A front-end loader started demolition on Friday morning of an abandoned house on the site of a proposed Hard Rock Hotel and Café, a sign that construction could soon begin.
Dust from concrete, tile, bricks and wood billowed as the machine dug into the old house on the oceanfront 10-acre lot just south of Sun Splash Park on South Atlantic Avenue. It likely will take three days to tear it down, dig out the foundation and grade the land, according to Edwin Peck, president of Peck & Associates Construction, Inc., the general contractor for the Hard Rock project.
The proposed Hard Rock Hotel and Café is a $150 million project that is considered by area leaders an important element in attracting more upscale development to revitalize the beachside and area tourism.