CAPE MAY — Months after a nonprofit organization stepped in at the request of the city to operate the Welcome Center, Cape May City Council and MAC are making the arrangement official for the next few years.
Jody Alessandrine, director and CEO of Cape May MAC (Music + Arts + Culture), said the $1 yearly lease of a little more than two years will provide the chance to determine the longer-term benefit to his organization and the city.
City Council introduced an ordinance July 1 to authorize a lease agreement for the Welcome Center at 609 Lafayette St. with MAC that would run from Sept. 2 until the end of 2027. It is scheduled for second reading and adoption at the Aug. 5 meeting.
Earlier this year, the Cape May Chamber of Commerce stepped away after years of staffing the center, where tour buses from nearly two dozen states and shuttles from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry arrive. City officials asked MAC to step in to fill the void.
Alessandrine said MAC didn’t anticipate the request. He believes it made sense because the center, which operates historic properties on Cape Island including the Emlen Physick Estate, Cape May Lighthouse and World War II Lookout Tower and runs hundreds of events and tours, brings in 70 percent of the tour buses to Cape May and the Welcome Center.
Whether there will be a return on the investment for MAC is yet to be determined.
Alessandrine explained staffing the Welcome Center seven days a week during the main tourism season and then on weekends the rest of the year is expected to cost MAC $40,000 in personnel costs annually, an amount the organization had not included in its $4.6 million budget.
MAC will spend more money on repainting and revamping the interior of the center with historical displays, moving current wall displays, offering a new map of the city and will provide space for brochures from chamber businesses, non-profit groups and churches available to all who visit the center.
Susan Krysiak, media relations director for MAC, pointed out that unlike the Chamber of Commerce, MAC personnel would provide space for brochures, but would not be providing recommendations on such things as restaurants and hotels. Visitors making those requests would be directed to the chamber.
Cape May covering
expenses; bus permit
management questioned
At the July 1 City Council meeting, some citizens questioned the lease arrangement of the Welcome Center, which includes extensive office space on the second floor.
“The pattern in the city has been non-profits rent from the city and have obligation to pay for all their expenses,” resident Jules Rauch said. “You’re deviating from that practice because you’re looking to bear the expenses for MAC with water, sewer and the electric, and other things that have a monetary allocation for them.”
Rauch added that he did not feel it was a good expense for the city, especially considering the change to pre-existing practices.
Mayor Zack Mullock said the council had closed sessions on the lease and that these topics were part of the discussion and negotiation between the two parties.
“I’m not going to talk about exactly what was discussed,” Mullock said. “But what I see as a difference, they are staffing that building to welcome Cape May guests.”
Mullock said an alternative would have been to pay someone to staff the center.
“We felt that was far less of an expense, basically paying the electric bill and yes we pay the sewer to the county, and the water bill is basically us,” Mullock said. “This is providing a direct service to the Welcome Center that we would have to provide otherwise.”
City Solicitor Chris Gillin-Schwartz said the city has leased excess space in another portion of the building at market rate and is now generating revenue that it did not have before.
“It’s a unique situation, but reality is that the city would have to, or would want to, staff it if there wasn’t somebody in there doing that,” he added. “Both parties want to take a two-year look [at the lease] to see how this pans out.”
Resident Stacey Sheehan inquired whether MAC would be handling the bus permits. Deputy Mayor Maureen McDade said it would.
“I feel that MAC is a very wealthy non-profit, so for them to not be able to pay for their own utilities and bathroom cleaning, to me, is something that the taxpayers should not be supporting,” Sheehan said. “We pay taxes, not for a non-profit to grow wealthier, for us to pay their utility bills and for them to profit off of our bus permits.”
Alessandrine, interviewed by the Star and Wave on Sunday at the Welcome Center, said MAC took over the bus permitting last summer and that it was not a profit center.
He explained that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the bus permitting that had been done online via Jungle Lasers software was taken offline and went back to the cumbersome and antiquated paper permits.
Two years ago, the city asked MAC if it were interested in handling that aspect again for two reasons — because the center brings in 70 percent of the buses to the city and because MAC could handle paying the $4,500 annually for the software.
“We assumed that responsibility last August,” Alessandrine said. “The revenue from that was about $6,700 by the end of the year. So far this year, it’s been about $7,000. If you do that math, $4,500 for the software plus our staff time” may make it about “break-even at best.”
The benefit to MAC, he added, is that it connects the center to the other 30 percent of the bus traffic to the city, in addition to the 70 percent for which MAC generates. That provides the opportunity to sell the additional passengers on the tours, events and attractions MAC offers.
“There is a bit of a misnomer that there’s money in it,” Alessandrine said. “If there was money in it, more municipalities would be doing it. … The residual benefit is that we’re establishing relationships (with visitors to Cape May) and offering them the 8,700 different things that we do on a calendar year.”
Regarding the office space on the second floor, which takes up a substantial portion of the utility expense the city is covering through the lease, Alessandrine said most of it will be unused, except occasionally for the conference room.
There is no conference room at MAC’s headquarters at the Physick Estate. They may use it more during renovation work as part of an upcoming $2.2 million project that is being bonded through the city then paid back by MAC.
The bottom line for MAC, according to Alessandrine, is that it is assuming the financial risk of operating the Welcome Center through the end of 2027. What comes of it will determine if the operation will increase the business at MAC, providing enough of a return on its investment as it brings more people to the city, benefiting both the city and the other businesses in Cape May.
“I think as the mayor said, it would be a significant responsibility, probably more than our $40,000, for the city with union contracts and things of that nature” to run the Welcome Center. “You’re talking about a huge investment were the city to undertake this.
“We’re looking at representing all the nonprofits in town, houses of worship, any businesses the chamber would like to have display their information here,” he said. “We’re not selling anything here other than tickets for our tours. The only thing I think we have permission to sell is bottled water.
“We’re not competing with businesses. We’re just here to promote the city and that’s what we do really well,” Alessandrine said. “The economic impact study we had done a few years ago realized that we’re responsible for upwards of $200 million annually for the local economy to benefit from our programming.”
He took pains to point out that MAC is mission-driven, that much of what it provides is for enriching the history and culture of the Cape May region for residents and visitors.
“So if at the end of the day we’re barely breaking even or there’s an acceptable loss or a slight (profit), that would probably give us reason to think that it’s worthy to continue (the lease),” Alessandrine said. “I’m optimistic because the city is going from a capable steward of this property in the Chamber of Commerce and moving right into another capable steward” — MAC.
“The city is excited to have Cape May MAC greet our guests at the Welcome Center,” City Manager Paul Dietrich said in a press release from the center. “It is important to have a good partner in Cape May MAC and to have them serve as our ambassador to the many visitors that pass through the City of Cape May.”
About MAC, plans for Welcome Center
“Trains were an important part of Cape May history, especially during the Victorian era,” Cape May MAC Curator Ben Ridings said in the release. “Cape May MAC plans to install informative panels on the interior walls of the Welcome Center this year to tell the story of how train travel led to Cape May’s second boom, including firsthand accounts from individuals, gleaned from newspapers and other publications, to give visitors to Cape May an idea of what it was like to travel by train to Cape May in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That era has helped make Cape May what it is today, and visitors will be interested to see this side of the city’s historic roots.”
MAC also has plans to install an interpretive exhibit in the Welcome Center to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation in 2026. The exhibit will focus on Cape May’s role in the American Revolution.
According to MAC, its group tour team attends conventions across the country and Canada, connecting with leaders and agents to make business connections and promote Cape May and the Jersey Cape as a top tourist destination. Cape May MAC is the designated group tour representative for the Cape May County Department of Tourism and the Southern Shore Regional Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), promoting group travel not only to Cape May but to Cape May and Cumberland counties.
In 2024, MAC arranged tours and contracted with 283 groups, hosting 525 events for 17,856 group tour visitors from travel groups across the country, including 22 states and Canada.
“We have had positive feedback for our pre-designed itineraries, continued interest in seasonal and themed tours, and often have requests for additional information about accommodation and dining options,” Group Tour Manager Susan Gibson said. “Many operators praise Cape May MAC’s selection of 14 unique itineraries.”
By DAVID NAHAN and RACHEL SHUBIN/Cape May Star and Wave
