NEW CASTLE — Despite some scrutiny over truck traffic and parking near neighborhoods, the Blue Diamond Park project off U.S. Route 13 was approved for $2.4 million in taxpayer-backed grants Monday to aid development of two million square feet of warehouse space.
This marks the second site readiness grant approved for the project by the Council on Development Finance (CDF), as the board had signed off on a $1 million site readiness grant in 2022. The project also received roughly $4 million from the Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund (TIIF) in June 2023.
The TIIF grant is valid for up to three years. Under the site readiness grant, developers have two years after signing the grant agreement to complete the work and see the money reimbursed.
For years, Stoltz Real Estate Partners, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., has worked behind the scenes on a multi-phase development of a business park. The property was a Greggo & Ferrara borrow pit and a former amusement park located on more than 200 acres between Hamburg Road and Federal School Lane in the Bear area. The site is anchored by a 1.3 million square-foot Amazon warehouse which opened in late 2021.
The plan for Blue Diamond Park is to develop four buildings over time with the smallest size at 255,000 square feet and the largest sized at 911,000 square feet. Site readiness funds approved this week would be used to grade two lots and install stormwater management and water basins, as well as construct a road connecting the business park to River Road.
If successful, Stoltz Real Estate Partners projects a total of $394 million investment in the property to bring in an estimated 200 to 250 jobs, including $26 million from the firm to get the site ready. The goal is to start construction in the first quarter of 2025.
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Shawn Tucker, land use attorney from Barnes & Thornburg, left, and Stolz executive Mike Hagan listen to questions from the Council on Development Finance on Monday. | DBT PHOTO BY KATIE TABELING[/caption]
“The whole site was built with the idea we would just keep going after Amazon, and then obviously the economy slowed down. Until ownership decides on what to do, we just let the market dictate what we’re doing,” said Mike Hagan, a Stoltz executive. “What we’re trying to accomplish right now is to try and get ahead of the market a little bit. If you’re in the market right now, pricing these improvements, if it’s something that makes sense for the ownership, they would proceed.”
The Blue Diamond Park plans have shifted slightly following Stoltz selling the Amazon ILG1 to an entity under its own portfolio to recapitalize on the land back in 2022. At that time, the Stoltz reportedly sought to build five warehouses over three phases.
State Sen. Nicole Poore (D-New Castle/Port Penn) raised concerns about commercial truck traffic on Federal School Lane and Hamburg Lane, even as Amazon has been using those roads and down Route 9 in the past to navigate around the park. The Blue Diamond Park plans acknowledge the soon-to-be increase in traffic as it showcases at least 431 truck parking spaces for that location.
“One of the biggest things is redirecting trucks down and out Federal School Lane and not through New Castle. Certainly, the police force cannot control that level of traffic that I think will be coming with the amount of trucks,” Poore said during the CDF meeting.
The senator also pointed out that when the commercial trucks come out of Federal School Lane, the tractor trailers are blocking northbound traffic on U.S. Route 13 northbound. When those trucks crossover, southbound U.S. Route 13 is blocked.
“I’ve been in contact with state police, and I’ve pretty much called everybody in regard to that. It’s really affecting traffic and people coming in and out of their communities. If this plan comes together well, that includes revamping our roads, because this is a hindrance to people who live there,” she added.
Shawn Tucker, legal counsel for Stoltz, told the council that the majority of the road improvements were not complete as they were tied to two of the four planned buildings in the Blue Diamond Park. Among those road improvements are a signalized intersection along U.S Route 13 as well as adjustments to existing signals.
“There were hundreds of hours that went into studying traffic in this area, by our client’s engineer as well as DelDOT. Some of those improvements were pulled directly from those analyses,” Tucker said. “We know Amazon wants this and we expect future tenants to want safe access as well, because that way their business functions well and safely. It’s important to us all that the traffic network around this functions well.”
When the council voted on Stolz’s application, Poore cast the lone dissenting vote. CDF Chairman Fred Sears II was absent.
