North Ocean City Beach Stand Bid Interest, Prices On Decline; Council Mulls Policy Changes

OCEAN CITY — Faced with declining revenue from the north-end beach stand parcels, resort officials this week considered increasing the maximum threshold for the number of parcels a single operator may hold in the interest of sparking competition.

The results of the auction for 18 beach equipment vendor parcels on the north end of Ocean City from 85th Street to the Delaware line were announced this week, revealing a sharp decline in most from the previous three-year bidding cycle. Overall, the bids for the 18 north-end parcels were down about 10 to 12 percent.

The bids for some parcels were down by as much as 81 percent, 77 percent and 71 percent with many others in the 40-50 percent range. There was one parcel on which the bid increased by 113 percent, but that was somewhat of an anomaly. Overall, the combined bids for the 18 parcels came in at $148,700, or roughly down $20,000 from the $168,100 in the last bidding cycle for the same section of beach.

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