Convention Hall Was Not Worth Repairing

CAPE MAY — Since Convention Hall closed due to structural problems in April 2008, there has been speculation the city jumped the gun on closing its doors or skipped an opportunity to shore up the existing facility for far less than the $10.5 million cost of a new building.
With the start of demolition less than a week away, the Herald looks at the history of the closing of Convention Hall.
Former Mayor Jerome E. Inderwies told the Herald he believes the decision to close the hall was correct. He said the hall was deteriorating rapidly and the building could not support a large crowd.
“Although no one liked it at the time, it had to be done,” said Inderwies.
He said then City Manager Luciano V. Corea Jr., who had the authority to make day-to-day decisions, was looking at liability issues after a structural engineer inspected Convention Hall.
Inderwies said the building had been shored up with steel I-beams four to five years prior to the 2008 inspection. Before beach replenishment, the tide broke under Convention Hall with saltwater hitting the buildings’ structural piers, which were made of pre-stressed concrete containing steel, he said.
The steel rusted and spalled which compromised its integrity, said Inderwies. He said electrolysis took place on the steel even after the tide stopped breaking under the building following beach replenishment.
City officials closed Convention Hall April 4, 2008 after receiving a structural analysis of the building that recommended immediately closing the facility to the public.
The report prepared by Pennoni Associates Inc. of Bethlehem, Pa. noted: “Serious structural deficiencies were observed in all six bays, not just the bays closest to the ocean. We find that compared to the observations noted in the last Remington Vernick & Walberg Engineers inspection in March 2007, due to the unabated and continued deterioration, the structural condition has worsened in the past year.”
It continued: “The present condition of the Convention Hall is structurally unsound. Due to the amount of deterioration observed, the structural integrity of the floor framing is severely compromised. It is our professional opinion that this building, be closed to public use until repairs can be performed in accordance with the recommendations outlined in the Remington Vernick and Walberg Engineering reports.”
At that time, Corea told the Herald the city was reviewing temporary remedial repairs but he did not know if that was possible. A 2007 engineering report indicated Convention Hall had one to two more years of safe use, he told the Herald.
Corea said the city had performed all requested intermediate remediation on Convention Hall.
At that time, he said even if the city was able to temporarily remediate the situation, Convention Hall would only have a life of five or six months to its planned demolition in December 2008 to make way for a new facility. Along with structural deficiencies in the six bays of the hall, Corea said longitudinal cracks in the support truss system had been discovered.
At that time, Corea said he asked the engineers if the building could remain open until temporary repairs were made but was told that was not an option due to safety and liability issues.
On April 9, 2008, Inderwies told members of the city’s Revitalization committee that Public Works Director Robert Smith was getting estimates for work to shore up Convention Hall. The mayor said his hope was possibly reopening the facility before Memorial Day and use it the rest of the summer.
On May 6, 2008, after receiving two bids in excess of $300,000 to temporarily shore up the hall, city council voted not to spend the money on the hall.
At that time, Corea told council Quinn Construction of Folcroft, Pa. presented a quote of $345,000 and Patton Construction of Pennsauken, a quote of $311,000. The work would take four weeks, he said.
Corea called the quotes “best case numbers,” estimated before any excavation was started.
At that time, Inderwies said spending that amount “would be throwing good money after bad.”
Corea said the hall was not in danger of imminent collapse and offices of the recreation department and beach tag operations would remain in the front of Convention Hall. Inderwies said the city did not neglect the building and pilings were encapsulated several years with protective foam.
On July 23, 2008, newly elected Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. told reporters the city had not ruled out fixing up Convention Hall rather than demolishing the building that winter.
Repairs could act as stopgap measure to buy the city more time to find financing for a new hall, he said, with an option remaining to restore the current hall rather than build a new one.
On Aug, 19, 2008, Mahaney told City Council a leading marine engineering firm was willing to give the city a proposal to determine the structural integrity of Convention Hall but it told the mayor it would be wasting the city’s money.
The engineer, who Mahaney said he did not wish to identify, although he said the firm constructed docking facilities at Trump Marina in Atlantic City, walked through and climbed under Convention Hall Aug. 15, viewed photos of the hall from its construction until the present time including an era when the waves washed under the building and viewed all plans of the current hall and all improvements made to the infrastructure over its 46 year history.
Mahaney said the engineer told him the hall was not in any imminent danger of collapse but could no longer bear the weight of a crowd. The engineer said it would take at least $2 million to shore up the building to give the facility another year or two of use, said the mayor.
Mahaney said the engineer told him the city has received the useful life of the building based on the materials and engineering used in the 1960s.
Convention Hall was built for about $265,000 by members of the city’s Public Works Department.
In Aug. 2008, City Manager Bruce MacLeod, who accompanied the mayor and engineer on an inspection, said Convention Hall had no real salvage value. He said the engineer told him the cost of testing each pier and piling would far exceed putting in a new ones.
Mahaney said there had been some skepticism in the city of an earlier engineering report that permanently closed the current Convention Hall shortly after the need for a new facility was announced.
A second marine engineer was scheduled to offer a proposal to determine the condition of the hall but the mayor said that was called off after the findings of the first firm. He said the two engineers knew each other.