We’ve all driven past a construction site and wondered what it will become.
We hope that this collection of our development coverage will produce answers to some of those questions.
The stories listed below detail the explosion of warehouse space in Delaware, the ceaseless debates between preservation and growth unfolding across the state and some of the most anticipated stores and businesses coming soon.
Consider bookmarking this page as the list will be updated throughout the summer. For more updates, you can join our Facebook group What’s Going There in Delaware and subscribe to our free What’s Going There in Delaware newsletter.
Wilmington area
• Riverfront to expand east with $100 million mixed-use project: Twenty-five years after Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki led the transformation of the city’s 100-acre Riverfront from a barren brownfield to a waterfront destination, Purzycki is helping lead the charge to do the same for the other side of the Christina River.
• Incyte continues to expand: The pharmaceutical company filed plans for a large office building on the Wilmington Friends campus. The building will likely be the final piece of their Alapocas campus.
• Another new plan for developing the Brandywine Country Club: The latest proposal involves 300 apartments, 41 single-family homes, 24 townhomes and the possibility of an early education center.
• North Market Street buildings converted to Lincoln Square apartments: Ten buildings on North Market Street are being converted into 39 apartments. Retail space will remain on the ground floor.
• Neighbors oppose latest plan to rehabilitate rotting Gibraltar mansion: The vacant and crumbling former du Pont mansion looms over the city’s Highlands neighborhood.
• New Salvation Army Wilmington campus under construction near Chase Fieldhouse: Officials hope to open the new campus, which will have a store, warehouse and living spaces for the needy, on South Market Street this summer.
• Delaware State University takes over Capital One Riverfront building: The new building will headquarter the university’s school for graduate, adult and continuing education students, a new partnership with Teen Warehouse’s workforce development center and an incubation hub for small businesses with a focus on minority and women-owned companies.
• City wants to make better use of obsolete reservoir: Residents have concerns about the proposals, including the possible destruction of a community garden.
Christiana
• Retail plan scrapped for warehouse project: A 442,000-square-foot warehouse has been proposed at Eagle Run Road west of the Christiana Mall.
• Hobby Lobby coming to Route 273: The national arts and crafts retailer will be to the left of the new Burlington in University Plaza.
• Land cleared for development next to University Plaza on Route 273: Wawa will anchor the project, which is currently under construction.
•New stores, restaurants heading to the Christiana Mall later this year: Lululemon, Hollister and Radcliffe Jewelers are among the new stores coming to Delaware’s largest shopping mall.
Kirkwood Highway
• Longtime shopping center wants a facelift: If plans are approved, the Astro shopping center next to the Newark Farmers Market could have a fresh look and a new Wawa.
• Delaware Park offices to be sold: Plans call for six apartment buildings to replace the Delaware Park office building south of Pike Creek Road and All Saints Cemetery. New Castle County amended deed restrictions on the property in May to enable the development.
• Mission BBQ planning second Delaware location: The restaurant is part of a plan filed with New Castle County in January. It would be constructed with a yet to be determined fast food restaurant at the edge of Kirkwood Plaza, according to the plan.
Downtown Newark
• 6-story apartment building at Main and Haines Streets: After initially denying the project, Newark City Council in June 2021 approved a plan for 80 apartments, retail space and a public parking garage. It does not appear any site work has begun.
• The Grove at Newark reimagines College Square: The mixed-use complex will have more than 300 apartments and several new shops and restaurants. One of the new tenants is the Louisiana fast food chain Raising Cane’s.
• Hotel project at Green Mansion site: A seven-story hotel incorporating the facade of a historic building and a six-story, 48-unit apartment building are under constructed at the center of Newark’s Main Street.
• 5-story apartment building to replace decades-old building: After multiple design changes and years of debate, the project received approval in April and will replace the building that is home to Playa Bowls, Tasty Wok and the former Margherita’s Pizza.
• Super 8 hotel to become student apartments: The aging hotel next to Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen at the east end of Main Street will be demolished and replaced with an apartment building with a small restaurant on the ground floor.
• Changes coming to office complex: A theater, restaurant and new offices will be built off Paper Mill Road backing up to White Clay Creek and the Newark reservoir.
• Drive to Newark from I-95 could have new hotel: The plan calls for the Red Roof Inn on Route 896 to be demolished and replaced by a Home2Suites by Hilton.
• Plan for office space and apartments on Casho Mill Road: Newark City Council in July 2021 approved a plan for fresh office space and 48 apartments at the corner of Casho Mill and Elkton roads. The three-story building would replace the single-story medical office complex currently at the site, according to the plans.
• Wawa could be coming to corner of Elkton Road: The city annexed the property, which is currently home to Leon’s Garden World, in July 2021.
• FinTech building and apartment complex next steps at UD STAR Campus: The opening of UD’s FinTech building was delayed from January due to supply chain issues. A residential development led by BPG is also in the works.
Elsewhere in northern New Castle County
• Wegmans leads Barley Mill Plaza redevelopment: The first round of tenants for the new mixed-use center at Lancaster Pike and Centre Road in Greenville also includes First Watch, McGlynns Pub, La Tolteca and Performance Physical Therapy & Fitness.
• Avenue North under construction: The 80-acre property at Concord Pike and Powder Mill Road north of Wilmington will have the city’s “one true live-work-play” community, according to its developer.
• Tri-State Mall to be demolished: The Claymont shopping center will be replaced by a 525,000-square-foot warehouse and a small retail building along Naamans Road.
• Amazon facility at Delaware Logistics Park yet to open: Amazon’s warehouse at Route 7 and Route 72 has been constructed, but operations have yet to begin. An Amazon spokesperson said there is no timeline for the facility’s opening.
• Replacing the Kmart in Pike Creek shopping center: Pike Creek Community Hardware is slated to take part of the former Kmart.
• First State Crossing reimagines Claymont steel mill: A new train station about a half mile north of Claymont’s existing station is expected to open in 2023. Surrounding the station, developers are planning offices, retail, light industrial space and more than 1,000 homes.
• Industrial park could abut I-95 in Bear: New Castle County in December received plans for four warehouse buildings on the north side of Old Baltimore Pike east of Route 72 and south of I-95.
• Water-quality tests manufacturer to build R&D facility in Glasgow: Maryland-based LaMotte Co. is taking over a space in the Pencader Corporate Center off Route 896 previously occupied by Siemens.
• Warehouse planned near New Castle Airport: A roughly 890,000-square-foot warehouse could be built at 650 Churchmans Rd. near New Castle.
• Hotel being built near Delaware Memorial Bridge: A hotel and a travel center, including a Starbucks, are being constructed on a vacant plot behind Royal Farms near the I-295 and Route 9 interchange. The hotel is expected to be completed in 2025.
• Popeyes replacing Denny’s on Route 273: A Popeyes is under construction in place of the former Denny’s on Route 273 in Ogletown.
• Burger King, Popeyes planned near Elsmere: The Burger King at 300 S. Maryland Avenue near Elsmere will be replaced by a Popeyes and a smaller Burger King under plans filed to New Castle County last year.
• Blue Diamond Park logistics area could be expanded: Amazon may soon have company at the Federal School Lane and Hamburg Road site near New Castle. Plans call for a total of five warehouses at the site, including the e-commerce giant’s 1.5-million-square-foot fulfillment center.
Southern New Castle County
• Developer sues Middletown for right to build apartments: The project in question is Capano Residential’s 192-unit apartment complex next to the Dove Run shopping center off Route 299 in Middletown.
• Bayberry Town Center adds to Bayberry housing: New Castle County in 2020 approved a shopping center with close to 250,000 square feet of retail space, 145 adjacent townhomes and office space at the Bayberry communities near Middletown.
• Final housing elements of Bayberry housing plan: Two plans call for almost 300 combined homes on both sides of the yet to be constructed Bayberry Town Center as part of the master-planned Bayberry community. The county planning board recommended approval in March.
• Warehouse project replaces plan for hotel, office complex: Together the Scott Run Commerce Center and the Logisticenter at New Castle County could bring six large warehouses to the area near Jamison Corner Road and Route 301. Nearby residents are petitioning against them.
• Delaware’s next warehouse hub: Preliminary plans call for four total warehouses totaling about 2.5 million square feet on both sides of Middleneck Road just north of Route 301. The projects, which the state will review in late May, are among several planned on or near Route 301.
• $19 million grant lures Chinese company to Middletown: WuXi AppTec, a Shanghai-based company that develops and manufactures drugs for clients such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Roche, is building a manufacturing campus off Levels Road.
• Middletown YMCA under construction: The new facility, located next to Silver Lake Elementary in Middletown, is expected open by summer 2023.
• RV park and campground on Fort DuPont: An RV park and campground are being built on what was state park land at Fort DuPont in Delaware City.
Kent County
• Procter & Gamble to be first tenant in Smyrna’s Duck Creek Business Campus: The multi-decade project could generate up to 4,000 jobs if fully built out.
• Amazon plans new Delaware solar park in push to use more renewable energy: The company did not say where in Kent County it will be built.
Sussex County
• Master-planned community gets key approval: More than 1,000 homes, ballfields and trails could one day stretch over 450 acres in Milton. The town in March agreed to annex the site of the proposed project at Sand Hill and Gravel Hill roads.
• Boutique hotel in the works on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk: The Bellhaven Hotel would be built where Candy Kitchen, the Ice Cream store and Grotto Pizza are located and modeled after the original Bellhaven hotel damaged in the Great Storm of 1962.
• Georgetown Village hotel and The Ponds apartments in development: The projects are being planned behind Georgetown Plaza near Little Street.
• Coral Lakes subdivision denied by Sussex Planning and Zoning Commission: The developer has filed an appeal. The proposal includes 315 homes at Robinsonville Road in Lewes.
• Construction to begin this summer on apartments behind Georgetown Walmart: The development, the Village of College Park, will have 288 apartments and 121 single-family homes. The home construction is expected to start next spring or summer.
• Admiral’s Landing to bring 158 townhomes to Georgetown: The project is being planned at Vaughn Road and Ennis Street. Road improvements will be necessary for the development to advance.
• Millsboro is the site of Aldi’s eighth Delaware store: The German grocer is coming to Peninsula Crossing between Lowe’s and PetSmart.
Like knowing what stores, restaurants and developments are coming and going in Delaware? Join our Facebook group What’s Going There in Delaware and subscribe to our free What’s Going There in Delaware newsletter.
Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
