While there’s a red demolition notice sign in front of the former Carlton’s Men’s & Women’s Apparel in Rehoboth Beach, city officials say the entire building will not be demolished.

In early December, the city published a demolition notice for 10 and 12 Baltimore Ave., and the rear portion of 31 Rehoboth Ave. The notice says the permit was issued Nov. 30 and that demolition cannot begin before Jan. 2.

Typically, demolition notices in Rehoboth Beach have wording related to the structure that’s being demolished. For example, a notice might say “a two-story, single-family dwelling and an accessory structure.” This notice didn’t include any of that information, in part because the Baltimore Avenue lots to the north are vacant.

City Building Inspector Matt Janis said the Carlton’s T-shaped building extends onto the Baltimore Avenue properties. After reaching out to the city solicitor to see how it should be handled, the city thought the appropriate step was to advertise and give notice for both properties, Janis said.

Janis said the top of the T is being removed from Baltimore Avenue. The owner applied for an additional permit to infill the rear wall portion of the structure that will remain on Rehoboth Avenue.

“No portion of the building will be removed from Rehoboth Avenue. All parties involved are completely aware of the applications,” said Janis.

The Baltimore Avenue lots are owned by the Papajohn family. The Rehoboth Avenue lot is owned by the Derrickson family.

The clothing store was founded in 1960 by Harry Derrickson, and had been run by Trey and Marcia Kraus since 2005 before it closed in December. Prior to being a clothing store, the building was home to a movie theater.

Rehoboth finishes with 20 demo permits issued in ‘23

The three-for-one demolition notice issued for the former Carlton’s property isn’t the only one issued by the city recently. A permit was issued Oct. 2 for a one-story, single-family dwelling and an accessory structure at 40 Oak Ave.

That means, in 2023, there were 20 demolition permits issued by the city, which is a slight increase over last year’s 16 notices, but nowhere near the high of 34 notices in 2019. A significant majority of the notices this year – 14 – were for properties south of Rehoboth Avenue. One of the permits was for the Rehoboth Beach Patrol headquarters, which is slated to be razed by the end of January. Counting the 20 this year, the city has issued 287 demolition permits since April 2012.

DEMOLITION PERMITS ISSUED IN REHOBOTH BEACH SINCE APRIL 2012

Permits issued annually since April 2012:

• 2012: 14
• 2013: 15
• 2014: 23
• 2015: 23
• 2016: 30
• 2017: 30
• 2018: 27
• 2019: 34
• 2020: 32
• 2021: 23
• 2022: 16
• 2023: 20

Permits issued by month since April 2012:

• January – 23
• February – 20
• March – 31
• April – 12
• May – 6
• June – 3
• July – 9
• August – 62
• September – 39
• October – 39
• November – 26
• December – 17