Due to structural and safety issues demolition at One Rehoboth site permitted to continue through June 13

May 12, 2025

The City of Rehoboth Beach has granted permission to Onix Group, the developer of a new hotel between Rehoboth and Baltimore avenues, to continue demolition of the existing Grotto Pizza and Sirocco Motel on Baltimore Avenue through June 13. This represents about a one-month extension to the city’s traditional May 15-September 15 moratorium on such activities. Demolition activities will be permitted weekdays only, with the exception of Saturday, May 31, and no demo will be allowed over the Memorial Day holiday weekend from May 22-26. Work will take place from 8 am to 7 pm.

Demolition at the site began last month. As the beach store at the front of the Sirocco Motel was removed, it became clear that the structural integrity of the entire motel was compromised. A second-floor steel support beam is clearly rolling backwards, and the entire structure appears unsteady.

Demolition activities recently stalled so that the building could be shored up in order to allow workers to safely dismantle the entire structure by hand, a process that is expected to require about four weeks. Original plans called for only the top, third story of the structure to be dismantled by hand.

“The building in its current state represents a clear safety concern,” says City Manager Taylour Tedder. “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 Mills and I have granted permission for the developer to continue working as safely and expeditiously as possible.”