Proposed Mixed-Use Building in Wildwood Crest

The Wildwoods have been placed high up on a list of places in America with the hottest real estate market.

According to the Business Journals, the Wildwoods took up the 30th spot on the list, boasting homes valued at $531,400. This marked a remarkable 78% surge from the values recorded in 2018, as reported by the study. Furthermore, the median home value in Wildwood saw a notable 5% uptick. What happened to cause such a change?

In the past few years, the Wildwoods have been known as the last Wild “Wood” West when it comes to the housing market. While other shore towns around us such as Stone Harbor, Ocean City, Avalon, and Cape May have seen a major development in the past two decades, the Wildwoods had lagged behind and are now seeing a major redevelopment.

Now that most of its other sister cities have seen their maximum of properties fixed up and rebuilt, contractors and investors are making their way to the Wildwoods.

Gone are the days of the cheap vacation spots on the island and now are the new multiple-family complexes such as Seaport Pier’s 38 dwellings and the now approved and highly anticipated Kay’s Oasis.

There is a new application that has now entered the Wildwood Crest public notices that will continue on this new multi-family trend.

According to the public notice, Pearce Homes LLC has generally made application to the Borough of Wildwood Crest Zoning/ Planning Board for property commonly known as 6307 New Jersey Avenue.

For those who remember way back when this location used to be home to a Getty gas station with Bill’s Service Garage. The gas station portion of the Getty closed quite a long time ago but the garage was still operating. At one point, this was the only gas station in Wildwood Crest.

Pearce Homes LLC had purchased this property back in July 2022 for $490,000.

According to the public notice, the LLC wants to demolish the existing building to construct a 2.5-story mixed-use building containing three commercial units on the ground floor with three residential units above on the vacant lot.

The application, which seeks preliminary and final major site plan approval, falls under the jurisdiction of the Land Development Ordinance of Wildwood Crest and the Municipal Land Use Law according to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-46 and N.J.S.A. 40:55D-50. Additionally, the applicant is requesting several variance reliefs from the Land Development Ordinance and the Municipal Land Use Law:

Conditional Use Variance (D(3)): The proposal includes three residential units above commercial space, deviating from the conditions required for conditional use, where residential units can be integrated with permitted ground-floor uses.

Variance Reliefs (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70(c)):

Building Coverage: The proposed building coverage of 56% exceeds the 50% permitted.

Building Height: The intended height of 31.8 feet surpasses the 29 feet allowed above the base flood elevation of 8.0.

Number of Stories: The design includes 2.5 stories, slightly exceeding the permissible 2 stories.

Number of Exterior Wall Signs: The proposal includes 3 exterior wall signs, whereas the ordinance permits 2 for nonresidential establishments.

Number of Exterior Wall Signs per Wall: The plan incorporates 3 signs on one wall, whereas the standard allows only 1 per wall.

Design Waivers from the Land Development Ordinance: The applicant has requested various design waivers, including those related to providing a traffic study, landscape plan, scale model, Environmental Impact Assessment, and Community Impact Statement, as well as meeting specific plan scale requirements.

Over the past few years, Pearce Homes LLC has been making a name for itself by purchasing older properties on the island, tearing them down, and building modern beach houses.

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Back in 2021, Pearce Homes LLC purchased 115 East Cardinal. This lot originally had a one-family home and Pearce Homes tore it down to make it into a beautiful duplex. That project has already been completed and the units sold for $1,075,000.

In 2022, they purchased 7605 Pacific Ave, also in Wildwood Crest. This lot, which was 4,000 sqft had a Spanish Revival Bungalow style house on it built in 1930, making it one of the original houses built in the second wave of construction in the Crest.

This building was also torn down and has become a 2,313-square-foot family home with 5 rooms and 4.5 bathrooms. That property is currently pending with a price tag of $1,495,000.

The application is set for public hearing on September 6, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. The hearing will take place at Borough Hall, located at 6101 Pacific Avenue, Wildwood Crest, Cape May County, New Jersey.

During this hearing, individuals affected by the proposal will have the opportunity to voice any objections to the intended development. It’s worth noting that while the Board welcomes input, repetitive testimony may be excluded.