OCEAN CITY — Continuing a recent trend, resort officials this week signed off on a proposed captive escape room at a midtown location formerly home to Hall’s Restaurant.
The Mayor and Council had before them on Monday a request for a conditional use permit for the planned escape room in the town’s LC-1, or local commercial zoning district. The city’s planning commission approved the request last month and sent a favorable recommendation to the Mayor and Council.
Captive Escape Room principals Marina Stepanova and Shawn Bauer sought the conditional use permit to create an interior escape room amusement within the existing commercial center at 59th Street. Captive Escape Rooms established their first escape room amusement in 2017 in the downtown area in the B-1 Boardwalk commercial zoning district, which did not require a conditional use permit.
Captive escape rooms have steadily increased in popularity in recent years, and the proposal for the 59th Street location would be a family-friendly activity, or an activity geared toward groups or corporate team-building events.
The applicants operate an existing escape room downtown and the proposed 59th Street location would complement the existing business with a different twist. The activity requires groups of individuals solving a series of clues to advance to the next room in the multi-room game.
The existing downtown captive escape room is called Dracula’s Castle and, as the name implies, requires participants to solve clues to expose the famous vampire once and for all. The proposed new captive escape room at 59th Street would be called Pieces of Eight and would require teams of participants to solve clues and move on to the next room in order to escape the ship of the famous pirate Black Beard, according to the company’s website.
During the requisite public hearing at the planning commission level, Bauer further explained the concept.
“It’s an interactive game, almost a human video game,” he said. “The rooms are living, breathing puzzles that people have to work their way through. It’s for a lot of families and a lot of corporates. Nothing is ever locked behind you and you’re never locked in a room. It’s well-lit and there is nothing dangerous or threatening in any way.”
With no discussion, the council voted unanimously to approve the requested conditional use permit.
