The opening date is unknown, but there will be a new Starbucks Coffee in the area.
A recently installed sign on the old Sandy Brae homestead property off southbound Route 1 outside Lewes announced Starbucks’ arrival. The sign says there’s a little less than 16,000 square feet of retail and office space that’s now up for lease on a lot that would be joining a free-standing Starbucks.
A Starbucks spokesperson confirmed the new location.
“Starbucks is always looking for great locations to better meet the needs of our customers, and we are happy to confirm that we will be opening a new location at 18422 Coastal Highway in Lewes,” said the spokesperson in a prepared statement March 13. “Of note, this location will employ 25 partners [employees] and will be drive-thru only.”
This location would join three other Starbucks in the Cape Region – there’s one in Acme, one just south of Airport Road off Route 1 outside Rehoboth and one on Rehoboth Avenue in downtown Rehoboth Beach.
Lewes-based real estate company Reed Ventures purchased the property a little more than a year ago. The house on the property is close to 100 years old, and prior to being used as space for commercial businesses, the property was a farm racing stable. The stones wrapping the outside of the house and used in its two fireplaces are from the base of the old Cape Henlopen Lighthouse, which stood atop the Great Dune in what is now Cape Henlopen State Park until it collapsed in 1926.
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.