Boardwalk’s last empty building to re-open
Madison Marquette will reactivate Sunset Ave. Pavilion in time for Bamboozle
The last empty building on the boardwalk will soon be back in business.
Boadwalk redeveloper Madison Marquette is renovating the shuttered Sunset Avenue Pavilion to reopen it for May’s Bamboozle festival.
The boardwalk redeveloper seeks to “make the building active again instead of it laying there boarded up,” city redevelopment and planning director Donald Sammet said at Wednesday’s city council meeting.
At the meeting, Madison Marquette’s vice president of development, Keith Ortner, and director of retail services, Carrie Turner, brought the council up to speed on their plans for the pavilion.
During the upcoming Bamboozle festival, slated for May 18, 19 and 20, Madison Marquette has “a lot of different ideas” for the pavilion’s use, Ortner said, including a VIP area or “a place of congregation.”
The building, just north of Convention Hall, once housed boardwalk concessions on its ground floor. The structure has two floors, with a locker room, showers and bathrooms on the second floor and open floor plan on the ground floor.
In the future, Madison Marquette will also be able to offer “floating retail” such as a farmers market or other vendors in the pavilion’s ground floor, Ortner said. The installation of a kitchen on premises is not permitted, Sammet said.
Madison Marquette plans to equip the building with electricity and water to get the bathrooms and showers back in working order. They will also install 24 to 26 garage doors, which will roll into the building to provide open air.
Madison Marquette will also stabilize the exterior façade and the brick front to the building.
Because the developer will maintain the building’s previous use, they are not required to install an elevator. Instead, they must offer the same restroom and sink services on the first floor as the second, Ortner said.
The building’s future primary function “is not defined as of yet, other than to say that we’ll be offering the space for weddings or activities,” Ortner said.
Madison Marquette still has not worked out the details as to how the restrooms, locker rooms and showers upstairs will be used. The restrooms will not be open to the public at all times, Ortner said.
The pavilion will be available for rent for private functions similar to the Carousel’s use, Turner said.
