Rehoboth Beach Patrol project slated to begin after Labor Day

With an eye toward completion in time for the 2025 season, Rehoboth Beach officials have announced a timeline for Phase I of a new Rehoboth Beach Patrol headquarters.

The reconstruction of the beach patrol headquarters at Baltimore Avenue and the Boardwalk has been on the city’s to-do list for several years. During a meeting in August, city officials and contractor Davis, Bowen & Friedel revealed a plan for a two-story structure. It nearly doubles the square footage of the current building and would stand 38 feet tall – the current structure is 24 feet tall. The first floor, which would be slightly lower than street level, would have public restrooms and an emergency care station. The estimated cost is about $5 million.

During a commissioner workshop April 11, City Manager Laurence Christian provided a timeline for how Phase I of the project would begin – bid documents would be prepared in the coming weeks, a pre-bid meeting by the end of June, awarding of bids by the end of July, a notice to proceed by the end of August, construction beginning soon after Labor Day. The goal would be to have the public restrooms done and the headquarters framed out by the start of the 2024 season.

The two-story building will be 5,500 square feet with a pre-finished fiber cement siding, said Public Works Director Kevin Williams. The building is being designed in alignment with the current FEMA map and will have the 1-foot freeboard – additional amount of height above the base flood elevation – as required by city code.

Lifeguards are on duty in Rehoboth from the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through three weeks following Labor Day, which means there could a brief overlap with construction.

Capt. Jeff Giles said physical construction may not take place for a couple of weeks because there will be environmental controls and safety fencing that need to be erected before work on the building itself begins. If necessary, he said, lifeguards will meet and work from city hall when not on the beach during the last few days of the season.

Giles said a lot of the memorabilia will be stored during construction and utilized in the new headquarters. The city will work with the alumni association to preserve other items, he said.

This project is being done at the same time as other large projects – a 60-room hotel on the Boardwalk that will have its main entrance on Baltimore Avenue; a 55-room hotel on four Baltimore Avenue lots immediately west of the Atlantic Sands; and the redesign of the Boardwalk end of Baltimore Avenue in conjunction with the beach patrol headquarters.

The city has reached out to the developers of the projects adjacent to the beach patrol, said Williams, adding there are a lot of unknowns and uncertain timelines. The city is moving forward with its project over the next two off-seasons and will coordinate with any other projects in the area as necessary, he said.