A Backwater's Incoming Tide
Condo Development Brings a Sea Change to the Quiet Eastern Shore Town of Crisfield

By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 26, 2006

CRISFIELD, Md. Each morning before dawn, Chesapeake Bay watermen gather for coffee and gossip at Gordon's Confectionery, an 80-year-old diner in this tiny fishing village that once bustled with three dozen crab-packing houses.

For years they have watched the sun climb above Crisfield's shoreline, which for decades consisted only of sailboat masts, seafood restaurants and a few storefronts.

Now the sunrise is obscured by high-rise condominium complexes that lure a steady stream of vacationers, retirees and baby boomers seeking second homes.

Developers hungry for waterfront land at reasonable prices discovered the quiet town of Crisfield nearly three years ago, and the best-kept real-estate secret on the Eastern Shore quickly spread across the region. Investors from Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia are flocking to Maryland's southernmost town, bringing newcomers and changes to the tight-knit community.

The city's jagged coast is now lined with about 250 units of condominiums and town houses, some selling for nearly $1 million. Three buildings are under construction with nine more in the works, which will add another 300 units in the next two years.

Real estate agents sometimes sell three or four units in a weekend. Forgotten lots and dilapidated houses are being snatched up, often by Washingtonians and Baltimoreans eager to escape the crowds of Ocean City and other popular seaside retreats.

"It's a turnaround kind of town," said Randy Green, a Rockville financial planner who two years ago was among the first buyers at Harbour Light Condominiums, a 127-unit complex on Crisfield's southern tip.

About 14 other Rockville residents have moved into his building. Other neighbors hail from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Green, 52, spends several weekends a month and most of the summer crabbing off his building's private dock, kayaking through trails in nearby Janes Island State Park and taking his two children for jaunts in his new 26-foot power boat.

"I think the town's going to take off," he said. "It's neat to get in on the ground floor of something like that."

His friend Paul Bodbout, also from Rockville, bought a run-down house in town last month and fixes it up on weekends. He's thinking of selling it to buy a condo on the water.

"The more I come down here the more I love it," he said from the back seat of Green's boat. "This place seems like a really good secret that's about to get out."

For now, downtown is studded with vacant lots and boarded storefronts. Developers predict businesses, restaurants and boutique retail outlets will catch up with the residential building boom in the next three to five years, breathing new economic life into a city that for decades has been stalled by the seafood industry's decline around the Bay.

"You don't have to walk around town long to realize it has dire economic needs," said Phil Johnson, one of the builders of Harbour Light. "The solution isn't going to come from seafood anymore, it's going to come from tourists and second homes. The key is to preserve the old without allowing the high-rise buildings to change too much of the city."

But some of Crisfield's 2,700 residents worry that the new residents -- or "come-heres," as Crisfielders call them -- will bring traffic and noise and put pressure on the city's deteriorating sewer system. Soaring property values, they fear, could squeeze out the remaining watermen and spoil the quaint, everybody-knows-everybody charm.

"These people come here on the weekends and then they leave. There's only so much they can support," said Russell Morgan, 48, who has lived his whole life just outside Crisfield's city limits, which consist of three square miles, half of which are under water. He has been drinking coffee at Gordon's and crabbing in the Bay for 25 years.

"When people get offered $1 million for something that was worth $55,000 only three years ago, they're tempted," Morgan said. "A lot of people think it's gonna run the watermen out. They won't be able to afford to stay here with the rising property taxes."

In this one-stoplight town built on oyster shells, where residents fondly recall the opening of a McDonald's restaurant seven years ago as a momentous "now-we're-on-the-map" event, the flurry of building has caused quite a stir.

"A sleepy town like Crisfield getting five or six condos at one time kind of overwhelmed everybody," said Doug Nelson, a lifelong resident who co-owns Gordon's Confectionery. "We needed a shot in the arm, but it was just too much at one time."

Development has also sparked political controversy. In March, the city council voted to enter a contract with private development firm Crisfield Associates LLC, giving them exclusive rights to develop city-owned property or a share of the profits from projects developed by others on about 240 acres of vacant municipal land.

In June, voters ousted Crisfield's longtime mayor and two council members, electing a new lineup that promptly nixed the contract.

Since then, two development firms have offered to pay $1.5 million to repair the leaking 1936 sewer line in exchange for approval of their development plans. But some civic and business leaders argue that the city should pay for the upgrades itself.

"The city's going to maintain control over the system no matter who pays for it," said Calvin Dize, the city manager. "We're trying to move slowly to do this right."

Several private developers have expressed interest in building stores and restaurants on 60 vacant state-owned acres adjacent to the Somers Cove Marina in the center of town. For example, Shaw Development LLC, the company behind the 23-unit Captain's Galley Condominiums near the city dock, wants to build 80 more units as well as a hotel and conference center there. Annemessex Trading Company LLC, founded by former Crisfield Associates developers, also wants to build on that land as well as on a city-owned parking lot downtown.

"The people who are buying here have money," said Jim Gay, a partner with Baltimore-based Shaw Development. "When they come they bring money along with them and we need to give them places to use it."

A proposed ferry to tote tourists across the Bay between Crisfield and Reedville, Va., has been under debate for four years. A recent study indicated the ferry would bring strong economic growth to the area, and a national ferry operator has expressed interest in the project. If approved, it would become the town's third ferry in addition to the daily shuttles going to nearby Smith and Tangier islands.

"It's been moving real slow, but I think a lot of people are leaning toward wanting the ferry," said Valerie Mason, director of the Crisfield Chamber of Commerce. "We need a throughway here to draw on the people who need hotels, gas stations and convenience stores. It would really help the business."

Crisfield is more than just a second home for some Washington transplants. Christopher Heller, 26, of Springfield, recently moved into his mother's condo while he transforms an abandoned Main Street building into a bakery. He then wants to open a high-end restaurant and wine shop.

"After spending my whole life in D.C., I just fell in love with the town," Heller said. "It's sort of depressed right now, but it's not going to be that way much longer. . . . It just needs a few places that will make people want to walk around downtown."

Heller's mother, a retired high school math teacher, spends most of her time in Crisfield although she maintains a home in the District.

"I think a lot of retirees are going to move here because it's so reasonable," she said.

That's exactly what Dennis and Dora Schnitker plan to do as soon as they sell their Baltimore rowhouse. Gary and Kathy Clemens, vacationers from York, Pa., are also tempted to buy a piece of Crisfield.

"It looks like something's staged to happen here and the condos are setting it off," said Gary Clemens as he and his wife explored a strip of empty storefronts. "It probably makes sense to spend a bit of money here before it takes off."

To some longtime Crisfielders, the town is already unrecognizable. But Deborah Wessel, 58, welcomes the change. Several out-of-towners have even made offers on her house, which isn't for sale.

"The landscape sure looks different," she said as she stood on the city dock, flanked by towering condos, to watch the sunset. "But Crisfield's got to change. If we don't, we're going to end up being a ghost town. Maybe we'll even get a second traffic light."