NeighborGood, DSU to open new shared space in Dover

Representatives from Neighborgood Partners and Delaware State University tour their new shared space in downtown Dover before it opens in late September. l PHOTO COURTESY OF NEIGHBORGOOD PARTNERS

DOVER — Delaware State University (DSU) and NeighborGood Partners are embarking on a new quest together as they prepare to launch a shared space in downtown Dover in late September.

NeighborGood, formerly known as NCALL when it opened in 1976, adopted its Restoring Central Dover plan back in 2024 in hopes of making a drastic impact on the nearby community above and beyond its traditional programming, which includes housing and financial counseling, among other topics.

Ten years later, the non-profit organization is gearing up for the next decade with a new shared space at 223 W. Division St. in the heart of Dover owned by NeighborGood Partners and partially funded by DSU.

While Neighborgood’s current Dover location will remain open, staffers associated with the Restoring Central Dover plan will move to the new location after it opens.

“Restoring Dover will be on the first floor and the new community entrepreneur support, the Launcher Program, will be on the second floor like a small business incubator through Delaware State University,” NeighborGood Executive Director Karen Speakman told the Delaware Business Times. “It’s nice to see them thrive and succeed. It takes a really long time to launch a successful business, but DSU does a nice job at coaching them through it and we’re excited to work with them.”

Their new building ran $2.6 million in total development costs to include construction of the 6,270 square feet space, site acquisition, architecture, engineering and other needs, according to Speakman.

Along with funding from DSU for the project, NeighborGood also received funding from a variety of sources including the Borkee-Hagley Fund/Delaware Community Foundation, Crestlea Foundation, Crystal Trust, Delaware State Housing Authority’s Downtown Development District Program, Longwood Foundation, Marmot Foundation, State of Delaware Joint Committee on Capital Improvement, The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Capital Projects Fund and Welfare Foundation with Central Delaware Habitat for Housing.

While part of the goal is to support students at DSU, Speakman said the broader goal is to create change in the downtown Dover area as a whole with the help of the Historically Black University.

“We noticed that small businesses have the least success economically in Dover, but we need more of them. We’ve been working with the Downtown Dover Partnership to get some of them placed over on Loockerman. There just needs to be more businesses that succeed so, we thought, how do we do that with more education? Let’s think this thing through. . . and that’s when this partnership developed to give us a more holistic approach to community development,” Speakman told DBT. “You can’t just build houses and then not have successful businesses.”

The group will also have a conference room in the new space, as well as classes and other activities geared toward enhancing the downtown Dover community.

“In order to bring in more restaurants in Dover, we need more people living downtown; you need so many people to support a restaurant. But we need to build density in a good way and we need to increase the numbers in order to support more economic development,” Speaking said.

“These programs are affecting the community family by family or household by household. If everyone had a place to live, decent, safe housing, in this country, we’d be better off. We’d have better health, physically and mentally and that’s sort of what drives me,” she continued. “I think it’s the fundamental key thing that families and individuals need. And it’s cyclical. We need economic development to grow, as well.”