Waterpark in North Wildwood

Piering into the future North Wildwood approves plan for waterpark high-rise hotel
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, July 18, 2007

NORTH WILDWOOD — City Council has approved a plan to turn the now-vacant Seaport Pier into a 90,000- square-foot pirate-themed indoor waterpark.
WB Resorts Development plans to invest $175 million in the project, which includes both construction of the water park on the east side of the Boardwalk between 22nd and 23rd avenues and a 16-story 425-room hotel on the west side.

Tentatively named “Captain Andy’s Indoor Waterpark Resort,” the water park could be open in 2010 if the project receives all the permits and approvals it needs.

Attorney M. James Maley, representing WB Resorts, called Tuesday’s decision by City Council the start of a partnership that will revive the dilapidated pier and bring new business activity to the area around it.

“If you’re not growing, if you’re not improving, then you’re dying,” Maley said of the need to bring new life to the pier.

He predicted the project would also deliver not only construction jobs, but 300 to 400 year-round job opportunities on the island.
Under the redevelopment agreement, the city would sell the pier to the developers for a yet undetermined price. WB Resorts already owns or has the option to buy the property across from the pier.

The plan also calls for the pier to be moved slightly to the south to align it with the hotel while also improving the view at the street ends at 22nd and 23rd avenues.

The pirate-themed water park would be enclosed in glass, visible from the Boardwalk, and built in what Maley called a “Disneyesque” fashion designed to draw visitors to the island beyond the traditional tourist season.

It would be open to hotel guests first, and then to other island visitors based on availability and the park’s capacity.

The 187-feet, 16-story hotel, meanwhile, would feature some form of condominium ownership, but all the rooms would be used as hotel rooms, Maley said.

An overhead pedestrian walkway would link the two properties. The resort would also feature three restaurants and a 600-car parking garage.

Maley said the developers plan to meet with the neighbors around the site within the next month to discuss any concerns about the effect the resort will have on the neighborhood.

He said the entrance for vehicles would be within the building’s footprint to avoid traffic backing up into city streets.

Maley said the property will also handle its own trash collection and security to reduce reliance on city services.

With the city’s approval in hand, the developer can now work on obtaining Coastal Area Facility Review Act, or CAFRA permits, along with local Planning Board approvals.

City Planner Stuart Wiser said the city currently permits buildings as tall as 90.8 feet in the Boardwalk location, so variances will be required.

Special counsel Robert Beckelman said the city has to approve the design and final site plan, and the developer is obligated to stay in constant communication with the city on the project’s status.

Beckelman said the redevelopment agreement also requires city residents to get the first crack at the resort’s jobs.

Wiser said the city’s Planning Board has also declared the west side, where the hotel will be built, as an area in need of redevelopment and an agreement on that portion of the project will be forthcoming.

WB Resorts is a limited liability company founded in 2006 by Andrew Weiner, Brian Baratz and David Baratz.

Weiner is the managing partner of Splash Zone, a water park in Wildwood. Brian Baratz is an accountant and founding partner of Baratz & Associates. David Baratz is director of operations and marketing for Splash Zone.

The project is expected to have a 2008 ground breaking with an opening planned for 2010.


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

South Jersey Journal
Cradle of Rock? Two Towns Stake Their Claims

By ROBERT STRAUSS
Published: July 10, 2007
WILDWOOD, N.J.

Bill Haley and the Saddlemen performed at Jack's Twin Bar in the early ’50s, before the Comets and “Rock Around the Clock.”

Dick Richards was pounding the drums and thinking of the girls on the beach. It was Saturday night during Memorial Day weekend in 1954, and more than 500 people were jammed into the HofBrau Hotel here to hear his band, the Comets, kick off the summer.

“We had just recorded this song in April,” he said, “and that night we introduced it to the crowd. I guess that was the first real night of rock ’n’ roll.”

The song was “Rock Around the Clock,” by Bill Haley and His Comets, considered by many to be the first rock-’n’-roll hit, and the first song with the word “rock” in the title to hit the top of the Billboard charts.

Now officials and residents in Wildwood, which in recent years has put a high polish and a healthy dose of kitsch on its 1950s- and ’60s-era motels to promote tourism, are saying that their town near the southern tip of New Jersey in Cape May County is the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll.

After all, for a few summers Dick Clark held record hops in Wildwood while he was the host of “American Bandstand.” And there are plaques where the HofBrau once stood, as well as the site of the former Rainbow Club (now a nightclub called Kahuna’s), where Chubby Checker first performed “The Twist.”

But Gloucester City, another New Jersey town, about an 80-mile drive northwest of Wildwood, wants to cut in right there. And on Saturday, Mr. Richards and other Comets plan to headline a show in Gloucester City, in Camden County along the Delaware River, to commemorate an 18-month span in the early 1950s when Mr. Haley led the house band at the Twin Bar.

The thing is, though, at the time that band was Bill Haley and the Saddlemen— not the Comets — and it started out playing traditional country-and-western music.

“Before I joined them, they had started playing a song called ‘Rock This Joint,’ which had a rhythm-and-blues beat, but mostly they were a western swing band,” said Mr. Richards, who today is 83 and has homes in Ocean City, N.J., and in Missouri, near Branson, where the Comets play at Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Theater about 80 times a year.

“Then they added a drum and a lead guitar and became the Comets,” Mr. Richards added, “and the rest is history.”

Or maybe not.

No matter what claim these two towns make, competition for the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll stretches from Philadelphia, the home of “American Bandstand”; to Cleveland, where the disc jockey Alan Freed came to fame and home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; to Memphis, the site of Elvis Presley’s Graceland home.

“I don’t know that rock was born — more that it evolved,” said Bob Santelli, a former education director at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a former chief executive of the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle. “Memphis, New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta all significantly helped the American music scene after World War II, though certainly these New Jersey towns played roles.”

Still, he acknowledged that Bill Haley, who died at age 55 in 1981, “has rarely been given his due.”

Mr. Santelli said of Mr. Haley, “He was among the first to blend black and white music and saw that country and western and rhythm and blues could have a hybrid.”

Steve Martarano, 78, who still lives in Gloucester City, said he was just back from the Navy when he started hanging out at the Twin Bar.

“Ladies weren’t allowed in the front room of the bar, but they could go back in back where the Saddlemen played,” said Mr. Martarano.

Dennis Galligan, a trucking executive from Williamstown, about 20 miles south of Gloucester City, was looking for a business that he and his wife, Tammy, could run while caring for her sick father. He ended up buying Burt’s Shamrock Bar in 2004, and soon afterward had an out-of-towner come in and look around.

“It was a guy named Marshall Lytle, and he said he played there as one of the Comets,” Mr. Galligan said.

Mr. Lytle, indeed, played bass with the Comets in the 1950s, and still does along with Mr. Richards, and Mr. Galligan’s business was the former Twin Bar. Mr. Galligan painted the exterior yellow and renamed the place Jack’s Twin Bar. It has outdoor seating by Gloucester City’s main intersection, and the front doors are copies of the original hardwood-and-glass ones that Mr. Haley strode through.

While Gloucester City’s rock commemoration will feature an afternoon of music, Wildwood is planning an entire weekend — its fourth annual Fabulous ’50s Weekend — in October, with performers like the Coasters and, the Cadillacs and Little Anthony and the Imperials.

“We’ll let them have their version if they let us have ours,” said Paul Russo, the owner of Cool Scoops, a ’50s-themed ice cream parlor in North Wildwood and a promoter of the weekend celebration. “It’s just important that people know South Jersey wasn’t a backwater, but an innovator of a great part of American culture.”

4th of July

Wildwood Is Having a July Fourth Bash
Four Days of Fun Set Up Around July 4th in Wildwood,NJ
Chris Kirk
AC - The People's Media Company
July 1, 2007

Some cities celebrate July 4th in style. Wildwood, NJ though has decided to turn July 4th into a five day celebration with details on this website. They have decided at this beach town on the southeast coast of New Jersey that just one day, just plain isn't enough. The resort town will of course be having some of the traditional celebratory activities, including fireworks on July 4th, but they will add to it. Considering that there are fireworks every Friday night in season in Wildwood, it was only natural to try to do something a little bit different for the Fourth Of July, and Wildwood has done just that.

The celebration will last a total of five days. The resort town will start and end the celebratory period of our nation's independence with concerts, and also have fireworks, a barbecue, and boxing during that time period. The celebration will start on July 3rd at 8 PM, as Jefferson Starship, the band with hits from the 60's through the early 90's, will open the celebration up with their concert. Other bands will appear with Jefferson Starship as was as Tom Constanten of The Grateful Dead.

On July 4th, Wildwood is turning the beach into a huge backyard barbecue! The back deck of the Ocean Front Arena is where everyone will want to go starting at 5:00 PM. There will be a large "all you can eat bbq buffet" starting at that time which will include hamburgers and hotdogs, sausage and peppers, chicken, fruits, vegetables, and cookies. All of this will be available for adults for $14.95 and only $6.95 for children ages six and under. The barbecue will also offer peel and eat tiger shrimp and clams as well for an additional cost for anyone wishing to purchase them. After the bbq, there will be a live DJ playing music until the fireworks display at 10 PM.

On Friday July 6th, Wildwood will host live boxing matches along with mixed martial arts matches. There will be six boxing matches, along with 8 mixed martial arts matchups for a total of 14 contests. Tickets will be good for both shows. The doors for the Ocean Front Arena (Wildwood Convention Center) will open at six o'clock with the mixed martial arts matches starting right away, the boxing matches will begin at eight o'clock on the 6th.

The Fourth Of July week celebration will end on Saturday night with Mary Wilson of the Supremes performing a concert. She will be joined by The Angels, The Dixie Cups, The Ronettes, and The Shirelles. The concert will be held once again at The Wildwood Convention Center, and will begin at 8 PM.

Tickets for the concerts and the martial arts and boxing event can be purchased through Ticketmaster