DuPont will move its corporate headquarters to its Chestnut Run complex, west of Wilmington, with a corporate spin-off to occupy space in Wilmington.
The decision is a blow to Wilmington, the city where the DuPont Building is a long-time landmark and meeting spot. The building also houses the Hotel duPont and The Playhouse theater. All will remain.
The building has been in the news of late as DuPont investor Nelson Peltz has demanded that the company sell off the hotel and other holdings to reduce corporate overhead.
Over the years, Wilmington has lost a number of corporate headquarters including Wilmington Trust (now M&T), MBNA and Delmarva Power.
The company will consolidate the headquarters at Chestnut Run on July 1, 2015, following the separation of the Performance Chemicals business, which has been renamed The Chemours Company. Chemours may not stay at the downtown site forever, as a final decision has not been made on a permanent location.
DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said 800 to 1,000 DuPont employees will move to Chestnut Run, with an equivalent number transferring to the downtown building.
The consolidation of DuPont corporate headquarters at Chestnut Run will “optimize use of company facilities, support collaboration and improve efficiencies for both DuPont and Chemours, according to a company release.”
The DuPont headquarters is a short distance from the site on the Brandywine where the company was founded in 1802 as a maker of gunpowder.
DuPont has had a presence at the Chestnut Run site for more than 60 years and has been headquartered in downtown Wilmington for more than a century. The DuPont Experimental Station and the company’s Stine-Haskell Research Center, are also located in New Castle County.
“For more than a century, we have been proud to call the city of Wilmington home,” said DuPont Chair and CEO Ellen J. Kullman. “Looking ahead, we concluded that a single location for our headquarters offices will help facilitate the close collaboration essential to our success and to the growth of DuPont. A consolidated headquarters at Chestnut Run where most of DuPont’s businesses are headquartered will make it possible to draw on people and knowledge across the company even more dynamically, on a daily basis.”
The Chemours Company, will assume ownership of the DuPont Building in Wilmington and its employees will relocate to the building by mid-2015. The move will bring Chemours employees together in one location, enabling them to continue to build their operating model and to establish a unique identity and culture.
A final decision has not been made with respect to the final headquarters location for Chemours.
DuPont has reduced its presence in downtown, selling the Nemours and Brandywine buildings, while downsizing staff and moving some positions to suburban sites.
“It could have been worse,” said Delaware State Chamber of Commerce President Rich Heffron. The decision to move Chemours jobs to downtown “buys time” to convince the spin-off company to remain in the city, he added. Heffron said the city and state have work to do to ensure that the business environment can be competitive for big and small companies.
“DuPont has been a major employer in Delaware for 200 years and we hope it grows from its Chestnut Run headquarters for another 200,” said Gov. Jack Markell. “The Chemours business is building on DuPont’s legacy of invention and it is well-positioned to do that from its new headquarters downtown. We will continue to talk to the new leadership of Chemours about their business and how Delaware is a great location from which it can write a new story of growth and innovation in the chemical industry.”
Mayor Dennis Williams and Council President Theo Gregory issued the following: “The DuPont Company has had a long and productive relationship with the City of Wilmington. We view their announcement today as part of the evolution of the company. We are eager to ensure that the move of the Chemours Company employees to Wilmington is a permanent decision and that these employees become a permanent part of the local workforce. The city looks at DuPont’s decision to reorganize as one that can positively affect the future growth of the DuPont Company, and therefore have positive benefits for Wilmington, New Castle County and the region.”
The move will have some impact on finances for the City of Wilmington, which levies a wage tax. A comparable number of Chemours staff will move to downtown, but the highly paid executive suite at DuPont will now be exempt from the tax.
Anyone who could not have reasonably foretold DuPont moving it’s HQ’s out of Wilmington is shall we say “slow”. Maybe Wilmington College, excuse me University could move in, since the Chemours is but a bad joke.