By Brian Shane

Staff Writer

(March 19, 2026) Worcester County officials approved plans for a 12-unit apartment building in West Ocean City, one the developer hopes will soon provide new year-round rental opportunities for working families.

The county’s planning commission on March 5 gave its unanimous approval to the Park Place Villas project along Route 50 in West Ocean City. The building will be set to the rear of a deep lot that’s already home to developer Todd Ferrante’s Park Place Plaza retail complex.

Ferrante told the planning commission he’s pursuing the project because of a lack of year-round rental housing the area, and that this building will not include short-term rentals.

“I want to be clear – this is year-round housing,” he said. “This is not for students to come over just in the summertime. This is for people who live and reside, people that work in the Ocean City-Berlin area.”

Plans from architect Keith Iott call for a three-story building with two- and three-bedroom units sized between 900 and 1,200 square feet.

In recent years, Worcester County did not permit workforce housing as part of a commercial project unless it was physically connected to the building – like second-floor apartments over a ground-level storefront, for example.

Ferrante, however, spent two years challenging that regulation – and won.

Last September, the county commissioners approved his proposed zoning amendment that allows detached multi-family dwellings as an accessory use to a commercial development. It means residential units can be built as detached accessory dwellings on the same commercially zoned lot.

Moving forward, Ferrante said he hopes to break ground on the apartment building in the next few months and will probably start soliciting for renters in the late summer or early fall.

Hugh Cropper, Ferrante’s attorney, called the project “completely consistent with the comprehensive plan” in regard to locating residential housing near employment centers.

“It will be a service to West Ocean City that people can afford,” he told the planning commission. “They can rent back there, and live and walk to work.”

The code change affected about 60 properties countywide, most of them located along the West Ocean City commercial corridor.

The county commissioners had denied a similar version of the proposed amendment in March 2024. They ended up passing the amendment after Ferrante narrowed the scope to impact only multifamily-zoned parcels.

Park Place Plaza opened in 2018. Not only was the complex the new home for Ferrante’s longtime flagship business, Park Place Jewelers, but also included other retail storefronts and a restaurant space. Current tenants include a bank branch, a Realtor’s office, a candy shop, and a Mexican cantina.

Ferrante also serves as an elected member of the Worcester County Board of Education, where he’s been board president since 2023.