More Details on New Mini Golf Course at 34th Street

In our newsletter last week (did I mention 2,400 subscribers and going strong?) we brought you #exclusive details about the new mini golf course coming to 34th Street where the former Blitz’s Market currently sits.

The project received go-ahead from the zoning board last week. It’s backed by the O’Hara family, which owns and operates Uncle Bill’s locations in Ocean City, along with Nauti Donuts and Aunt Betty’s.

Yesterday, we spoke with Chris and Kelli O’Hara about plans for the new course.

The big idea

This is a mini golf course set to serve people in the central and south ends of the city, giving people a break from having to go to the boardwalk or downtown for their entertainment.

Chris and Kelli expect most people to walk or bike to the location (there will be plenty of bike racks) and don’t particularly expect people to drive across town, especially from the North End, to go there.

Kelli: “Bring some family fun to 34th Street… be right across from the playground, give families a reason to not have to go to the boardwalk every night to have fun, and hopefully bring some additional business to Randazzos and some of the other places around there. And give [people in that part of town] a place to walk to or bike to get away from the hoopla up on the boardwalk.”

What can we expect from the course itself?

This will be a small-ish local neighborhood style putt-putt course, and not the size and scope of the likes of Pirate Island or Congo Falls.

But, that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing the most they can with the space.

There will be 18 holes, nine of which are handicap accessible (handicap players can play those holes 2x).

Most notably, there will be a water feature with a pond and cave that will be visible upon pulling on to 34th Street.

They are still working on specific design elements and some features can change, they say, but what you see in the rendering is a mostly accurate representation of the layout.

They said the city was very supportive of the course and gave swift approval on some of the variances required to build it.

When will it open?

They intend to have it open next spring. Demo will begin soon on the building that’s currently there, with a relatively quick construction timeline in advance of next season.

They will be open all summer (obviously) and will “play it by ear” on how early or late in the season they stay open.

Kelli: “I know just from experience at Aunt Betty's it quiets at 40th street much sooner than it does at 21st Street, so we'll probably do weekends into the fall and we'll see how it goes.”

What about parking?

Given the size of the lot, there will only be three spaces. Two for employees and one for handicap parking.

As mentioned earlier, the O’Haras don’t expect to pull too many people driving from other parts of town and are focused more on serving the local, walkable community.

Kelli spoke to some of the concerns aired by nearby residents on Facebook, specifically about parking and bringing more congestion to that part of town:

Kelli: “I think that, you know, it's an asset to the city. I think that parking is at a premium in the city anywhere you go. But we can't limit attractions for kids because of the lack of parking in the city. And the city has a whole block of playground and that is full all the time. I think that there's enough people that live in walking distance. We just will offer them another opportunity of something to do that you can take the kids to Randazzo's for pizza, you can go to the playground, and you can go to mini golf— and it gives them a whole outing, a whole opportunity. And we're gonna have lots of bike racks and we don't foresee being a business that people will necessarily drive all the way across the island for. I think that people will bike, people will walk. We're gonna be your local neighborhood mini golf.”

What about food?

The plans mentioned light snacks, like soda and ice cream.

What else?

Kelli: “Um, yeah, I think we'll definitely have some signature kinda items for sale. And we're still kind of working on that, but it will be something that might be a little different than what you could get somewhere else.”

Like Nauti Donuts?

Chris: “That is the plan for now to have a display case of donuts that we'd make fresh daily in the morning and and ship 'em over to the mini golf course for sale.”

Donuts and mini golf. Sounds delightful.