Fenwick Sands eyes expansion, plans suite/hotel hybrid

Sands Motel's redevelopment plan moved forward this week in Fenwick Island, where a teardown and expansion of the over 50-year-old hotel is eyeing a higher-priced customer base.

Council approved the first reading of an ordinance which would allow the hotel’s new owners to expand its capacity by a little less than 30 rooms.

The ordinance, which will move to public hearings and a second reading after a vote of 5-2, would lower the 1000-square-foot land area requirement for rooms to 600 square feet. Currently, the hotel has 38 rooms, while the change would allow it to build up to 65.

The purpose is to allow new owners Spiro and Marianne Buas to tear down the old building and develop it as a new hotel with additional, higher priced suites.

Fenwick's Sands Motel finds new buyer

For Mayor Eugene Langan, the old motel was a blight on the town. He said it was in partly due to its veneer, but also its clientele.

According to Langan, the Caldwell family, who owned the motel for nearly four decades, would open its doors to the homeless during the winter. He said the owners were "renting rooms to the state" and "the state was putting homeless people there," helping the Caldwells fill the rooms during the winter.

For the quaint resort town of less than 400 year-round residents, Langan said "it was a very bad situation."

"Our police were there every night," he added.

The building itself also had the look of a hotel more reminiscent of when the Caldwells bought it in the 1970s rather than 2015.

Furniture and carpets were “retro” in the kindest sense and “out-of-date” in the worst. The exterior was in even worse shape, Langan said.

“You go take a look at the building, you’d understand,” Langan said. “It’s not very attractive.”

For Spiro Buas, the purchase and tear down is meant to attract a new kind of customer that the town’s mom-and-pop styled hotels aren’t bringing to the town.

“Right now, that person that is used to a little nicer hotel will not stay in Fenwick,” Buas said.

He points to the spike in higher-priced rental homes in Fenwick, which can outprice even the most expensive summer weekend stays at the Atlantic Coast Inn and the Fenwick Islander Motel.

But with the idea of expansion comes the issue of how it will affect the character of a sleepy beach resort town sandwiched between areas that attract a rowdier summer crowd.

Earlier this month, some residents expressed concern that granting the hotel the means for expansion could create a trend of development like in nearby Ocean City.

While the two towns border each other on state lines, three-quarters of Fenwick’s population is at least 50 years old and the draw for tourists is not the same as the party-centric allure of Ocean City.

And although two motels in town already have exemptions to the 1000-square-foot rule, adding a third could set the precedent that Fenwick is looking for a larger piece of coastal Sussex County’s tourism pie.

Langan recognizes this, but for him, added revenue is good revenue and he wants the town to be more of a destination than it currently is.

He said the project is an opportunity “to get a 50-some-year-old hotel replace, because we need to revitalize the downtown.”

And Buas wants to be the catalyst of that, by attracting a clientele with larger wallets.

“(The hotels) are not catering to the kind of person who will frequent the restaurants of Fenwick or shop in Fenwick and spend money,” Buas said.

So the owners will present their renditions of the building at the next council hearing, Buas said. The hope is their vision is one that can be shared with the town residents and council.

pdavis3@dmg.gannett.com

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