The Pelican Loft set to close

After nearly 15 years in business, The Pelican Loft in Rehoboth Beach is closing its doors.

Owner Lauren Roming said, “In a nutshell, it’s been a series of bad years and this year it just continued. We were at a breaking point in our lease, and it was appropriate not to renew the lease.”

Roming said The Pelican Loft was taking a break until the economy improved.

The store has its roots as a bed and breakfast on 45 Baltimore Avenue, where Roming operated it for eight years before deciding to transition into a retail operation. The Pelican Loft moved to 49 Baltimore Ave., where it stayed for three more years. Roming decided to move the store to Village By The Sea off Rehoboth Avenue to increase foot traffic.

Since it's been a retail store, The Pelican Loft has always been a place to go for unique knickknacks, home and garden products, artwork, glassware, sports equipment and assorted oddities both old and new.

“The store itself has maintained the same mix of old and new, vintage -  it hasn’t evolved a lot because it worked,” Roming said.

“All our customers came in and supported us one last time. It was good to see them and be able to tell them what was happening,” Roming said.

She said closing The Pelican Loft was a bittersweet and difficult decision.

“It was a very difficult decision that was made solely in the purposes of the business, not our personal preference. It was the right business move with the current economy. We hope the economy comes back, and we will too,” Roming said. “It was definitely bittersweet.”

While its original store is closing down, The Pelican Loft will live on at its antique booths at Passwaters Antiques, 1028 E. Market St. in Georgetown and at Practically Yours off Route 9 in Lewes. Roming said the booths have only vintage merchandise, not the new stuff.

With The Pelican Loft gone, Roming also plans to engage in another passion: custom tilework. She has done some tilework on the side for customers at The Pelican Loft, but Roming now wants to expand that business full-time. Roming said she mostly does small-scale projects, such as kitchens or bathrooms.

“I’m not looking to tile Macy’s,” she joked.

For information on Roming’s tile business, call 381-6809.