Earl Bradley’s former Route 1 property being redeveloped
More than a decade after Earl Bradley’s Baybees Pediatrics offices at the intersection of Route 1 and Kings Highway outside Lewes were razed, the property is being redeveloped.
Bradley is the former Cape Region pediatrician now serving 14 life sentences and 164 years in jail on 24 charges of rape, assault and sexual exploitation of a child. His offices on the highway were demolished in late 2011.
The property, 18259 Coastal Highway, is owned by Coastal Way Exchange. Sussex County approved a building permit in September. According to the permit, the estimated cost to construct the one-story, 4,856-square-foot building is $300,000. The owners of the property could not be reached for comment.
The property has a Jack Lingo Realtor sign prominently displayed facing Route 1, with realtor Jordan Geyer listed as the agent. According to the Jack Lingo website, there will be a brand-new commercial building on that location, available for lease in June. It’s described as a prime location for retail, medical, dental or office space.
As of March 16, the property had silt fencing around its perimeter and foundation work had begun.
Bradley was arrested in December 2009 for molesting child patients; he was tried, convicted and then sentenced in June 2011. He served the first five years of his sentence at J.T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, but in June 2016, he was transferred to MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Conn.
This is the second Bradley property that has been redeveloped or renovated since his conviction. In 2016, his four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,600-square-foot home at 344 Savannah Road in Lewes was sold by Lewes’ Bethel United Methodist Church for $300,000. The church was given the house by Wells Fargo bank because it was unable to sell it. Prior to selling the house, church officials attempted to demolish the structure, but Lewes’ historic preservation commission denied the request. In addition to renovating the original structure, the new owners of the house put an addition on the back for a master bedroom and bathroom, and added a detached garage on the rear of the property.
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.
