OC Gets Funding for Convention Center

OCEAN CITY -- State officials approved funding for a project that will double the size of Ocean City's convention center by 2012.

Board of Public Works members Gov. Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot, and Treasurer Nancy Kopp unanimously approved the sale up to $4.8 million in bonds for a 20,000-square-foot expansion of the Roland E. Powell Convention Center. They also approved plans to refinance the $7.85 million in outstanding balance from the convention center's 1995 expansion.

Ocean City and the state will split the $8.2 million cost of adding a glass-enclosed ballroom on the bay side of the building. Further expansion plans have called for a 1,200-seat performing arts theater to be built on the second floor, but this funding won't cover that project, estimated to cost $1.6 million. Town officials may seek funding for that project next year, said Maryland Stadium Authority project executive Gary McGuigan.

Architectural planning will begin immediately and is expected to take six months, while construction is expected to start in November and take 18 months, according to Mayor Rick Meehan. The Stadium Authority approved the plans in February.

Ocean City's portion of funding is already accounted for, coming from a food and beverage tax implemented in the 1990s solely to fund convention center upgrades. The tax had been set at one percent, but was dropped to 1/2 percent last year when town finance officials confirmed the lesser levy would still be sufficient to service the debt on time.

A resort delegation including Meehan, Ocean City Engineer Terry McGean, Town Council President Joe Mitrecic and Tourism Commission representative Greg Shockley made their pitch in Annapolis at the Board's monthly meeting last week. O'Malley bumped Ocean City to the top of the agenda at the start of the meeting in Annapolis, Meehan said, citing the long distance in getting there. They had been ninth on the agenda.

A 2008 market study concluded that Ocean City could support a major expansion. It called for 50,000 more square feet of exhibit space, the performing arts center, and a 1,500-space parking garage. But those plans came with a projected price tag of $60 to $75 million, however, and were quickly were scaled back given the economic downturn.

Named after former mayor Roland "Fish" Powell, the nearly 50-year-old convention center was last renovated in 1997 with the addition of 50,000 square feet of exhibit space and 25,000 square feet of meeting rooms.

Also at the meeting, the Board unanimously approved an $8.28 million expenditure from a state beach replenishment fund for this year's renourishment project. Beach replenishment comes every four years, according to the terms of a 50-year agreement between Ocean City, Worcester County, the state of Maryland, and the federal government.

Meehan said this expenditure is not connected to another project to repair damage sustained to the beach from a mid-November nor'easter. The storm destroyed about half the dunes along Ocean City's 10 miles of shoreline and flooded low-lying parts of town. Those repairs will come from federal funding, Meehan said.

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