Ocean Pines officials announced on Sunday it was close to an agreement to hire the Matt Ortt Companies to run the beach club and yacht club. General Manager John Bailey said an association lawyer was working out details for a contract.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(March 1, 2018) Ocean Pines appears close to an agreement with the Matt Ortt Companies to run the association’s yacht club and beach club.

General Manager John Bailey said Sunday that a contract was being finalized.

“That is with the legal beagles at this point, to work out final details,” Bailey said.

Those details apparently include how financial reporting would occur and how employees at the clubs are handled.

“I can tell you this, they would be employees of the Matt Ortt Companies,” Bailey said. “They would not be employees of the association.”

The board of directors recently met with representatives from Matt Ortt and a consulting group led by former yacht club manager Joe Reinhart.

Association President Doug Parks previously promised presentations from both groups, but said Sunday that would not occur because Reinhart was no longer in the running.

“Although we were very satisfied with the presentation [from Reinhart] … unfortunately there was a part of the terms and conditions that were critical to the operation that we could not honor as a contract,” Parks said. “We decided that we couldn’t move forward with their proposal as presented. They wouldn’t negotiate.

“With that in mind, we’ve only got one and we’ll proceed … we’ve got the Matt Ortt group and those discussions are ongoing,” Parks added. “There is an open issue with the terms and conditions of the contract … being worked out by both parties. Our attorneys are negotiating with them in good faith to make sure we get all that done. More to come on that as things develop.”

Bailey said some practical issues were being worked out “with the Matt Ortt Companies as contractual issues were worked out, because we didn’t want to lose any more time in getting to an open date,” believed to be Memorial Day.

He said about a dozen representatives from Matt Ortt met with Ocean Pines staff last week to tour both buildings and look at kitchen equipment and inventory. Also discussed were point of sales system and some general maintenance, including painting, Bailey said.

“The board should have a contract within a week or two,” Bailey said.