Cape May hotel owners are modernizing while respecting the city’s Victorian history
By Nora Macaluso, For The Philadelphia Inquirer - May 5, 2022 / Source
Change is coming as bed-and-breakfasts continue to disappear, and longtime beachfront hotel owners are retiring and selling out.
Cape May bills itself as “the nation’s oldest seashore resort,” and its hotels have long attracted visitors looking for Victorian charm rather than the latest amenities. Although you will still find that atmosphere — the entire downtown is a National Historic Landmark — there are signs of change.
Many of the bed and breakfast inns that were synonymous with Cape May in the 1980s and 1990s have reverted to single-family homes or short-term rentals. Longtime owners of beachfront hotels built in the ‘60s and ‘70s are getting out of the family business, selling to resort operators with new visions. And there are business and civic leaders who want to attract new visitors while preserving the past.
Arguably the biggest change coming is a planned luxury resort with dining and meeting space along oceanfront Beach Avenue, between Stockton Place and Gurney Streets. Avalon-based Icona Resorts has proposed investing about $100 million, according to news reports, in what its founder says would be Cape May’s first new hotel in more than 50 years.
Dan Alicea's company Madison Resorts has acquired the Montreal Beach Resort, which he says will be renovated but “keep the Cape May feel.”Jose F. Moreno/ Staff Photographer
“If all goes well, our hope would be to break ground sometime in the fall,” said Eustace Mita, founder, chairman, and chief executive.
Vacationers want more from hotels than they did in the past, Mita said. “They’re used to high-end luxury. That is what they expect and want, and there are less than a handful of full-service hotels in Cape May.”
Mita wants to build on the site of the former Beach Theater in a strip mall that Icona purchased at a foreclosure auction four years ago, along with the adjacent property. The theater portion of the building was demolished in 2011, and the stores along Beach Avenue operate under a structure shored up with metal poles.
Cape May, according to Mita, is a “five-star resort” with “only one five-star hotel” — the 200-plus-year-old Congress Hall, restored by Cape Resorts and its managing partner Curtis Bashaw 20 years ago.
Cape Resorts operates several other properties in Cape May, including the Virginia and the Star in the center of town and the ocean-facing Sandpiper Beach Club and Beach Shack.
“There are so many beautiful structures that are architectural gems,” Bashaw said. “Instead of building new structures, Cape Resorts renovates, restores, and preserves existing properties.”
Those also include non-hotel ventures that stay open past the summer, such as Beach Plum Farm, a 62-acre spread that includes a farm-to-table restaurant, and West End Garage, a former gas station that now houses specialty boutiques.
Attractions such as these are part of what separates Cape May from other Shore towns that tend to close up in the offseason, hotel owners say.
“Oftentimes, we can fill up in the summer — that’s traditional,” Bashaw said, “but to fill up the rest of the year every weekend, you’ve got to have activities for your guests.”
That philosophy helped draw Chad and Courtney Ludeman, operators of Philadelphia-based boutique hotels, to open the Lokal Hotel on Stockton Place, a half-block from the Convention Center, in 2019. The “micro-resort” features apartment suites, a saltwater pool, and beach amenities. The hotel’s “invisible service” means there’s no on-site staff. Check-ins are done by mobile app, and in-room iPads help guests learn about the hotel and the city.
“We wanted to do something at the Shore, but we were worried about seasonality at the Shore towns,” Chad Ludeman said. “We’ve been coming to Cape May in summer and in winter, and we knew it could have a year-round draw.”
“There’s a DNA in Cape May of being a year-round community for hundreds of years” that differentiates it from other Shore towns, Bashaw said. Cape Island was a fishing and whaling center in the 17th century, and in the 1800s and early 1900s, it began to attract visitors, including presidents and prominent Philadelphians. It fell out of favor in the late 1900s, due in part to competition from Atlantic City and Newport, R.I.
“Except for January, February, and some of March, Cape May has become pretty year-round,” with bird-watching in the spring and fall, and holiday events in December, said Tom Carroll, a former B&B owner and current vice president of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. “December is just about as busy as June or September.”
For many, Cape May calls to mind cluttered parlors with lace doilies and Victorian-era kitsch. “The stereotype is there, but we’re moving past it,” Bashaw said.
Hotel owners said they’ve seen more diverse visitors since the pandemic put a crimp in air travel. Cape May is within easy driving distance of Philadelphia, New York, and Washington.
“I’m definitely noticing younger people coming and more minorities coming,” Lokal’s Ludeman said.
Cape May “has diversified itself so it’s not one-dimensional. That’s very unique for the Jersey Shore,” said Dan Alicea, whose newly formed Madison Resorts bought the Montreal Beach Resort, 1025 Beach Ave., when that hotel’s longtime owners retired earlier this year. Alicea paid $23 million, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
“The key thing is ensuring business owners continually reinvest into their product,” Alicea said. “Otherwise, you’re going to be left behind.”
Alicea sees Madison becoming a luxury brand, but he said the hotel will “keep the Cape May feel.”
Icona also has big plans for Cape May. It already owns two hotels along the beach — the Icona at 1101 Beach Ave. and the recently purchased Capri at 1033 Beach Ave. The new hotel will have at least 100 rooms and will “preserve the authenticity of the seashore style” seen throughout Cape May, Mita said.
Icona is “in the midst of seeking approvals” for the new project and has gotten “positive feedback” from city business owners, he said.
The proposal will need the go-ahead from the Historic Preservation Commission, which works with the city to consider the “appropriateness” of new development and modifications to existing structures, according to its website. Carroll, vice chair of the commission, declined to comment specifically on Icona’s plan. As with any project, he said, “we would be taking a hard look at how it would mix with the streetscapes.”
“We don’t want to create phony Victorian, but we really like things that pick up” architectural features seen around historic Cape May, he said. The city has a 35-foot height limitation, which, after factoring in flooding and other requirements, equates to a building of about four stories.
Vacation spots such as Cape May tend to see a lot of resistance to change, as longtime visitors don’t want to come back one year and see their “happy place” looking different.
When Congress Hall said earlier this year that it planned to paint its blue ballroom pink, the hotel’s social media pages were flooded with pleas to reconsider.
“My husband and I got married there, and that color has such a special place in our hearts,” one Facebook commenter said.
“Change happens, no matter what, so we do our best to manage it in a positive way,” Bashaw said. “We do a disservice to our community if we don’t acknowledge that change happens.”
Mayor Zack Mullock says he shares the concerns of those who have worked to preserve Cape May’s character. “Historic preservation has given us some of the best lodging,” he said.
He said Icona had “done nice development in the past” but would have to go through the approval process like everyone else.
Business owners say there’s demand for more hotel rooms in Cape May. “Given that so many B&B rooms were lost back to single-family housing, I think there is the opportunity to create more hotel rooms,” Bashaw said.
Just 28 B&Bs are operating in Cape May, down from more than 70 at the height of the boom, said Doreen Talley, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May.
“When we opened our first B&B, quaint and charming was all that we needed,” said Carroll, who owned and operated the Mainstay Inn on Columbia Avenue for 33 years. “Air-conditioning, private baths, and amenities like a refrigerator in the room were really not stressed that much.”
The pandemic has helped fuel the shift from B&Bs to other uses, he said. “Having a community breakfast with a lot of guests, sharing the porches, just seemed like a dangerous thing to do,” he said. It also became “extremely difficult” to get enough staff to keep a B&B operational, whereas whole-house rentals “can be run with minimal help,” he said.
“Cape May can continue to advance itself and still keep its charm and character,” Madison Resorts’ Alicea said. “That doesn’t have to change. When you have owners that want to make enhancements, it ensures long-term success for the overall community.”
