SPECIAL REPORT JAN. 11, 2025
443-359-7527 • 127 Nottingham Lane, Ocean Pines, MD 21811
OPA agrees to five-year lease with Touch of Italy to manage food and beverage venues Association to reap first year rental income of $384,000 and 6.5 percent of food sales, with no operating expenses By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors has approved a five-year lease with the Touch of Italy (TOI) Group to oversee its food and beverage operations, including the Yacht Club, the Beach Club, and the Clubhouse Grille. The OPA will be entitled to a percentage of net food sales at the three venues, but will not share in alcohol sales. Director of Finance/Controller Steve Phillips said in a Jan. 9 email that TOI will apply for liquor licenses, including the Class C club license at the Beach Club that restricts alcohol sales to OPA members and Ocean Pines residents, a category that includes renters. Because the liquor licenses will be held by TOI, the OPA can’t share in alcohol sales the way it can for food. There’s a county law on the books that restricts profit-taking on alcohol to the license holder, dating back to the era in Ocean City when organized crime was rumored to be raking in profits from alcohol sales at establishments with liquor licenses held in the names of frontmen. “You can’t profit from booze if you’re not on the liquor license,” a source told the Progress, “and in any lease it’s the lessee who holds the liquor license, not the landlord.” The five-year lease that includes revenue-sharing of food sales was approved in a special meeting of the Board of Directors on the afternoon of Jan. 8. Phillips in his Jan. 9 email said the lease covering all three payments
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is $32,000 per month, with an escalation in years two through five. That works out to $384,000 in lease payments for 2025-26. The Progress has learned that the escalation percentage is three percent per year. That works out to an increase in rent of $11,520 in year two. Phillips declined to disclose the percentage to be used in the monthly calculation of revenue-sharing for food sales. An informed source on the Board said the percentage is 6.5 percent. General Manager John Viola later confirmed the percentage. Viola provided some information on what he said would be a new OPA Food and Beverage Department. It will recognize revenue only, since the OPA will incur no operating expenses in this department. As the lessee, TOI will be responsible for all operating expenses at the three venues. The department’s two revenue streams will be rent and food revenue-sharing. So far, Viola and Phillips have not released a budget providing details predicting how well this department will perform next year. It’s possible that one will be created before the Board votes to approve a budget for next year, action that normally takes place at the February Board meeting. Nor have Viola and Phillips released a prediction for food sales under TOI management. u