Local bidders for Hotel du Pont identified

Two local groups are waiting to hear whether their bid to buy Wilmington's venerable Hotel du Pont will be accepted, according to sources familiar with the process.

Sources have identified Wilmington-based Buccini/Pollin Group and three partners that run Buckley's Tavern in Centreville as among up to four groups vying to operate the 12-story downtown hotel at 11th and Market Streets. Buckley's Tavern is owned by BIB LLC, a partnership that includes Vance V. Kershner, P. Coleman du Pont and Tom Hannum.

Buccini/Pollin is a Wilmington real estate acquisition and development company with assets totaling $4 billion, including 26 hotels, 6 million square feet of office and retail space, and 10 residential communities.

Neither Kershner nor a spokeswoman for Buccini/Pollin immediately responded to phone and email requests for comment.

DuPont spokesperson Dan Turner declined to confirm bidders' identities.

"We do not comment on rumors or speculation," he said.

But Turner did say DuPont was open to the possibility of parting ways with the hotel and DuPont Country Club, which is also said to be up for sale.

"DuPont continually reviews its portfolio of assets to determine ways to increase shareholder value," Turner said.

As many as four bidders may be interested in the property, sources said, but the identities of other bidders could not be confirmed. Bids were said to have been submitted sometime in mid-April.

Speculation about a possible sale of properties began last fall after activist investor Nelson Peltz called on the chemical company to reduce its non-core assets, including the country club and hotel. Peltz, who leads New York hedge fund Trian Fund Management, claimed DuPont's hospitality holdings are a portion of excess costs that cost the company as much as $4 billion.

In a Sept. 16 letter to DuPont's board, Peltz said the hotel, theater and country club are "examples of corporate largesse."

Buccini/Pollin was seen by many as a possible new owner after it purchased three parking lots used by the hotel last month. The lots, which total 496 spaces, consist of a parking garage on Orange Street, between 11th and 12th streets, and two surface lots. One surface lot sits on Orange Street between 11th and 12th streets while the other is located on the corner of Orange and 12th streets. The two surface lots are separated by the Wilmington Club's parking lot, which is not impacted by the sale.

All three BIB partners, which have operated Buckley's since October 2012, have DuPont connections.

Kershner is the president and CEO of LabWare Inc., which develops software for automating laboratory operations, and a former DuPont employee. The Wilmington resident was recruited by DuPont after his graduation from the University of Delaware to work in the company's engineering department. He worked for DuPont for 13 years, before forming LabWare.

DuPont was LabWare's first customer, and the company has worked on a project at the experimental station.

P. Coleman du Pont, known as Coley, is a senior account supervisor at Wilmington's Aloysius Butler & Clark advertising agency. The Delaware native also is a du Pont family member.

Hannum is well-acquainted with the hotel's 206 guest rooms, 11 suites and its 17,000-square-foot maze of kitchens. He was the Hotel du Pont's longtime executive chef and worked alongside such guest chefs as Julia Child and Philadelphia's famed Georges Perrier. Hannum retired from the hotel after a 33-year career and now runs the kitchen at Buckley's.

The 12-story Italian Renaissance Hotel du Pont was commissioned by DuPont Company president Pierre S. du Pont, and opened in 1913.

Kershner has an interest in maintaining Delaware's history. He spent several years restoring his Kentmere Parkway home in Wilmington as well as four years restoring the Oberod estate, the former du Pont family stone mansion on Burnt Mill Road, built in the 1930s, that's about 8 miles from downtown Wilmington. Oberod is now a training site of Labware and is used for special events.

Kershner also played a key figure in the restoration of Buckley's, the Kennett Pike landmark that dates back to 1817. During renovations in 2012, Kershner, a frequent Buckley's patron, said he believed customers would be happy with the end results.

"It's going to be the Buckley's that they wanted it to be," he said at the time.

Kershner also operates a 15,000-acre game farm in South Africa and is a partner in Scrub Island, a resort project in the British Virgin Islands.

Over the years, the hotel has welcomed a who's who of the world, including former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, President Harry S. Truman, President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Jimmy Hoffa.

Contact Jeff Mordock at (302) 324-2786,on Twitter @JeffMordockTNJ or jmordock@delawareonline.com.