The New Castle County Board of Adjustment will consider a variance for the expansion of Incyte Corp.’s headquarters and research center in the Alapocas neighborhood near Wilmington.
Incyte is proposing a 400,000-square-foot building at its corporate campus.
According to a group known as Neighbors for Responsible Land Use, the building would overlook Alapocas State Run State Park and Brandywine Park, with square footage that exceeds code and with fewer parking spaces than required.
“It is simply an inappropriate size of the site. Once it is built, the area will be changed forever, and when Incyte leaves, a high-density business like a call center could bring so many more employees to our congested roadways,”
Opponents of the project, who, until fairly recently, were largely confined to areas around the Alapocas neighborhood, have long cited traffic concerns and the ups and downs of the pharma business as reasons why the project is a bad fit in the affluent neighborhood just outside the city.
They have pointed to the downsizing at AstraZeneca as evidence of what can happen when hard times hit a drug company. AZ still employs about 1,500 in Delaware, somewhat more than Incyte
The controversy was triggered when Wilmington Friends sold the site of one of its schools to Incyte and announced plans toconsolidate its upper and lower schools at one site. Neighbors sued over the plans for combined schools, claiming they had standing in the case. They lost that legal battle.
Supporters of Incyte cite the high-paying jobs created by the company and the need to keep good-paying positions in Delaware.
With the success of its life-saving Jakafi blood cancer drug and, more recently, a topical cream used to treat skin conditions, Incyte quickly outgrew a site adjacent to Alapocas at the one-time Wanamaker store and made plans to expand into the neighborhood. Of late, its stock price has slipped due to disappointing trials for new drugs and more intense competition.
Click here for the Zoom and in-person link to the meeting.
