Demolition work started Friday to clear an oceanfront site for a Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe in Daytona Beach.
The owner of the 10-acre site, Toronto-based Bayshore Capital Inc., plans to build a 375,000-square-foot development there that would include a 250-room Hard Rock Hotel with a 250-seat restaurant and 99 residential condominium units plus penthouse units bearing the Hard Rock brand.
Community leaders in Daytona Beach have hailed the $150 million development as a possible inspiration for additional upscale developments at beachfront locations.
Edwin Peck, president of Peck & Associates Construction Inc., the general contractor of the Hard Rock project, said demolition of an abandoned house on the development site will be done in about three weeks.
The two-story, five-bedroom house had been a hangout for homeless people in recent years. A parking garage for the Hard Rock development will rise on the site of the house.
In May, the Volusia County Council voted to create traffic-free zones behind the site of the Hard Rock project and another recently announced development, the Westin Daytona Beach Resort & Spa. The Westin is expected to open by the fall of 2016. [Daytona Beach News-Journal] – Mike Seemuth