Chesapeake Utilities Corp. holds groundbreaking ceremony

DOVER — Chesapeake Utilities Corporation held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday at its new Dover campus, a 20.6 acre site on South Bay Road. The event was hosted by Chesapeake and attended by state and local officials and company representatives.

The new campus will accommodate employees of Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG), Chesapeake Utilities and Chesapeake Utilities Corporation administrative staff. The campus will also serve as a customer care center for Chesapeake Utilities’ customers and provide a convenient, central location for both customers and employees.

Facilities on the new campus, which are projected to be completed in early 2018, will include a 57,000-square-foot office building and a 36,000-square-foot warehouse. Construction of the new campus is expected to provide up to 300 construction jobs. Upon completion of the new facilities, ESNG and Chesapeake Utilities will be able to house operational functions in one building with one central warehouse.  Approximately 250 employees will move to the new facility from existing locations throughout Dover.

The new campus will also be the future location of the company’s second Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling station for public use on the Delmarva Peninsula. The station is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to increase environmental benefits for the local community by supplying clean-burning natural gas to fuel vehicles and partnering with the State of Delaware to increase the number of vehicles utilizing alternative fuels. CNG is a clean burning, readily available fuel and offers cost-savings on fuel and maintenance. CNG-powered vehicles produce lower emissions than gasoline and diesel vehicles, reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by up to 30 percent, and NOx emissions by 85 percent.

“The new location will make the logistics of dispatching operations personnel and equipment much more effective than in our previous locations,” said Stephen C. Thompson, senior vice president, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation and president and chief operating officer of Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company and Sandpiper Energy, Inc. “We have outgrown our existing facilities in downtown Dover and are excited to bring the team together in this new facility.”