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WILDWOOD - Just a few blocks away from the Wildwoods Convention Center ballroom, where Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Bobby Rydell topped the bill at the Fabulous '50s Weekend on Saturday night, stood the old Rio Motel - one of the original doo-wop motels now celebrated as the island's cultural treasures.

But on Saturday, as the era that spawned it was celebrated in song and spectacle, the spot where the Rio once stood is now a dusty, vacant lot, a victim of the ups and down of our own decade.

Even as preservationists and historians began to hail the Wildwoods as containing the greatest treasure trove of '50s and '60s architecture, the wrecking ball continued to claim more and more motels - including the Rio, which met its demise in 2005 to make way for a brand-new hotel. Or at least that was the idea.

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation - which named the Wildwoods' doo-wop motels, those last bastions of neon and kitsch, among "America's 11 Most Endangered Hsitoric Places" in 2006 - dozens upon dozens of motels were torn down during the real estate boom years from 2003 to 2006.

But then, everything just stopped.

The downturn in the economy has dramatically decreased the pressure on motel owners to sell out and develop, according to a recent story in Preservation Nation, the National Trust magazine. There have been no new demolitions of doo-wop motels over the past several years, according to Doo Wop Preservation League President Dan MacElrevey - giving the League "a little breathing room," he said, to make sure that more motels can be preserved.

As for the motels that were lost during the last spate of demolitions, the fate of those properties has varied wildly. While the Rio remains a vacant lot, what was once the Ebb Tide Motel in Wildwood Crest is now the site of a luxury condominium complex. But even there, things have not gone quite according to plan.

The flood recedes

In June 2006, the state Department of Environmental Protection denied a permit to build the Nouveau Wave Hotel in place of the Rio at Rio Grande and Ocean avenues, stating that the 281-foot, 269-unit hotel was out of character with the surrounding community, a danger to migratory birds, a public-safety risk and damaging to the island's collection of doo-wop motels.

Unfortunately, the Rio had already been torn down almost a year earlier.

By the league's count, there are 92 doo-wop related sites left in the Wildwoods - down from the 156 cited by a joint Yale-Penn-Kent State study earlier this decade.

"The Rio is a vacant lot, the Hialeah - a classic - is a vacant lot," MacElrevey said. "As a resort, it's a shame to see that happen. ... To me, it's like tearing down the Victorian houses of Cape May or demolishing the art deco hotels of South Beach."

But, he added, it was not as if the developers intended it to be this way.

"They couldn't have predicted the market would go south," he said.

Fred DiAntonio, of Blue Ocean Realty, said the condominium market has been picking up - although ever so slowly - but no one should be expecting many new units any time soon.

"The market is still flooded with condos, but it's not as flooded as it was," DiAntonio said. "Until the supply dries up, you're not going to see demolitions for condos. You're not going to see the old hotels knocked down anymore."

Living in the overflow

Head down Atlantic Avenue into Wildwood Crest and you'll find the New EbbTide, a luxury condominium complex that stands on the site of the old Ebb Tide Motel, demolished in 2003.

Bill Callahan, of Calloway Realty, was one of the original developers - operating the Ebb Tide as a motel for several years before selling the site as part of a block purchase.

The condominium developers "had their difficulties," he said, but since then all but one unit has been sold and occupied.

While a number of other demolished motels have not been rebuilt, Callahan said, and several more have become the sites of condos that have not sold - "Timing-wise, it was not a good time," he said - he still believes that the majority of the motels that got the wrecking ball were long past their glory days.

"Most of what was torn down were pretty old and tired," he said. "No longer where you'd stay if you had the choice. For years, people ran the Ebb Tide on Friday-Saturday rentals, living in the overflow."

Although the condo market "hasn't rescuscitated as quickly as we hoped," Callahan added, "In the long run, we have nice-looking buildings on most of these sites - and if they're not viable, they're getting there."

'More doo-wop than doo-wop'

Even where something old has been lost, traces remain. "Neo doo-wop" styles have sprung up across the island, from Wawa to the Harley-Davidson store to the Starlux Hotel - "More doo-wop than doo-wop," MacElrevey said - and the proposed Martinique Resort on Wildwood Avenue, on the site of the old Martinique Motel.

In the meantime, MacElrevey hopes to use the slowdown in development and demolition to add more incentives for owners to keep their buildings' doo-wop look and style intact.

Keep the doo-wop footprint, as the Shalimar Motel in Wildwood Crest did, for example, and owners can add two additional floors. They also can get an exemption from the rules mandating two parking spaces for every unit.

The league also has asked U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, to sponsor legislation allowing condo owners to share in the historic tax credits that properties are elegible to receive.

Sometimes, however, they do not need an incentive.

"I think that with a lot of the motels that are left, I know the owners personally," MacElrevey said. "And they're not going to sell no matter what."

So in the end, it may turn out that the wild economic swings of the tumultuous '00s may just help preserve the last remnants of the fabulous '50s.

"It's part of the heritage of the island," MacElrevey said of all things doo-wop. "It's not just buildings - it's a lifestyle."

Contact Steven Lemongello:

609-272-7275

SLemongello@pressofac.com

1 comment:

• WildwoodDaze (2) posts 8:13 am

  MacElrevey said "They couldn't have predicted the market would go south" Yea right.. are you kidding me.. I saw it coming in 2002, and I only have a high school education and 10 year old computer,,huh any idiot could have seen this real estate bust coming, are people making 4 times what they were making in 2000.. no.. so how did you expect this to go on for ever? you know what goes up..must come down. if it seems to go to be true.. it usually is.. the builder's and real estate people never hear these cilche's? Here are a few lines from the Eagles, last resort song released in Dec 1976, 33 years ago. " Some rich men came and raped the land, nobody caught them, put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus people bought them, they called it paradise, the place to be..........we'll provide the grand design, of what is yours and what it mine, there are no more new frontier's " Ironic that no one saw this coming,, admit it that most people are moron's, and will buy invisible dogs and pet rocks. oh yea ..and most of them voted for Obama.. Maybe he will bail this island out with "cash for condo's"

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