A Gainesville, Georgia, company wants $4.56 million in Delaware taxpayer money for a cold storage warehouse in Claymont.
Agile Cold Storage plans to be one of the first companies in First State Crossing, a mixed-use redevelopment of the former steel mill in Claymont. Spanning 425 acres, plans for the project include offices, retail, housing and additional industrial space.
The project will also take advantage of the new Claymont train station, which is expected to open in November before Thanksgiving, according to Delaware Transit Corp. CEO John Sisson.
Agile Cold Storage’s grant request will be heard at a Council on Development Finance meeting Monday. Applicants are brought to the council by the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, a privately run organization set up by Gov. John Carney to oversee the state’s economic development. Since the partnership’s founding in 2018, the council has never rejected a grant applicant.
Agile Cold Storage is seeking the money from Delaware’s Strategic Fund, a pool of state money directed toward business retention and attraction. The requested grant represents almost a quarter of the fund’s $20 million allotment for 2023.
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Agile Cold Storage Marketing Director Marissa Rosenbloom declined to comment, saying the company will discuss the project only after the Monday meeting. Delaware Prosperity Partnership Communications Manager Susan Coulby deferred to the Division of Small Business when asked for Agile Cold Storage’s application or any details regarding the company’s plans.
The Division of Small Business provided a heavily redacted version of the application.
Agile Cold Storage plans to create 130 jobs related to the Claymont facility over the next three years. According to the application, there will be five managerial jobs, 16 engineering or skilled labor jobs and 109 unskilled or semi-skilled jobs by year three. The estimated wages and benefits of those roles are redacted.
The balance of the grant ($4,560,500 is requested) will be used for site readiness. Agile Cold Storage estimates the total project cost at $135 million.
Information regarding the company’s finances and ownership is redacted.
Details about the proposed warehouse
In presentations to the state’s preliminary land-use review board and the New Castle County Planning Board, the company’s representatives described a two-phase project. The first phase is a 220,392-square-foot one-story warehouse. The second phase is a 97,500-square-foot addition.
Under the company’s plan, the facility will be built south of Naamans Road and west of the I-95 and I-495 interchange. It’s just north of the Knollwood community. A truck entrance will be constructed at Ridge Road and an employee entrance will be across from the Tri-State Mall property.
The project’s 31.6-acre site was used as a storage area and scrap yard by the steel mill. It went through a remediation program prior to the project’s proposal.
Other warehouses planned nearby
The Agile Cold Storage facility is one of several warehouse projects in development in Claymont.
First Industrial Realty Trust, a Chicago-based real estate company, is building a 358,000-square-foot warehouse south of Naamans Road near its intersection with Ridge Road. It is the first part of First State Crossing to commence construction. The warehouse will be entered from Philadelphia Pike, according to plans shared earlier this year.
It is expected to cost about $60 million and be completed in the first quarter of 2024, according to a June press release.
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At the Tri-State Mall, across Naamans Road from the Agile Cold Storage site, New York-based KPR Centers has approval to build a 525,000-square-foot warehouse. The company has not announced a tenant. Demolition of the Tri-State Mall occurred earlier this year, and a small retail space included in the project is under construction.
What happens next
The $4.56 million Agile Cold Storage is seeking would be the largest Strategic Fund grant awarded since Prelude Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based at the DuPont Experimental Station, received $5.5 million in 2021. Since 2018, the state has given grants worth more than $4 million to five companies: Prelude Therapeutics, chemical producer Solenis, FinTech startup Investor Cash Management, Amazon and pharmaceutical maker WuXi STA.
The council meeting will be held Monday at 9 a.m. at the Buena Vista Conference Center at 661 S. DuPont Highway. It is the only opportunity for oral public comment. Written public comments can be submitted to Andrea Wojcik of the Division of Small Business at business@delaware.gov.
Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
