Rehoboth allows continued demolition for Boardwalk hotel
For the second time in about a month, Rehoboth Beach officials have given the developers of the One Rehoboth Avenue Hotel project an exception related to the demolition of existing structures found within the footprint of the new Boardwalk hotel.
“The building in its current state represents a clear safety concern,” said City Manager Taylour Tedder in a statement May 12. “It doesn’t appear to us that the building in its current condition can remain standing safely through the summer season. For this reason, Mayor [Stan] Mills and I have granted permission for the developer to continue working as safely and expeditiously as possible.”
The city’s annual moratorium on demolitions begins Thursday, May 15. The city has granted a one-month extension. Demolition activities will be permitted 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., weekdays only, with the exception of Saturday, May 31. No demolition will be allowed over Memorial Day holiday weekend, Thursday, May 22 through Monday, May 26.
Original plans called for only the top of the structure to be dismantled by hand, but now plans call for the entire structure to be done by hand. The city said the process should take about four weeks.
The 60-room hotel with Boardwalk-level commercial space is located on a piece of property stretching the width of the block from Rehoboth Avenue to Baltimore Avenue and fronting the Boardwalk. It’s being built by Grotto Pizza and Pennsylvania-based real estate developer Onix Group. The site includes Grotto Pizza and the former Dolle’s Candyland property on the Boardwalk, the Sirocco Motel on Baltimore Avenue and Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard on Rehoboth Avenue.
The city’s first exception occurred in early April. The city issued a demolition notice related to the old structures March 21. City code calls for a 30-day waiting period after a demolition permit is issued, which means none of the hotel-related demolitions were supposed to begin before April 21. However, in an effort to minimize the demolition’s effect on the Boardwalk, the city announced the developers would be permitted to begin demolition nearly two weeks early.
It took almost a week to secure the site before demolition began with the old Grotto Pizza. Shortly after that, significant structural issues were discovered at the Sirocco Motel, which brought progress to a grinding halt while the motel was secured so it could be taken down safely.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
