCEAN CITY – A midtown restaurant and bar this week reached an agreement to lease parking spaces from the town after the public spaces it has leased for years will be displaced with a future firehouse.
For years, the Skye Bar and General’s Kitchen leased parking spaces on the northeast portion of the town’s parking lot in front of the Public Safety Building. The initial lease was for 50 spaces, but was later reduced to 32. The town had a similar agreement with Dead Freddie’s on the southeast corner of the lot.
However, with the town moving forward with plans to develop a midtown Station 3 firehouse on the Public Safety Building lot, those areas of the parking lot will no longer be available for lease to the private businesses.
Public Works Director Hal Adkins told the Mayor and Council on Tuesday a new arrangement has been figured out to lease at least some parking spaces to the Skye Bar and General’s Kitchen to make up for the lost spaces and help them meet their parking needs.
“In an effort to address the needs and desire of the Skye Bar and General’s Kitchen, we have created a total of nine parking spaces directly west of the Skye Bar,” he said. “The spaces are along the north side of 66th Street in what was a very small portion of our impound lot. These spaces were created by simply adjusting the location of our fencing on the impound lot.”
Adkins explained a few years back, the county liquor board required the Skye Bar to partially enclose the rooftop deck because of sound concerns.
“They had issues with the rooftop music and they had to enclose a portion of it,” he said. “When it became enclosed, it changed the parking requirements.”
Adkins said while the establishments are losing the 32 spaces they leased on the Public Safety Building lot, the nine provided through the new arrangement at least provides them with some relief.
“He’d love to have even more spaces,” he said. “We just don’t have the room to provide him with any more at this time.”
The council unanimously approved the proposed lease arrangement. The annual revenue from the least of the nine spaces will be $4,080.
Last April, the Mayor and Council voted to eventually replace the aging and dilapidated Station 3 firehouse at 74th Street with a new facility in front of the Public Safety Building. The midtown Station 3 firehouse was built in 1969 and expanded in 1987, but it has fallen into disrepair and no longer meets the needs of the fire department.
