The Ocean City Housing Authority will make its third attempt to choose a contractor to build a major affordable housing project in Ocean City.
The authority received just one bid that it opened publicly Thursday for the proposed Pecks Beach Village project. The sole bid was from Gary F. Gardner Inc. of Medford, Burlington County, for $23.2 million.
It is the same company that built the nearly $7 million Speitel Commons, an affordable housing complex for seniors in downtown Ocean City.
Ron Miller, the Housing Authority’s director of affordable housing, declined to give the pre-bid estimate for the Pecks Beach Village project Thursday.
He also would not comment on any other specifics pertaining to the bid or the project. Miller did confirm, however, that the project remains the same, a proposed 60-unit affordable housing development on Fourth Street.
Both Miller and Jacqueline Jones, the Housing Authority’s executive director, have said that the authority would not comment on the bids until they have been fully evaluated.
Ana Ferreira, of Donovan Architects, opens the lone construction bid for the proposed housing project.
The housing authority will hold its regular monthly board meeting Tuesday, July 16, and a vote will likely take place to accept or reject the latest bid.
In May, the authority received three construction bids. One was $24.6 million by Gary F. Gardner Inc. The other two were $23.7 million by Epic Management Inc. of Piscataway, N.J., and $28.3 million by Costanza Builders Inc. of Mount Laurel, N.J.
Those bids were later rejected for being too high.
The first round of bids for the Pecks Beach Village project came last September. The authority rejected two competitive bids, including the lowest one at $22.6 million, for the same project. At that time, the authority announced that the bids were too high.
The project has been years in the making to replace the existing Pecks Beach Village development, a 1960s-era housing complex.
The Pecks Beach Village complex formerly consisted of two parts — a 20-unit complex of cottage-style housing for senior citizens and 40 units of affordable housing for families along Fourth Street.
The 20 units of senior housing on the north side of Fourth Street were torn down in 2022 to create room for the proposed project consisting of 60 units of affordable housing for families.
The seniors who had lived at Pecks Beach Village moved into the new Speitel Commons affordable housing complex in downtown Ocean City at Sixth Street and West Avenue.
Meanwhile, the existing 40 units of family housing at Pecks Beach Village on the south side of Fourth Street will remain until the housing authority builds the new 60 units. The 40-unit complex will likely be demolished in stages as residents move into the new development.
The existing family-style homes at Pecks Beach Village will be demolished after the new housing project is built.
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