State downtown grants to help fund new Wilmington apartments, amenities
Jeanne KuangMore than 300 new apartments, a yoga studio, beer garden, hotel and other amenities are coming to Market Street and nearby downtown locations in Wilmington, thanks in part to state grants.
The state on Wednesday announced the projects it selected for its Downtown Development District rebate awards. The funds are intended to spur private investment and economic development in business corridors across the state.
Approved development projects in those downtowns can receive state funding worth up to 20 percent of eligible construction costs. The grants are awarded in the form of rebates issued after the work is complete.
A total of $29.3 million in taxpayer funds has gone toward the program since 2015, according to the state, which in turn has drawn $551 million in private investment.
The projects announced this year include one in Dover, one in Milford, and six announced in Wilmington, four of which are being built by the city's largest developer, the Buccini/Pollin Group.
A total of $4.1 million is going toward the Wilmington projects, with a small amount going toward areas outside the central Market Street area.
At 4th and Washington streets, the Ministry of Caring, Inc. is receiving about $200,000 to rehabilitate an abandoned house to attach to the adjacent St. Josephine Bakhita House convent to accommodate the religious organization's staff.
The owner of a cluster of townhouse-style apartments on 9th Street on the East Side is getting $500,000 for improvements, including accessibility updates, to those units.
The rest is going toward BPG projects, including the building of a new 208-unit apartment complex at 517 N. Shipley St., which is currently a parking lot.
The developer plans to use $1.5 million of state funds in building the complex in the style of its Residences at Mid-Town Park, a luxury building it opened in 2018 at 9th and Shipley streets. The new building will have two floors of parking.
Next to the Residences, BPG is getting a rebate to build two buildings close to the corner of 8th and Shipley streets. One building will have two stories of retail and office space, and the other will have a restaurant, a bar, event space on the second floor and a yoga studio on the third.
A vacant building is being partially demolished next to that site to make room for a beer garden and space for food trucks.
At 5th and Market streets, the developer will install a 33-room hotel with a restaurant and businesses in the lobby on the edge of the Delaware Historical Society's town square.
The historical building was previously owned by the Kuumba Academy Charter School and currently owned by the Christina Cultural Arts Center. The developer has a contract to purchase it, according to Mike Hare, BPG executive vice president for development.
BPG is also getting funds to renovate parts of the Nemours building at 1007 N. Orange St. That building contains The Mill, a coworking space, and Theatre N.
The renovation, which will be partially funded with more than $800,000 of the state grant money, will add 160 apartment units in the building. Some of those are being converted from the building's current extended-stay units.
Hare said the Shipley St. restaurant, beer garden and yoga studio complex will be completed in late May. The other projects are being designed.
In addition to being located in the state's development rebate areas, the projects are in one of the census tracts that Gov. John Carney designated as a Delaware "Opportunity Zone," raising the possibility of more taxpayer investment.
That federal program, included in the 2017 tax law, allows lucrative tax benefits to those who invest in projects in low-income and economically distressed census tracts.
BPG is considering using that program in its funding for the Nemours building renovation, Hare said. It will also seek state historic preservation tax credits for rehabilitating the hotel building.
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