$75 million Wilmington apartment project breaks ground

• A $75 million luxury apartment complex is planned at Ninth and Orange streets in Wilmington.
• Plans call for retail and an underground garage.
• The project is being built on the site of a former parking garage.

The rejuvenation of Wilmington’s long-struggling central business district took another step forward this week.

Work officially began Monday on the construction of a $75 million, luxury apartment complex at the former site of the Mid-Town Parking Garage in Wilmington.

The future Residences at Mid-Town Park will include 200 apartments in two buildings, 12,000 square feet of retail space and an underground parking garage with more than 500 spaces.

The development will occupy most of the block bound by Ninth, Orange, Eighth and Shipley streets.

“This is going to be an awesome project,” said Will Minster, director of business development for the nonprofit Downtown Visions.

“The apartments are great, but I think business owners and others in the community are really excited for the parking garage,” he said. “With that many spaces in place, how can anyone say there’s no parking in downtown?”

The two-year project is the latest residential construction project undertaken by the Buccini/Pollin Group – one of Wilmington’s biggest developers.

Luxury apartments in downtown Wilmington planned

“This is definitely our largest project in the last 10 years,” said Michael Hare, the company’s senior vice president for development. “And to me, the fact that both Buccini/Pollin and our financial partners have confidence in doing something of this scale is a great sign for Wilmington.”

In recent years, the Buccini/Pollin Group – or BPG – has invested about $50 million in about a dozen apartment buildings along North Market Street. Combined, those projects have added about 200 units from Fourth to Ninth streets.

The goal has been to create a “critical mass” of people who both live and play on Market Street, Hare said.

Once a vibrant center of commerce filled with bustling restaurants and thriving businesses, Market Street would swell each afternoon as thousands of office workers hit the sidewalk to search out lunch and complete mid-day errands.

But in recent decades, declines in Wilmington’s population, changes in shopping trends and the gradual withdraw of major employers had largely gutted downtown.

BPG hopes to reverse that trend by providing high-end and affordable housing along the business corridor, while also attracting new restaurants and other amenities to the area.

Restauranteur Bryan Sikora opened La Fia Bakery + Market + Bistro at 421 N. Market St. in 2013 and last summer added the Mexican restaurant Cocina Lolo in the Renaissance Centre at 405 N. King St. More recently, he spun out his bakery operation into Market Street Bread + Bagel at 823 N. Market St., now under separate ownership, and launched the Merchant Bar, across the street from La Fia.

Buccini/Pollin also helped attract to Wilmington the late restaurateur Scott Morrison, who opened Chelsea Tavern at 821 N. Market St. in 2010, followed by Ernest & Scott at 902 N. Market in 2012.

A new microbrewery called 3 Doors Brewing Co. and a beer garden near Chelsea Tavern are now slated to follow this summer. The beer garden at 817 N. Market St. will follow the demolition of a building that will create an open-air plaza connected to the future Residences at Mid-Town Park through a private walkway to Shipley Street that also separates the two building now under construction.

Called Burton Place, the walkway will serve as a passageway from the apartments to the Grand and other Market Street attractions, while commemorating the property's civil rights history.

The Eagle Coffee Shoppe once sat nearby on Ninth Street between Orange and Shipley streets. In 1958, the shop denied service to then-City Councilman William H. “Dutch” Burton because he was black. Burton held a sit-in and eventually sued the Wilmington Parking Authority, which owned the building at the time. He won in Chancery Court before the Delaware Supreme Court overturned the decision. Later, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Burton.

“This project is significant for a number of other reasons,” Hare said of the Residences. “For one, it restores a much-needed parking garage to the city that will support the restaurants and entertainment amenities along Market St.”

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The former Mid-Town Parking Garage built in the mid-1950s was condemned about five years ago and demolished soon after BPG acquired the structure a few years later.

The new, four-level garage is slated for completion this winter, but may not be fully accessible to the public until the four-story apartment building on top is finished in the summer of 2018, Hare said.

That building will house 116 units, while a nine-story building next door slated for completion around the same time will hold 84. Those units will range in average size from a 520-square-foot studio apartment to a 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom apartment.

With one-bedroom apartments starting at about $1,200 a month, the Residences will offer high-end amenities, such as demonstration kitchens and dog-washing stations in each unit. The Residences also will feature an outdoor swimming pool, a fitness center and screening room.

“This project takes the redevelopment we’ve done along Market Street and extends it west to Orange Street,” Hare said. “Our hope is that will further stabilize the central business district and, hopefully, drive further development further.”

Minster said he’s also hoping the project signals to investors and retailers that downtown Wilmington is a viable marketplace once again.

“With all the new additions, we’re just focusing now on filling vacancies and adding those last few pieces,” he said.

The actual construction of the Residences will be overseen by BPG’s own construction management company BPGS. Up to 320 construction jobs will be created by the project.

The right lane of Ninth Street from Orange to Shipley streets will be closed for about a year to accommodate the project.

Contact business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.