NEW CASTLE — The real estate investment trust that built and leased out a warehouse in Claymont is now seeking to replicate that success in New Castle.
First Industrial Realty Trust has its eyes set on building two warehouses on 61 acres between Route 273 and Churchman’s Road that would total 837,200 square feet. The property, owned by Marian Zdeb and John Zdeb Revocable Trust, is already zoned industrial, which will reduce the barriers ahead for approval and construction.
One warehouse will come in at 611,000 square feet with cross docks while the second building on the north of the property will be 225,000 square feet in size. In all, the industrial park could occupy up to seven tenants, depending on their needs, according to documents filed with the state. The proposed industrial park would be 2 miles from the Wilmington (ILG) airport.
The value of site development for First Park would be $21 million and the construction cost would be even more, according to a presentation made by First Industrial Realty Trust representatives during Monday’s Council on Development Finance meeting.
John Connors, an investment associate with First Industrial Realty Trust, explained that the industrial park will be built on a speculative basis as there are no tenants signed on at this time. First Industrial Realty Trust is a top publicly traded real estate investment trust which reported signing 4.7 million square feet in development leases last year, the highest the trust had leased since 2012.
“We are currently on a contract to purchase the land, so we don’t have the site yet,” Connors said. “Our buildings are built on a speculative basis… and that’s our primary business plan. That was the plan with the other project [we had] in Delaware.”
First Industrial Realty Trust finished construction on a similar speculative warehouse in Claymont: the 359,000 square-foot warehouse in the First State Crossing industrial park. That was one of the first of three planned warehouses at the former Evraz steel mill. Pepsi later leased it to move northern Delaware operations there.
The real estate trust noted that construction of the Claymont warehouse generated 230 construction jobs, according to its application with the state which the Delaware Business Times reviewed through a Freedom of Information Act request.
To support the site work for the new industrial park, the CDF approved $1.4 million in site readiness funds as a matching grant. That fund is dedicated to projects that are investing in infrastructure or construction on land to get it ready for a new business.
Notably, Gov. Matt Meyer has already weighed in on this project, which Delaware Prosperity Partnership officials said was an indication of support. Before he was sworn in as governor, Meyer wrote a letter as the New Castle County Executive to state economic officials’ weeks after the November 2024 election.
In that letter, Meyer said the county acknowledges the project “conforms to the existing land use” and is already zoned as industrial, allowing warehouse and logistics use by right.
If this project does go through, it would be the fourth major warehouse project planned in at least five years in the U.S. Route 13 corridor. With ease of access to U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95, developers have had much success with the corridor as Delaware City Logistics Center has been leased out to small distribution tenants and the Blue Diamond Park now has Amazon as its anchor.
Stoltz Real Estate Partners has also built out an 890,348-square-foot warehouse near the intersection of U.S. Route 13 and Route 273.
While the members of CDF asked a few questions, Sen. Nicole Poore (D-New Castle/Bear) asked the Division of Small Business if it was possible to research and report on the warehouses in the state that do not have tenants yet.
“I know that if we build it, people will come, I get it. But we are definitely building quite a few warehouses without tenants right now,” she said. “I don’t want us to be warehouse poor and safe Delaware, but I’d like there to be a purpose for why we’re building.”
