Christian Brothers' Ocean City Retreat to Come Down

A landmark oceanfront retreat at 31st Street and Central Avenue will be demolished after more than a century serving the De La Salle Christian Brothers.

The Ocean City Planning Board on Wednesday (June 12) approved a subdivision plan to allow four duplexes to replace the old three-story buildings. 

The Ocean Rest Educational Center had served as an educational retreat and place of worship. It consists of two three-story buildings on an 8-acre oceanfront property.

The state fire marshal prohibited the Brothers from using the top floors of the buildings about five or six years ago, and last year they were prevented from using the second floors. The structures have 19th-century plumbing. They do not conform to modern fire code or Disabilities Act requirements, and they have no heating or air-conditioning system. 

The Brothers came to neighbors in January 2012 to seek feedback on a plan to demolish one building and sell two 40-by-100-foot lots for residential development, then use the proceeds to renovate the southern building at the same height and using the same footprint for continuing use by the Brothers.

But earlier this year, representatives of the Brothers said that plan would be far too costly, and the charitable religious order could in no way afford what would amount to a multimillion-dollar retrofitting project.

They applied to demolish both buildings and create four lots for residential development.

Attorney Steve Nehmad said the new lots (unlike the existing retreat) would primarily conform with existing residential zoning. The lots fall into zones for residential duplexes with 40- or 50-foot frontages, and because the proposed long rectangular lots would fall into both zones, the 50-foot zone would apply.

The Planning Board on Wednesday approved a variance for the interior lots to have 45-foot frontages. The corner lots would be wider.

The four lots would extend from Central Avenue to the beach and be twice as big as the required lot size, according to Nehmad. He said the Brothers intend to keep one, maybe two, of the lots for continued use as a retreat and sell the others.

Brother James Martino, director of administration for the District of Eastern North America, told neighbors it was only with a great deal of regret that the Brothers came to the decision.

The Christian Brothers, also known as the Brother of the Christian Schools, have been in the same location in Ocean City since 1898.

The northern building included a chapel that was open for summer Masses.