The commercial real estate market reported a solid year, despite lingering uncertainty about larger employers and turmoil in the city of Wilmington.
Like may population centers, Wilmington was seeing the impact of “millennials,” young adults who prefer urban areas to the suburbs and are not as tied to their vehicles as previous generations.
Millenials continued to come to the city and landlords, led by the Buccini/Pollin Group continued to construct apartments.
One of the biggest deals was the purchase of the Greenville retail and office properties of Stoltz by Pettinaro, which already had holdings in the affluent area west of Wilmington.
Stoltz, the long-time owner of the Greenville properties, continue to keep the former DuPont Barley Mill Plaza site near Greenville. Plans for a mixed-use project at the site were thwarted by a court decision and opposition from County Executive Tom Gordon.
A major real estate deal in 2014, the purchase of the former AstraZeneca south campus by JPMorgan Chase, came to a successful conclusion with the opening of a technology hub this fall, following millions of dollars in improvements to the site in North Wilmington.
The opening of the center was the latest sign of a new driver of the commercial real estate market, financial technology or “fin tech.” Tech workers, often millennials, develop apps for customers who increasingly do their banking on a smartphone or other mobile device.
Chase also ended up in the news during the final days of 2015 when Brandywine Realty Trust announced it had sold a lot that was to have been the site of a high-rise office building that would have completed the Christina Gateway project at the south end of downtown Wilmington.
JPMorgan Chase, which purchased the two Christina Gateway buildings a couple of years ago, would not comment on whether it had purchased the lot, as reported by the News Journal.
The growth in finance helped balance off continued cuts and restructurings at DuPont Co., which moved its headquarters from its landmark building in downtown Wilmington to its Chestnut Run complex west of the city.
Two companies with a technology presence were part of major real estate deals in 2015.
SevOne opened an operations center at the University of Delaware STAR Campus at the former Chrysler assembly plant in Newark. The fast-growing company that uses software and hardware to monitor the health and performance of information technology systems did move its headquarters from Pike Creek to Boston, home of its major investor Bain Capital.
Also, Corporation Services Co. broke ground on a new headquarters in the Little Falls area west of Wilmington. The company, as its name indicates, provides incorporation services for companies worldwide. It is using advanced technology in some areas.
DuPont spin-off Chemours, moved from Chestnut Run to DuPont’s space in downtown. Chemours was looking for a permanent home as the year ended, but had made no final decisions. The company was said to be looking at locations in neighboring states, as well as Delaware.
While the vacancy rate in downtown Wilmington’s Class B and C buildings remained high, north Wilmington had little vacant office space. The office market tightened further as Buccini/Pollin Group made preparations for the conversion of the Concord Plaza into a mixed use office/residential project and tenants went elsewhere.
The tight market affected fast-growing pharmaceutical maker Incyte, Inc., which has plans to expand its headquarters site on Augustine Cut Off near Wilmington, but will still have to undergo the county approval process and construction. Incyte also plans to buy the headquarters site from the Capano family interests.
Late this year, it was announced that Incyte will temporarily relocate workers to an office complex off Route 202 in Pennsylvania.
The residential real estate market continued its slow recovery, with sales up by double digits and prices up by single digits.
