The Belhaven Hotel project in Rehoboth Beach took a small step forward Jan. 23, when the planning commission unanimously approved the lot consolidation of the three parcels that fall within the footprint of the hotel.

First introduced in April 2019, the 105-room hotel stretches the width of the block from Rehoboth Avenue to Wilmington Avenue, and also fronts the Boardwalk.

The planning commission approved, for a second time, the hotel’s site plan in July. The structure would be four stories above ground, with the hotel occupying the top three and retail on the ground level. One level of underground parking is planned for the site, with an additional satellite parking facility on Baltimore Avenue.

As part of the site-plan approval process, a condition was set for the developers – the father-and-son team of John and Alex Papajohn – to consolidate the three lots where the hotel will be built. 

Following the Jan. 23 meeting, Alex Papajohn said he, his father and the rest of the development team are very pleased with the planning commission’s approval. Looking ahead, the team is moving forward on all fronts, fine-tuning plans and working on the feasibility of the project, he said.

As approved, the three lots, all zoned C-1, commercial, were consolidated under the name Belhaven Properties LLC. The three rectangular lots form a shape similar to the S-shaped game piece from Tetris and are about 38,500 square feet in total – one at 16,975 square feet, one at 16,500 square feet and one at 5,000 square feet.

City code requires any new lot to have road frontages greater than the required 50-foot minimum, to have an area greater than 5,000 square feet, and to be able to fully contain a rectangle greater than 4,000 square feet, with the shortest side being greater than 48 feet. The new lot meets all those requirements.

At the request of city staff, a condition was set as part of the approval related to removing all main and accessory structures before the city will issue a building permit.

Alex Papajohn said he doesn’t expect anything to happen to the retail properties on Rehoboth Avenue and the Boardwalk or the rental properties on Wilmington Avenue before the upcoming summer season.

Boardwalk, Stockley Street lots consolidated

The planning commission also unanimously approved a lot consolidation for the properties at 605 South Boardwalk and 1 Stockley St. The house on the Stockley Street lot was demolished about a year ago. It was a cedar-sided, cedar-shingle house dating back to the 1890s that sold in November 2024 for $6 million. The 3,400-square-foot home had five bedrooms, five full baths and one half-bath.

Each of the lots contain about 12,500 square feet, inclusive of a historic easterly extension that includes the Boardwalk and dune east of the Boardwalk. However, the lots have each been historically recognized as the standard 50-by-100-foot lot. Whether evaluated based on the historic platted zoning lots or the fully surveyed gross area, the consolidated parcel substantially exceeds the minimum lot area and minimum lot width requirements of the R-l residential district.