Proposed 60-Room Hotel in Wildwood – Ocean Villa
There have been so many projects taking place at the Jersey shore that some of the newly announced ones seem to find their way past the news. There is one such project, which is still in the beginning phases, in Wildwood that has caught our attention.
341 East Oak Avenue in Wildwood hasn’t really been on many folks’ minds for quite some time.
Its super-sized lot is massive and reaches over from East Oak Ave to Wildwood Ave and has been sitting empty since the early 2000s.
People normally only notice this lot these days when they use the row street in front of it to cross over from Oak to Wildwood avenue but it never used to be a look-over lot.
Proposed 60-Room Hotel in Wildwood – Ocean Villa
At one time this was one of the most desired motels and clubs on the island called Martinique
This was one of those crazy stories like the invention of the cart before the horse.
Build in 1959, Motel Martinique was only built to help support the extremely successful nightclub with the same name.
Club Martinique, or sometimes referred to as Martinique Cafe, was built in 1930 and hosted some of the best names in the music world. It sad just behind the hotel on Oak Avenue.
In their 70 years, they welcomed The Cadillacs, the Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Steve Gibson, Damita Jo and so many more.
The 70s and 80s crowd would remember Martinique well as they were one of the few places that offered five 7-ounce beers for only $1.00.
Motel Martinique also became famous in the Mid-Century world. It debuted a big neon sign with a giant yellow boomerang arrow neon. The sign helped to inspire many other sign designs in the Wildwoods.
Sadly the historic nightclub and motel were demolished in the condo boom. In the early to mid-2000s, many of the iconic mid-century motels that the Wildwoods were known for sold and were demolished to make way for condominiums.
During this ‘boom’ we lost motels such as the Kona Kai Motel, Rio Motel, Hialeah Motel, Sans Souci Motel, Thunderbird Motel, 24th Street Motel, Casa Bahama Motel, Flame Inn, Satellite Motel, Ocean East and so many more.
It was awful to lose such amazing and historic motels but it led to the creation of the Doo Wop Preservation League which recently helped to save the Oceanview Motel.
Watch the video at the bottom of the article to see what will be happening to the Oceanview Motel.
Fast forward to this week and the Wildwood Video Archive has found out what will be happening to this lot.
In a new listing posted online, the entire lot where the Martinique club and motel once stood, is now up for sale.
For a cool 5,000,000, this entire lot could be yours, but this isn’t the exciting part.
The listing mentioned that the lot is being sold as a 60 Unit Condo-Hotel Development.
Located in the Tourism and Entertainment Zone, they are featuring the listing with preliminary renderings of a ten-story building with 60 units and two decks for parking.
Proposed 60-Room Hotel in Wildwood – Ocean Villa
This is a project that hasn’t been pitched yet at the Zoning and Planning board in Wildwood as far as public records have reported. The listing agents do say that they hope to have Conceptual Jurisdiction Approval in 4Q of 2022.
With the last Zoning and Planning board meeting happening soon, it doesn’t look like this will be brought up in the next meeting.
There isn’t much online about this development. A quick search on New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection website shows there were previous CAFRA approvals on the site, allowing a building up to 25 stories tall.
Looking at the only mock-up does show a few other details.
The bottom two floors will be open and covered parking spaced which would conform to the parking requirements that the city does require.
Its shape does follow the flow of a modern mid-century look with its balconies moving out at different angles. The coloring of the building is a combination of dark mint green with beige.
The roof deck is where all of the activities are located. From the photo, we can see a massive pool, lounge chairs, a green area, and some kind of cafe.
There isn’t any other information on this project at this time. Be sure to tune back later to see if it will be presented or if it will move on into the past.