By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(Oct. 22, 2026) With demolition underway, the renovation of the Ocean Pines Beach Club in Ocean City is moving along as anticipated, with permits for a new deck, elevator, and pilings expected in the coming weeks.

The Ocean Pines Association and the community’s food and beverage operator, Touch of Italy, are teaming up to revamp OPA’s Beach Club, with a completion date of Memorial Day.

Renovations include a new upstairs restaurant, updated decks, and the installation of an ADA-compliant elevator.

While OPA will handle the elevator and exterior structural upgrades, TOI will complete the interior work. TOI will install a new second-story kitchen and seating to expand the Beach Club’s food operations.

OPA General Manager John Viola told the Bayside Gazette Tuesday that OPA has received demolition permits, and demo work has begun inside and outside the facility to prepare for the new restaurant, decks, and pilings.

Viola said he is waiting for final design plans, which he expects sometime this week.

“Once we get those designs, we will reach out to get the permits,” he said. “All that should happen over the next week.”

The general manager said the Beach Club’s renovation should finish sometime in May. By the next summer season, the association must ensure access to the club’s parking lot and pool, and a completed deck.

Viola said he is confident OPA will meet that responsibility.

However, he added that work on the new restaurant and elevator could take longer.

“As far as the elevator and upstairs restaurant, it could be close,” Viola said. “But Touch of Italy is confident with their building of the inside restaurant that they’ll be done by the end of May.”

Viola said the Beach Club project is “long overdue.” He said the structure’s deck has been deteriorating for a few years and that its food-and-beverage options could be expanded.

“The time was right,” the general manager said. “We have somebody excited about building a restaurant upstairs…The deck, we’ve gotten a lot of emails on the deck the last couple of years, and we were ready to do the deck, so why not do everything now?”

In July, the OPA board approved contractors for the Beach Club initiative.

The board selected Absolute Demolition for the property’s exterior demolition for $51,616. My Hands Handyman was chosen for the interior demo for $49,957.