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Developer Chris Coviello speaks to the Council on Development Finance in April about a planned industrial park in Harrington. | DBT PHOTO BY KATIE TABELING[/caption]
HARRINGTON — Developers working on a new industrial park in Harrington received $700,000 from the Site Readiness Fund from the Council on Development Finance (CDF) on Monday, hoping to target small to medium companies in Kent County.
The industrial park on 17959 S. DuPont Highway will sit less than a half mile south of the rising Harrington Industrial Park on Clukey Drive.
Developer Chris Coviello bought the 13 acres of land for $700,000 in September 2023 and has been working his way through the city of Harrington’s permitting process to pave the way to construction. Construction is anticipated to start in the next 12 months.
The business park is tentatively planned for three buildings across the two combined lots. In total, it will bring 76,500 square feet in industrial and commercial space online, with buildings ranging between 1,500 square feet and 52,500 square feet.
The Site Readiness Funds will be used for site work including engineering, road construction, sewer, water and stormwater management. Altogether, the cost for preparing the site is projected to be more than $3.2 million with Coviello funding half of it.
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Delaware Prosperity Partnership Vice President of Development Becky Harrington said that the Harrington industrial park could feed a growing market. | DBT PHOTO BY KATIE TABELING[/caption]
“Industrial space continues to be a hot commodity in Southern Delaware and this project will attract new jobs and investment to the city,” Delaware Prosperity Partnership Vice President of Development Becky Harrington told the CDF on Monday.
Coviello told the council, which is charged with weighing which businesses would receive state taxpayer-backed grants, that he is close to securing a $3 million loan from Shore United Bank. However, until the industrial park is built, he would be shouldering the bulk of the cost.
“I have no problem with that, sometimes you have to spend a little,” he said. “We already have prospective people buzzing us, from Amazon to different companies, which is awesome. We’re pretty excited about the progress, but we can’t move as fast as other agencies.”
Harrington will not allow this second business park to be built on septic systems, so the $3.2 million will be spent on extending a sewer line to the main by 2,100 feet, among other things.
The proposed industrial park fits neatly into Kent County economic development efforts, Kent Economic Partnership (KEP) Business Developer Zach Prebula said.
Two separate studies commissioned by the KEP in 2018 and 2022 have confirmed that small to medium manufacturers and distributors is the ideal business demographic for central Delaware. The most recent version of the study found that there was a $939 billion demand and 2,913 jobs needed.
“Manufacturing and warehousing is a sweet spot for Kent County, however, our current inventory does not support the growing demand for these companies and industries that are located here,” Prebula said. “This project will help us attract companies and create jobs.”
