Why are so many motels up for sale in Wildwood?

When the Facebook page Watch the Tram Car Please started posting Wildwood motels up for sale, one by one, many people who love Wildwood started to panic. What was happening?

The proposed sale on eBay of the old neon sign with its marquee-light studded curved arrow from the long-closed Moore’s Inlet bar in North Wildwood only added to the concern.

“This should stay in Wildwood! Our beautiful beach town is losing all its unique character — heartbreaking!! wrote one commenter.

But while motels are indeed for sale in Wildwood, and are selling — the yellow and blue Nantucket Inn & Suites just off the Boardwalk in Wildwood recently sold in a private sale, according to Watch the Tram Car, and will stay a motel — local observers say the trend is not much different from past winters, when longtime owners typically take a deep breath, decide to call it a career, and cash out.

Does this mean Wildwood is at risk of losing the character from the doo-wop branding and midcentury kitschy architecture preservationists have worked so hard to nurture and save? Does it matter?

“I would say it’s definitely highly significant,” said Taylor Henry, president of the Wildwood Historic Society. “It’s probably what Wildwood is best known for. People say doo-wop is dead, or needs to die. I don’t agree with that. But I also see what they’re trying to say when they say that: that Wildwood is more than just doo-wop.”

Interest in the Shore from Philly-area investors grew during the pandemic, as prices rose, and some investors in year-round real estate sold properties where renters were allowed to skip payments during the moratorium.

There is a decent list of old motel properties for sale in the Wildwoods, and Henry says the island continues to be at risk of losing its distinctive character, whether it’s the doo-wop and midcentury architecture, the old beach cottages, or the Victorian houses of an earlier Wildwood.

Or a quirky landmark red pizza slice-shaped house, sliced horizontally and hauled off the island on a flat bed last summer.

But every motel for sale does not mean it will be demolished. Many are sold and renovated or turned into condos, or, like the case of the Oceanview Motel, sold to investors who are putting big money into rebuilding its distinctive sloping roof lobby. It will be called the Madison Resort Wildwood Crest.

The Lollipop Motel was recently sold and turned into condos but maintains its distinctive character and signage, Taylor noted.

The other motels for sale currently are:

The Skylark Motel had been reported for sale but is now off the market.

Brian Reed, a prominent real estate agent in Wildwood with Long & Foster, says prices are high, and the mom-and-pop owners who have run these motels for 40 years, in many cases cleaning the rooms and staffing the front desk themselves, are ready to move on. Properties they purchased for $300,000 are now fetching several million.

He’s less sentimental about the doo-wop theme, and notes that many of the motels that people are feeling so emotional about are basically L-shaped blocks of concrete.

But with short-term rentals booming, investors have a decent opportunity to buy a property, invest some renovation money into it, and see a nice return on their investment.

“At some point, the people that were most interested in [doo-wop] are in their mid-70s,” he said. “The new generation does not care. If you made Wildwood all hip-hop, this generation would be like ‘Oh, my God!’ The one thing that would go well is country, a laid-back beach vibe.”

“There’s not too many people doing the twist,” he said.

Prices will inevitably rise, both for investors and visitors.

“The Wildwoods have been one of the fastest-growing areas,” Reed said. “It’s always been the last affordable Shore town. We can switch the last affordable to the most affordable Shore town. The great thing about the Wildwoods is rent per dollar, return on investment, is greater than any other town up the coast.”