Annex Property Landscaped in Time for Block Party

The site of the former City Hall Annex is now outlined with hedges and covered with sod. The new temporary park is completed in time for the Spring Block Party on Saturday (May 5).

Mayor Jay Gillian had vowed to build a downtown welcome center on the property at the corner of Ninth Street and Asbury Avenue by summer. The project was to be part of a with the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the old City Hall Annex was .

But forestalled the fast-moving project and left the property vacant — until Thursday, when landscapers planted grasses, hedges and flowers to dress up the prime downtown corner for the tens of thousands of people expected for the weekend block party.

Gillian says he still hopes to see the project become a visitors center, and he even gave it a name on Wednesday during an 80th birthday celebration for the city's legendary public relations director: the Mark Soifer Downtown Welcome Center.