Former GM plant on Boxwood Road to be demolished, Harvey Hanna says in exploratory plan

The plant that formerly housed thousands of Delaware auto workers will be leveled and redeveloped as soon as officials give developer Harvey Hanna & Associates the OK to move forward after the company submitted an exploratory plan late last week.

After demolition of the near 3-million-square-foot facility, the Boxwood Road plant will be home to a business, fulfillment and distribution campus spread across four buildings with a smaller footprint than the previous structure.

County officials are expected to expedite the approval process and allow Newport-based Harvey Hanna, which took over the former General Motors plant in October, to push ahead in the coming months.

Under the plan, Harvey Hanna proposes the construction of a modern campus designed to attract and retain 21st century businesses and jobs, serving as a new economic engine for the region.

“These plans represent a critical first step in rebuilding this storied property into a modern distribution and business campus that can provide a critical source of jobs and serve as a new and lasting economic engine for the entire region," said company president Thomas Hanna.

Hanna couldn't yet announce formal plans at a public-requested meeting in early December, but he did focus a presentation at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control-hosted event on the 135-acre Twin Spans Business Park.

There, along the banks of the Delaware River, Harvey Hanna turned the former Chicago Bridge and Iron site into 2 million square feet of industrial warehouse, distribution and office space that created more than 1,000 jobs.

The 142-acre Boxwood site is expected to create more than double the amount of jobs at Twin Spans.

If approved, the buildings would be constructed in multiple phases, with additional green space, improved storm water management and new landscaping buffers added to the new business and distribution campus. The plans are conceptual in nature, and must be reviewed and approved by New Castle County as well as other state regulatory agencies.

Hanna said in December that the total redevelopment project, which includes environmental remediation as part of DNREC's Brownsfield Development Program, could take up to eight years.

Harvey Hanna has not announced any lease agreements, but one potential candidate could be Gulftainer, the international port operator that will take over the Port of Wilmington. Peter Richards, Gulftainer's CEO, has said the company is looking at the property for a possible inland logistics center.

The facility has a long history of being a job provider in Delaware. GM in the 1980s employed more than 5,000 people at the auto assembly facility.

The Boxwood facility was touted as "the future of manufacturing in Delaware" when Fisker promised to build sporty hybrid cars there. In 2010, Gov. Jack Markell announced $21.5 million in economic incentives for Fisker to reopen the plant, which had been abandoned by GM in 2009. But Fisker failed and by 2013 filed for bankruptcy without ever building a car or hiring a worker in Delaware. Only a small amount of the state's funds were returned.

Harvey Hanna purchased the site last year from Wanxiang America, which assumed ownership of the plant when it acquired Fisker's assets in 2014.

Harvey Hanna promised "thousands" of jobs when it officially announced the purchase in October.

It's a little bit clearer now what kind of jobs — logistics workers, truck drivers and more — may be available in the near future.

Harvey Hanna is also pursuing the development of 400,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial transit oriented development near the SEPTA rail station in downtown Newport, where future employees at the Boxwood Road property can live, eat, shop and play. Harvey Hanna’s plans for the Newport development also include a Riverwalk trail for walking, biking and other recreation, as well as the re-opening of the Newport passenger rail station. This planned river walk is environed to interconnect with the New Castle County bicycle and pedestrian trail network that is currently under construction.

"The resulting economic impact of this transformation holds the potential to transform the greater Newport area, and position this area for success for decades to come," Hanna said.

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Contact reporter Jeff Neiburg at (302) 983-6772, jneiburg@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.