What’s Next for the Riverfront?

A futuristic view of South Market Street looking back toward the city and the existing River Tower at Christina Landing. Renderings -courtesy Riverfront Development Corp.

What’s Next

for The Riverfront?

Grand experiment continues to build on its success

By Ken Mammarella

With roughly 90% of the original Wilmington Riverfront project already spoken for, the Riverfront Development Corp. is making a dramatic expansion onto 86 acres on the east bank of the Christina.

A master plan for Riverfront East calls for 4.7 million square feet of residential space in 4,291 units, 1.9 million square feet of office space, 350,000 square feet of retail, 8,900 parking spaces in garages, 650 street parking spaces and 13 acres as open space.

“A big wow,” said Tony Mottola, the RDC’s new director of projects. “Pretty spectacular.”

Yup — if it all happens. Consider these comparisons: For most of the last two decades, building permits were issued for less than 1,000 apartments each year in New Castle, Cecil and Salem counties. The DuPont Building is 950,000 square feet, and Fairfax Shopping Center is 134,000. Christiana Mall has 6,500 parking spaces. Rodney Square is 1.5 acres.

One project that has just broken ground looks to be a stunner. The Luxor is a 193-unit complex, announced as a “highly amenitized, socially integrated, technologically advanced apartment community located close to transportation, entertainment, recreation and employment venues.”

The Luxor is one confirmed outcome of $100 million budgeted for Riverfront East remediation, infrastructure and other improvements by the RDC.

“We’re building infrastructure to welcome development,” Mottola said. “Very few places have that much land ready to go, and nobody in the private sector could do what we’re doing to set the stage for development.”

Public investment on the Riverfront has so far hit $504 million, according to RDC marketing manager Joe Valenti. That’s $460 million from the state, $27 million from Wilmington and $17 million from other sources.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Wilmington began on the Christina River in 1638 when Swedes landed at The Rocks (a park marks roughly the area) and established the first permanent European settlement in Delaware. The Rocks is sorta part of the Riverfront (more on that later).

Fast-forward several centuries, and the riverfront was famous for building ships and railcars and other manufacturing. The Dravo Corp. was Delaware’s largest employer in World War II.

Advance several decades, and the companies — and jobs — were gone, and it was a heavily polluted and mostly vacant industrial zone.

“Typical brownfield, with chemical spills, cesspools, junkyards and crumbling abandoned buildings,” a 2018 University of Delaware report on the RDC website concluded.

In 1995, a gubernatorial task force created the RDC and charged it with “creating economic vitality along the Brandywine and Christina rivers, while enhancing the environment, encouraging historic preservation and promoting public access.” ►

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A rendering of the future look at a bend of the Christina River directly across from Banks’ Seafood Kitchen and currently occupied by the Salvation Army.

The most prominent new buildings so far probably have been Frawley Stadium, home to the Wilmington Blue Rocks, and the Chase Center on the Riverfront, at first a destination for traveling exhibitions and now known for meetings, commencements and other events.

Valenti said 90% of Riverfront West is “spoken for,” but that doesn’t mean it’s complete. Multiple lots are vacant, with empty buildings, pieces of construction equipment and patchy gravel driveways. No signs on the chain-link fences reveal what’s planned.

That UD report estimated 6,000 jobs on the Riverfront, half new to the state. These jobs aren’t about making things, like the old days, but are well-paid knowledge work, providing services. The largest Riverfront employers today are Barclays Bank and AAA, Valenti said.

Riverfront West already channels the buzzwords of being a place to “live, work and play,” and the RDC is doubling down on the concept for Riverfront East by, for example, splitting the planned 350,000 square feet of retail space into two categories: destination (such as restaurants that draw people from a distance) and convenience (supporting the daily needs of residents and visitors).

One factor in the high hopes for growth of the Riverfront is its quick access to other areas for jobs and amenities: a short walk to the Wilmington train station, a longer walk to downtown Wilmington, a short drive to Wilmington’s suburbs and a longer drive to the Philadelphia and New Castle airports.

That access encourages 15% of residents to use apartments in 101 Avenue of the Arts as a second home for work, said Christie Haupt, director of residential for Capano Management.

That access also draws in Pennsylvanians looking for a lower cost of living, cutting-edge dining and clean streets, a massive, 5,500word article in the May issue of Philadelphia magazine concludes.

David Banks, who owns Banks’ Seafood Kitchen and has run a Riverfront restaurant since 2003, said it’s a lucrative destination. “Week after week they say they saw us on TV,” he said of patrons from Pennsylvania and South Jersey who cite his commercials and appearances on WCAU/10. Plus, “the Riverwalk and the river itself are attractive.”

Another draw: a desire to be part of the action. “Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd,” Mottola said.

Consider the Chase Fieldhouse and the Chase Turf Fields Complex. They’re technically not part of the RDC’s Riverfront, but these adjacent redevelopment projects have the potential to bring in thousands for games and other social events. The complex calls itself “a community epicenter.”

RDC maps also don’t include River House, 300 planned apartments on A Street with predictable luxury amenities, plus a saltwater swimming pool, pet-washing station, kayak storage and boat launch.

And they don’t highlight the South Wilmington Wetlands Park, an important infrastructure project created to reduce flooding

in the Southbridge neighborhood, which itself is the target of Wilmington’s South Walnut Street Urban Renewal Plan.

There’s also talk of an aquatics center and indoor track nearby on the eastern bank, Mottola said.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

The Riverfront (anticipate Riverfront West and East branding) is mapped in different ways.

A security district, for instance, is bounded by wetlands on the south (the 288-acre Russell W. Peterson Wildlife Refuge). The boundary heads north up along Interstate 95, zigzags in the northwest until it reaches Martin Luther King Boulevard. It then follows the railroad tracks, Church Street and the Christina – plus jumping over the river to grab Riverfront East housing in Christina Landing.

The marketing map on riverfrontwilm.com, on the other hand, includes more blocks in the northwest corner and also points to the Seventh Street Peninsula, home to The Rocks, the Kalmar Nyckel tall ship replica and the Copeland Maritime Center. Although close, the peninsula and the Riverfront have significantly different vibes.

Riverfront East is split administratively into three areas: the first two are bound by the river, S. Market Street and New Sweden Street, all land owned by the RDC or being bought by it, Mottola said. A third section covers land between S. Market, S. Walnut and A streets.

Various maps show how the past is memorialized in names, including Dravo Plaza, Harlan Boulevard and Hollingsworth Street, named after shipbuilders; Tubman-Garrett Park, named after abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Thomas Garrett; and New Sweden Street, for the Swedes who started it all on The Rocks.

Later notables on the maps include Judy Johnson Drive for the ballplayer, Frawley Stadium for Wilmington Mayor Daniel S. Frawley, the Peterson Wildlife Refuge and the Jack Markell Trail for the governors, the DuPont Environmental Center for the company, Hare Pavilion for developer Michael Hare and the Sen. Margaret Rose Henry Bridge.

The $82 million bridge project opened in 2020, providing an easy connection between the west and east banks. RDC officials are planning for a second, pedestrian bridge to encourage more synergy between the western and eastern sectors. Its eastern end would be near a planned outdoor amphitheater.

They are also studying continuing the 1.3-mile Riverwalk onto the historic Seventh Street Peninsula, using a combination of easements, purchases and trades for the land. And they are looking at a Wilmington Loop that would connect the Markell Trail to the Northern Delaware Greenway, yielding an improved bicycle ride or jog from Brandywine Hundred through the Riverfront to Old New Castle.

Riverfront East’s first prominent construction is a $20 million Salvation Army complex, expected to be dedicated this fall. It includes an 40,000-square-foot adult rehabilitation center, with dormitory space for 86; a 31,000-square-foot building for donations and offices; and a 17,000-square-foot store.

Valenti is looking forward this year to a full season of public cruises and party boats on the river, Thursday evening concerts at Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park and monthly lunchtime concerts at Hare Pavilion. Riverfront restaurants, bars and entertainment venues should also draw more visitors, he said following two years of pandemic slowdowns.