Ocean City explores possibility of buying landmark building for police headquarters

Ocean City may buy a landmark building in the heart of the downtown retail district to serve as the new headquarters for the police department instead of renovating the antiquated public safety building.

In a surprise announcement, Mayor Jay Gillian mentioned the possibility of the city purchasing the former Crown Bank Building, at the corner of Eighth Street and Asbury Avenue, in his weekly address to the public Friday.

“We are currently exploring the possibility of purchasing the former Crown Bank Building at 801 Asbury Avenue to see if it would be more cost-effective than rebuilding the existing police station at 835 Central Avenue,” he said.

At this time, the city is pursuing due diligence to check the structural integrity of the building to see if it would be a suitable site for the police headquarters, Gillian noted.

The fate of the existing public safety building, which is a former school dating to the late 1800s, has generated much discussion for years among the mayor and members of City Council.

Gillian had once flirted with the idea of developing an entirely new public safety building combining the operations of the police and fire departments. He backed off after Council balked at the estimated $42 million price for a new building.

The latest plan was to expand and modernize the public safety building, at an estimated cost of $30 million, to continue using it as the police department’s headquarters.

    The antiquated public safety building is a former school dating to the late 1800s.
  

As plans evolved, City Council and Gillian had seemed to be in full agreement on renovating the building to squeeze decades of additional use out of the aging, red-brick structure. Council awarded a $1 million contract in 2024 to Somers Point architect William McLees to design the building’s modernization and expansion.

Now, the possibility of the city buying the former Crown Bank Building to serve as the police headquarters has emerged, giving the public safety building saga a whole new twist.

In addition to the possibility of renovating the public safety building, city officials have also talked from time to time about possibly demolishing the site and using it for much-needed public parking for the downtown business district.

Separately, the city is constructing a new $6.1 million police substation at Eighth Street and the Boardwalk. The substation will give the police department a bigger presence on the Boardwalk when the project is completed this fall.

“Work on the new police substation at Eighth Street and the Boardwalk continues to make good progress, and we expect the structure to be complete before the end of October with officers able to move in by Thanksgiving. The facility will provide an important base for seasonal operations on the Boardwalk and for year-round patrols,” Gillian said in his message Friday.

    Ocean City's $6.1 million police substation is under construction overlooking the Boardwalk at Eighth Street.
  

Meanwhile, the city has already leased two floors of the former Crown Bank Building to accommodate some of the administrative operations of the police department. The lease runs for two years through June 2026.

The six-story former Crown Bank Building dates to 1925 and is an iconic structure in the heart of Ocean City’s downtown retail district. It consists of five floors and a mezzanine area.

In 2023, brothers Raj and Yogi Khatiwala purchased the 100-year-old building and the adjacent parking lots for nearly $6.7 million to save the then-financially troubled property from a bankruptcy auction.

Since then, the brothers, who are local investors, have transformed the building into a retail and office complex known as The Shoppes at Asbury.

Last year, the city spent $3.3 million to buy two parking lots that were part of the former Crown Bank Building property. The city has been acquiring property on the block of Eighth Street and Central Avenue, just behind City Hall, to create more parking for the downtown.

Raj and Yogi Khatiwala are the founders of the real estate investment company Eclat Investments. The Crown Bank purchase added to their list of hotels, retail shops and other properties acquired in Ocean City in recent years.

Their Ocean City business holdings have included The Scarborough Inn, The Beach House, The Pavilion, The Forum, Bluewater Inn Hotel, Ocean Breeze Hotel and Tahiti Inn. They also own Stainton’s Gallery of Shops in the downtown and Stainton’s Gallery by the Sea on the Boardwalk.

Raj Khatiwala could not be immediately reached Friday for comment about the city’s interest in the former Crown Bank Building.

    An architectural rendering depicts the proposed renovated public safety building that has been discussed by city officials. (Image courtesy of Ocean City)