DOVER — Bayhealth has finalized moving services to the once-popular Blue Hen Corporate Center and Mall in Dover, expanding several health care services and breathing new activity in the former shopping mall along the U.S. Route 13.
The once-popular Blue Hen Corporate Center and Mall in Dover opened in 1968 as enclosed malls were first starting to become popular in the United States. But when the Dover Mall was built in the 1980s, the Blue Hen Mall started to decline as retailers and service providers moved out to newer spaces.
Even as the years passed, the Blue Hen Mall was known for popular gems like the water fountain and iconic, large blue hen mural hidden inside of the Blue Hen Mall remained behind. Both served as a sign of times gone by for many local residents who remember wandering its halls.
By the end of 2021, it was reported that the entire Blue Hen Corporate Center and Mall had a 40% occupancy rate. Totaling 450,000 square-feet, the mall evolved over the years to meet local needs, seeing storefronts and offices like a pet store, department stores, Aetna, fast food establishments and, one of the last large businesses to vacate the building, Bank of America.
In recent years, the state of Delaware opened social services offices inside Blue Hen Mall and even used it as a vaccine and testing center during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But for Deanna Rigby, administrative director of Ambulatory Care Services at Bayhealth, continuing to repurpose the former retail space so many came to love isn’t just about finding space – it is as much of a personal pride and joy as it is an important part of Bayhealth’s mission of strengthening the health of its community.
Rigby can remember a time when retailers and service providers were busy inside of the mall and she said she’s glad that Bayhealth can help bring life back to that space once again.
Of the building’s roughly 450,000 square feet, Bayhealth purchased about 200,000 square-feet in 2022, anchoring the building at both the north and the south end. It also leaves the middle portion, still owned by real estate development and management company Pettinaro, for state offices and other leasing opportunities.
All told, Bayhealth purchased each side for $17 million, or $24 million altogether.
“It’s one large building and if you think about cutting it into fourths, we bought the northern and southern fourth,” Rigby told the Delaware Business Times. “It’s great because [there’s a lot of] parking. People know where that location is, too. It’s easy to access and easy to get one stop shopping.”
Bayhealth placed an IT department and orthopedics in the north side of the mall, along with some spaces rented by other medical practitioners and service providers. The south side includes a 20,000 square-foot conference center complete with a main event room and board rooms.
The south side also includes physicians for neurology, pulmonology, endocrinology, diabetes management services and primary care practices which were relocated to the facility in June during phase one of the expansion project. Occupational services were also relocated to the new facility. A large waiting room is included in the south side of the building in which patients can sign in for all of those services, as well as laboratory work or ECGs and the nonprofit organization’s newest walk-in center with X-ray capabilities which rolled out this month as phase two of the project.
“The Kent outpatient facility has continued to grow. We’re always planning for the future. We’re going to private rooms and adding additional beds. That’s real estate, right? Anything we can move off site that is safe, that’s what we’re going to do and to be able to put more services in one building, that’s better, too,” Rigby told DBT.
She added that the need for access to health care continues to increase, requiring Bayhealth to continually add to its offerings.
“The population in Delaware as a whole continues to grow. Delaware has been discovered so people are moving in,” she said. “And those moving in and the people who have been here, we’re aging. Health care has to be a part of that by looking at demographics and anticipating the needs.”
To make sure all of this can happen in the new space, Bayhealth had to renovate much of its new acquisition at the mall. The south side of the building, where Bank of America had a location, had sat empty for many years and had deteriorated, Rigby said.
While moving doctors to the new space, recruiting more and ensuring the space was safe and ready for new health care services, another priority stood out to leaders behind the scenes.
On the wall when patients enter Bayhealth’s newest walk-in center, local residents may see a familiar face – the original, iconic blue hen chicken mural which was repurposed by the same gentleman who designed it for the mall locals remembered from so long ago, now visible by more people every day like it once was during the Blue Hen Mall’s heyday.