Wildwood Makeover

Wildwood's Pacific Avenue makeover expected to be done by Memorial Day

By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Press of Atlantic City
Updated: Tuesday, May 16, 2006

WILDWOOD — Pacific Avenue's latest makeover, stretching along the former Holly Beach Mall area, is scheduled to be complete in time for Memorial Day.

Traditional concrete and blue brick pavers will soon cover the eight-block area once lined with blue and green concrete sidewalks.

“The colored sidewalks were only a part of a major design concept,” said Patrick Rosenello, executive director of the Wildwood Boardwalk Improvement District.

A lack of funding and other difficulties meant that concept was never fully executed, and that left the colored sidewalks and their accompanying rocketship-shaped street signs on their own, he said.

“It's a mistake that everyone pretty much acknowledges,” Rosenello said.

Now, with $200,000 in funding from the improvement district and another $150,000 from a federal grant, that mistake has been corrected.

“It's such a dramatic improvement,” Rosenello said.

Improvement district President William Kurtz said the new, cleaner look is part of an effort to draw new businesses and to help Wildwood's downtown compete with other downtown business districts along the shore.

He added, “You have to clean it up before they will come.”

Kurtz, owner of Neil's Steak and Chowder House, said Wildwood's downtown, once the heart of Cape May County shopping, may not reach that status again, but it can become a popular downtown community.

“The business people are happy. The taxpayers are happy,” Kurtz said of the new look.

The rocketship street signs are expected to be replaced with palm tree-shaped signs like those on Rio Grande Avenue.

Rosenello said the rocketships, meanwhile, may find a new home marking the various streets on the Boardwalk.

To e-mail Trudi Gilfillian at The Press:TGilfillian@pressofac.com