The first two floors of the former Sirocco Motel in Rehoboth Beach need to be structurally secure before the building can be demolished, causing a delay in the One Rehoboth Avenue Hotel project.

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 issued a public notice for the pending demolitions in mid-March. The partial demolition of the structures that are in the footprint of the new hotel began the last full week of April, with the removal of the old Grotto restaurant and the Sirocco Motel on the Baltimore Avenue side of the project. The Rehoboth Avenue-facing structures are scheduled to be demolished in the fall.

City Manager Taylour Tedder addressed the delay during his city manager’s report at a commissioner workshop May 5. Upon removal of the motel’s second-floor balcony, the second-floor main beam supporting the balcony was fully exposed and in an extreme state of corrosion, so temporary shoring was brought in, he said.

“The bar joist in that area of the corroded beam had no longer been attached, as all of the welds had fully corroded and degraded, and were just floating, supported only by the flooring and wall assemblies,” said Tedder. 

More corrosion was found after the beach store was removed, which shut the site down because it was deemed unsafe, said Tedder. The developer brought in a structural engineer April 28, and shoring was installed over the course of five days, ending May 2, he said.

There was a need for temporary shoring on both the first and second floors, and the remainder of the demolition process will all have to be done by hand, said Tedder.

The city’s annual four-month moratorium on demolitions goes into effect Thursday, May 15. However, city code also gives the city manager the power to allow a demolition if a structure is deemed unsafe. This has been done in the past, most recently with the demolition of a large portion of Coast Hotel a few summers ago. That hotel’s demolition resulted in a change to code – the mayor and city manager now have to make a written finding that an emergency exists and then state the reasons why the public health and safety require a more expeditious demolition.

In an email May 8, Lynne Coan, city spokesperson, said the city has received a request from Onix Group for permission to continue working on demolition beyond the moratorium. The city is reviewing the request and will announce a decision next week, she said.