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New Cape May Convention Hall: One or Two Stories?

 

By Jack Fichter

CAPE MAY — Constructing a new version of the city’s current Convention Hall in the same footprint is estimated to cost $4.2 million while a design that impressed the city’s Revitalization Committee that features two floors, carries a cost estimate of $10.2 million.
The committee watched a presentation from Martin Kimmel, an architect and president of Kimmel Bogrette of Cherry Hill at a July 18 meeting. The firm was asked to come up with conceptual designs and cost estimates for a new convention hall by the city’s engineer, Ray Roberts, of Remington Vernick.
Kimmel told the committee building should serve all the needs provided by the current convention hall such as roller-skating, plus pull visitors from outside the city. He noted buildings on the Promenade “turn their backs to the ocean,” and did not take advantage of the water view and suggested the lobby be built on the rear of the building.
Options available for a new convention center: a one story, two stories, expanding into the site currently occupied by the Solarium and taking 50-feet of beach to expanding the building’s footprint.
Scenario one presented by Kimmel showed a one-story convention center remaining in the existing footprint with a hall about the size of the current one at 8,000 square feet in a 12,240 square foot building. He said it would just replace the current hall without a lot of changes other than better restrooms.
Cost estimate including engineering, architectural, city solicitor and permit fees: $4.2 million.
Scenario two would use the existing footprint plus 50-feet of the beach to create retail space at the Promenade end of the convention center creating a 16,000 square-foot building. Estimated cost: $5.4 million.
Scenario three would create a two-story building creating a 23,345 square-foot convention hall. He said most convention centers place the main hall on the second floor allowing more retail on the first floor. Cost estimate: $6.6 million.
Scenario four would be a one-story convention center demolishing the Solarium and creating a garden arcade on that side of the building leading to a lobby on the ocean side. The center would have 17,600 square feet on the ground floor including a main hall of 8,500 square feet, two retail stores, a kitchen, a formal lobby, administrative office and storage area. An information booth would occupy one side of an archway leading to the arcade area. Cost estimate: $5.6 million.
Scenario five uses the same footprint as scenario four but adds a second floor creating a total of 35,365 feet of space. Kimmel said that design would accommodate larger conventions but also accommodate smaller community functions.
The design would include space for up to six retails shops and conference meeting rooms on the first floor. The second floor would accommodate a hall of 11,000 square feet.
Kimmel said that design would triple the amount of space in the current convention hall. The concept does not call for using an additional 50 feet of beach space, which could add 5,000 square feet of space per floor.
Cost estimate: $10.2 million. Committee members spoke favorably of the concept.
Kimmel said the conceptual plans were flexible. He said a new convention center should last 50-years.
Committee member Jessie Weeks expressed concerns if one elevator would be sufficient to get older residents to a second floor auditorium. Kimmel said two elevators could be included in the design.
Mayor Jerome E. Inderwies asked what type of materials a new convention center would be constructed. Kimmel said the building would be constructed on concrete pile and caps, grade beams, with a combination masonry and steel. The floor would be concrete plank with prestressed concrete walls.
In designs depicting the performing arts hall on the second floor, the stage would face Morrow’s Nut House, making the room wide but not very deep. Kimmel said the hall could accommodate 880 to 925 seats.
With the stage moved to the Promenade end, the hall could seat up to 1,000, he said, Convention Hall currently seats 750.
Kimmel said nothing in the conceptual plans was “set in stone.”
Convention Hall Committee Chairman Skip Loughlin told members to consider the presentation as a very “broad concept.”
Kimmel presented a conceptual sketch of the appearance of the building from the Promenade side, which he described as “Victorian.”
Loughlin described the exterior design as “ Bavarian village.”
“We need to come up with a design concept that gives you a feeling of the new but yet, blends with the old, and gives you a throw back feeling to this (the old hall)” he said.
Committee members suggested making the building “green,” by using solar panels and other renewal energy sources. Kimmel said a geothermal heating and cooling system would add about $400,000 in costs but it would pay for itself within five years.
Committee member James Wyatt said he thought the plan was to make a new center somewhat resemble the convention hall washed away by a storm in Cape May in 1962.
Kimmel said he did not think it was his mission to recreate the old building.
The committee will review the conceptual designs and hold a special meeting Aug. 1 at 9 a.m.
Variables include placing the entrance on the ocean side, the amount of retail space to be included and whether to seek state approval to build on 50-feet of beach, which would require a CAFRA permit.

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