ICONA’s Mahalo Plans To Be Main Topic at Crest Meeting

ICONA’s Mahalo Plans To Be Main Topic at Crest Meeting

For the third time since it’s been presented, ICONA’s team will be presenting their plans for Mahalo Wildwood Crest.

Located at 6501 Ocean Avenue in Wildwood Crest, where the Ocean Holiday motel used to stand, this application has had its share of rejected but ICONA’s team hopes to have the application approved once and for all.

ICONA Resorts purchased the property back in July 2019 for $4.55 million with their intention to preserve its essence as a motel while rebranding it under the name Mahalo.

Eustace Mita, CEO of ICONA Resorts, conceived Mahalo with the vision of creating a beachfront experience reminiscent of a Marriott Courtyard, a concept successfully implemented at another Mahalo location in Diamond Beach and Cape May.

ICONA Resorts; Mahalo transforms existing motels and adds a Hawaiian-inspired atmosphere to the rooms and lobbies, infusing a unique and tropical ambiance into their establishments.

In 2020, the Wildwood Crest Planning Board approved his application to make this transformation at the Ocean Holiday. Their original application did see a new five-story tower of rooms built, an elevated pool, and a parking garage underneath the motel.

Crews got to work to demolish the existing sun deck, pool area, and entrance but a few issues caused the project to stop.

COVID and legal issues paused the construction but it was the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that determined the builder needed a Coastal Area Facility Review Act permit to proceed, or as it is known as CAFRA.

The design of the property had to change slightly to allow the CAFRA to pass but this change required the application to be heard again at Wildwood Crest’s Planning Board.

The new application was submitted in March with an April scheduled meeting. This meeting wound up being one of the most attended meetings at city hall due to ICONA’s design of the motel.

In the Crest, there is an unwritten rule that you leave the street side of the property open to allow a view of the ocean from the motels West from the beach. This is commonly known as view corridors.

The Mahalo design called for this view corridor to be removed with a 5 story tower blocking the views.

Motel owners and locals alike didn’t want to see these view corridors block which prompted them to attend the meeting and speak out against it.

This meeting went so late that the application was pushed to June where four more hours of testimony were heard before the application was rejected by the City.

On paper, the application was rejected due to parking arrangements since, with the add-on of the new tower, this would require more parking spots which could not be found on the property.

This new application doesn’t change too much from the original one submitted back in April. ICONA’s application does show a new parking arrangement that could satisfy the parking issue.

Also See: North Wildwood Bulkhead Nearing Completion – Tour

When it comes to the view corridor, the application mentions that the new towner will be pushed back 5-6 feet from Ocean Avenue.

Those looking to attend the Planning Board meeting, it takes place at Wildwood Crest’s Municipal Building on December 6, 2023, at 5:00 p.m.

Below is the exterior tour of ICONA’s Mahalo Diamond Beach. Before you watch please consider subscribing to our Youtube channel.