Nicola Pizza aims for spring 2022 opening on Coastal Highway near Lewes
Shannon Marvel McNaughtNicola Pizza is hoping to complete its move from downtown Rehoboth Beach to Coastal Highway near Lewes by spring 2022.
Demolition has begun on the self-storage facility at 17501 Coastal Highway, and the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission has approved Nicola's preliminary site plan.
It details a two-story, 9,640 square-foot restaurant. The almost 2-acre property will include 144 parking spaces and a 1,726-square-foot deck.
Much like Nicola's on Rehoboth Avenue, the new building will feature a takeout window. It will also have an outdoor fire pit.
The parking lot will connect to both Coastal Highway and Savannah Road. Traffic will enter and exit from Savannah Road at Ocean One Plaza, which Nicola's Caggiano family also owns.
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Planning and Zoning Commissioner Kim Hoey Stevenson asked planners to start a dialogue with the adjacent Arby’s property owners, where a private road connects Arby’s to the light at Savannah Road and Village Main Boulevard.
Arby’s is not legally obligated to allow Nicola’s to share the road, but Hoey Stevenson noted the request should be made.
“If there was a lot of traffic, it would be safer if they could go out where the light is,” she said.
NIcola Vice President Nick Caggiano Jr. said they don’t have a definite construction timeline yet, but hope to open in spring 2022.
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The downtown Nicola Pizzas, two separate restaurants on Rehoboth Avenue and First Street that connect at the back, are being sold. Caggiano said settlement will happen in April but declined to name the buyer.
Nicola announced their departure from downtown Rehoboth Beach in August after almost 50 years in "The Nation's Summer Capital."
Nick Caggiano Sr. said the move was a "no-brainer" after the property next to Ocean One Plaza went up for sale. The Caggianos also own another adjacent property and business, Home 2 Suites by Hilton.
"Everything is going to be under one property," Caggiano Sr. told Delmarva Now in November. "If that property was not available right next to me, I would probably say I would not move."
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