No Mention of Hotel Cape Charles on Historic Board Agenda

Hotel Cape Charles developer David Gammino pled his case at September’s Historic District Review Board meeting. Clockwise from left: Gammino, Town Planner Tom Bonadeo, Board members Jan Neville, Russ Dunton (chair), Bob Sellers. (Wave photo)

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

October 16, 2012

“Back to the Drawing Board for Hotel Cape Charles,” read the Wave’s headline for September 19. The story reported hotel developer David Gammino’s efforts to persuade the Cape Charles Historic District Review Board to approve already completed renovations and allow the hotel to receive a permanent occupancy permit.

With over 1,000 reads to date, the story is the most popular in the Wave’s short history.

In a nutshell, Gammino pled guilty to changing the hotel design after the Board approved his earlier plan. He had originally planned to spend $500,000 renovating the old hotel, but later decided the result would be nothing special. Only a unique property would make the hotel a “destination,” Gammino told the Board in September.

And so he ended up spending nearly three times as much to create a building that has received rave reviews in the Washington Post and USA Today. Now, the hotel needs $30,000 monthly revenue to survive.

Board chairman Russ Dunton told Gammino that adding wrought iron railings to the hotel balcony’s glass walls would help the hotel blend in with the rest of Mason Avenue.

Gammino responded that he could not convince his partner to replace $60,000 worth of glass with wrought iron to create an “illusion” that the hotel was historic.

Gammino noted that when he bought the hotel it had vinyl windows and plastic doors — all grandfathered in and requiring no approval from the Board.

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Gammino asked the Board to defer his application until October so his architect could offer some design proposals. The Board agreed, and tabled the issue.

This month’s Board meeting thus was highly anticipated. But the agenda came as a surprise:

Old Business: None

That means that Hotel Cape Charles will not even be a topic of discussion at today’s Historic District Review Board meeting.

The only new information is the release of draft minutes of last month’s meeting, detailing, blow-by-blow, Gammino’s pleading with the Board. It may be read on the Town’s website here.

Today’s meeting (October 16) is 4:30 p.m. at Town Hall. The only business is a proposed modification to an accessory building at 711 Tazewell Avenue.

The public may attend but not speak.