SELBYVILLE — A rising developer duo is seeking to build an industrial park in Selbyville to target the rising demand for small to medium manufacturers in southern Delaware.
Travis Martin and
Davis Strategic Development have filed plans to build an eight-warehouse industrial park two miles north of Selbyville. The park would be off U.S. Route 113 with each warehouse coming in at 60,000 square feet or less.
Martin, who built the Frankford Business Park
using a similar model a few years earlier, said that the plan is part of his new venture Ocean Crest Properties. It is now responsible for construction, entitlements and engineering for the Selbyville Business Park.
Pointing to the quick leasing at Frankford Business Park, Martin said he believes the demand is still there for flex space.
“I drove by this site all the time and it’s sandwiched between a major highway and the railroad line, and I thought it was just perfect,” he said.
Plans also show there would be room for a railroad spur on the north side of the property. In Delaware, there are 75 miles of rail throughout the entire state and several economic and transportation experts said that it’s an underutilized asset in the state to ship bulk goods.
“We have the chicken feed mills and anything with a heavy payload may be attracted to a site like this. There’s a Pep Up [propane provider] that built a rail spur and that really changed the game for that business,” Martin said. “There’s some businesses that can really benefit.”
The Selbyville Business Park marks the fifth project that Martin will take on, after he spent years building up
Chesapeake Plumbing and Heating. That business made it to the Inc. 5000 List of fastest growing companies in America for nine years, growing to at
least 200 employees by 2022.
With Frankford Business Park close to total occupancy, Martin and Davis Strategic Development formed a partnership on at least three other developments, including the Selbyville project. The other two — an industrial park off
Lafferty Lane in Dover and a
$75 million Seaford industrial park — have received grants from the Strategic Grant Fund in the last year.
Martin said that in southern Delaware, there’s a real need for flex space for light manufacturers and wholesalers, spurred by the explosive growth in Sussex County.
“It’s just mind-blowing to watch [the growth] over the last 20 years. It’s just thousands upon thousands of houses emerging and with that comes a need for contractor space and warehouse distribution,” he said.
