By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

(Feb. 20, 2020) The Berlin Planning Commission approved a concept plan review by Property owner John Derrickson on Wednesday, Feb. 12, that promotes his concept plan for two multi-purpose buildings that will be used for both commercial and residential use.

Derrickson and Architect Steve Cirile approached the commission for approval of a mixed-use property that would be located on 9913 Old Ocean City Blvd, directly across from Cheers Beer, Wine and Spirits and within walking distance of Historic Berlin.

Photo courtesy Steve Cirile
This rendering demonstrates the potential finished product for a mixed project development on Old Ocean City Blvd as provided to the Berlin Planning
Commission on Wednesday, Feb. 12.

The properties will have three office spaces available on the first floor per building and three three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments approximately 1,440 square feet each on the second level. There would be 12 designated parking spaces for the second floor, residential renters within the proposed parking lot, as well as bike rack accessibility. There will also be three 4×4 storage lockers for the apartments. The second-floor apartments would be leased for $2,000-2,500 a month.

The properties would also have a walkway with space for lights, benches and other landscaping opportunities, Cirile added. Most importantly, the new buildings would be designed to look exactly like old Berlin.

“We had it mimic old Berlin in its detailing and brick downstairs and the typical wood detailing you’d see down Main Street,” he said.

“When I first bought the property, I wanted to do something nice, so we made the back of the building to look like the front of the building,” Derrickson said. “Because there are homes there that were just built that make it have a two front [appearance].”

Ensuring the property looks like Main Street Berlin is important because according to Cirile, it will become “the gateway of old Berlin.”

Between the buildings will be a walkway that connects them to one another.

Board member Pete Cosby approved of the landscaping concept despite the lack of sidewalks that the town typically uses, with Cirile noting the plan “took great pains to make the building look like it’s been there and has that 19th century charm.”