Development flowing along the Brandywine

Jenna Pizzi | The News Journal

Wilmington development efforts for years focused on the Christina River, transforming the industrial wasteland southwest of downtown into a bustling neighborhood with high-rise apartments, rows of restaurants, a hotel and amenities, including a wintertime skating rink.

Now, city officials are hoping to put a new emphasis on another neighborhood positioned on a different Wilmington waterway with plenty of under-utilized land and proximity to downtown — this time, along the Brandywine, in the northeastern part of the city. They see an area ripe for revival, and point to developers investing in chic lofts, senior housing and townhouses as what could be the start of a trend.

The emphasis is on the area east of Market Street to the 11th Street Bridge, including the Brandywine Village neighborhood. The area is home to many longtime residents and businesses, but Peg Tigue, a vocal member of the Old Brandywine Village community organization, said it hasn't received the same attention as other parts of the city.

"We call ourselves 'the other river' because nobody knows we are there,” she said.

North Market Street once housed rows of stores serving residents, although buildings now are dilapidated after sitting vacant for years. Hermalee Laylor-Christie, who has owned Top Choice Caribbean Restaurant in the 2000 block of North Market Street for about 20 years, said most of the businesses around her have closed. Any business opening in its place usually doesn't last, she said.

Laylor-Christie said there is so much opportunity on North Market because it is a main thoroughfare into the city, but people rarely stop to shop or pick up food.

"People have been back and forth but they don't stay long any more," said Laylor-Christie, as she sat one recent evening talking to the women at Shear Collection Salon next to her restaurant.

Mel Green, who owns the salon where Laylor-Christie was visiting, said there are obvious issues with the block that deter the thousands of people that drive by each day from stopping.

"Parking is an issue. The lighting, it goes and comes and people don't want to walk around 'cause they think it is dangerous," Green said.

City officials are looking to drive business growth and spark home ownership by making public investment in infrastructure. Repaving sidewalks, restriping asphalt, maintaining medians and planting flowers are on the list. Additionally, the city is seeking to acquire properties.

The city has already invested in color-changing LED lighting on the smoke stack at the Brandywine Pumping Station, a 1906 structure at 16th and Market streets.

"We want it to look like Boathouse Row in Philadelphia," said Tigue, whose group helped organize the project, similar to the boathouses outlined in white lights along the Schuylkill River.

A new Dollar General store also recently opened in the 1900 block of Market Street.

Another key piece is the conversion of the Cathedral Church of St. John at Concord Avenue into 53 units of housing for individuals 62 and older. The church closed in 2012 and the Ministry of Caring, a nonprofit that provides health and social services support to those in need, stepped in.

The organization operates other senior living facilities in the city, but officials see this project as more than just providing a place to live for low-income seniors. Brother Ronald Giannone, founder and executive director of the Ministry of Caring, said the influx of new residents to the neighborhood once the project is complete should attract businesses.

The area is important because it is a gateway to the city, he said.

“We really need this to be the spark that gets the fire going for creating a new life in Brandywine Village,” he said.

A greenway also part of focus

The patchwork of investments targets one of the most historically significant parts of the city. Just north from the center of Wilmington, the area now referred to as Old Brandywine Village was defined by the flour mills that lined the waterway, and the homes and shops that prospered there.

Saving that history became a goal of architects, historians and residents in the 1960s even as change and race riots tore apart the rest of Wilmington. The group worked to save and restore historic buildings dating to the 18th century and in the 1980s an architect sought to transform one of those old mills, William Lea & Sons Inc, into the Superfine Lane condos. The area seemed to be a historic community on the rise.

But in the 1990s, that investment fell out. Stores closed and no new vendors replaced them. Crime crept into the edges of Old Brandywine Village and the neighboring Price's Run neighborhood.

The Riverfront Development Corp. was formed in 1995 after a task force formed by Gov. Michael Castle issued a report detailing its vision for the future of the Brandywine and Christina rivers.

The mission was for the RDC to foster development by acquiring land, acting as a developer, helping private developers to find financing and managing construction. Attention to date has focused on development of the Christina riverfront, a former industrial tract that now includes Frawley Stadium, the Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge, Delaware Children’s Museum, the Westin Wilmington, several restaurants, a movie theater, housing developments and a river walk.

Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams last week announced a city proposal to construct a 4,000-seat arena attached to the Chase Center on the Riverfront, a convention facility operated by the RDC. The city estimates the expansion would cost $25 million.

Williams is running for re-election and one of his challengers for the Democratic nomination is Mike Purzycki, executive director of the Riverfront Development Corp. The primary is in September.

Williams last month said the RDC needs to pay more attention to the Brandywine area outlined in the state mission. He said they city sees potential in the neighborhood.

"I think that is going to be a big boom," he said.

Purzycki said the RDC's focus at the moment is protecting its investment along the Christina, and driving new investments. He said the RDC doesn't have plans to focus development along the Brandywine "any time soon."

"It is not likely that we can start moving too far out of the main development area right now," he said.

City Councilman Darius Brown, whose district includes the east side of the Brandywine where it meets the Christina River, said the area is in need of investment to stabilize communities that are on the edge of being destroyed by violence and disinvestment.

"We can walk two blocks that have issues and drugs and crime, and then all of a sudden come to a street that is stabilized because there are homeowners there who are invested in the neighborhood and drive away the crime," Brown said.

Jaehn Dennis, president of the Vandever Avenue Civic Association, said something needs to be done about the number of vacant properties because crime is driving away the few homeowners who are left, including him.

“It is enough,” Dennis said. “In the '70s and '80s it was really vibrant but with the drugs, the crime – people just moved out.”

A block from Dennis' house on 17th Street is the H. Fletcher Brown Boys and Girls Club, one of the few areas with green space that backs up to the Brandywine. Part of the focus from city officials is centered on expanding access and green space along the waterway, offering added value to residents, who might not otherwise see the Brandywine until they cross one of the bridges that spans it.

Tigue said making the waterway a focus is important to the surrounding neighborhoods. Tigue said she swoons over the breathtaking views of the creek as it snakes past her condo in the Superfine Lane community.

"You should come up and see the views," she said. "There is really no other place like it."

Creating a greenway along the river is a priority, said city Planning Director Leonard Sophrin. He also envisions a small, two-lane road along the river to encourage use of the open space.

“Further north, the relationship between neighborhoods like Trolley Square, the Highlands and Midtown Brandywine are defined by their relationship to the park and the Brandywine,” Sophrin said. “It needs to become this added value for the other neighborhoods along the river.”

Sophrin said the city is looking at the former site of Diamond Salvage Yard, which backs up to the Boys and Girls Club, to preserve as open space.

A few new residential developments are also looking to capitalize on the Brandywine and its views. The Lofts at Clifford Brown Walk across the river will have several units overlooking the water.

The 80 one- and two-bedroom apartments in The Lofts are converted from a former warehouse at 14th Street and Clifford Brown Walk. The structure was built in 1917 as a warehouse to store goat skins for the New Castle Leather Co. and was later used as a lithographic printing shop.

Keeping with its industrial history, the apartments have brushed metal finishes, tall ceilings and walls of large windows. The building will also have modern finishes like skylights, a gym, lobby and private, secured parking. The apartments will lease for $865 a month for a one bedroom and $950 a month for a two bedroom.

The $19 million project is funded through historic and low-income tax credits as well as a construction loan. Computer- and phone-maker Apple Inc. purchased between $4.5 million to $6.5 million of the tax credits, said Patrick Duffy, CEO of Chatham Bay, the project developer. Duffy said Apple came to Chatham Bay offering to help finance a project.

"I was very surprised to receive that call," said Duffy, who said because of an agreement with the company he could not say how much they contributed to purchase tax credits or why they had an interest in the project.

Duffy said like any other project, it is important to have other developments nearby.

“Other developers will hopefully follow suit,” Duffy said.

The area is attractive because of the need for moderately priced apartments for young professionals who work downtown, Duffy said. The building is income-restricted for those making 60 percent the average median income in the city. The company is looking to double down on its investment with other projects nearby, though Duffy declined to give specifics.

Just around the corner, the Inter-Neighborhood Foundation is focusing on those who want to lay deep roots in the neighborhood with a home ownership project of eight new townhouses.

The project, called Walnut Place, replaces a vacant lot with homes that will go for between $152,090 and $165,000. Construction began in October and is expected to be complete by summer.

Homeownership is important to stabilize neighborhoods that have struggled with vacant lots, blight and crime, said Brown, whose district encompasses the northern area of the East Side and the Old Brandywine Village and the Price’s Run neighborhood on the northern side of the Brandywine.

"I find that the desires of residents are the same no matter where they live: they want quality housing and a safe neighborhood," Brown said.

Creating opportunities for residents again

Investment by Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County and the Wilmington Housing Partnership in the last few years also has transformed blocks along Vandever Avenue, which runs parallel to the Brandywine.

“Before we started working in this neighborhood, we would not be standing here,” said Kevin Smith, CEO of Habitat for Humanity,

Walking up to the corner of 22nd and Lamotte streets, Smith remembered the crime and drugs that plagued the neighborhood years ago. But in mid-November, the neighborhood was quiet. Neighbors waved at Smith from their driveways as he passed through the Mill Stone development, 21 homes Habitat built in three stages and completed in 2013.

In the last year, there hasn’t been any gun violence in the vicinity, but a block up the street, where Habitat hasn’t begun its efforts, there have been four shootings.

The Rev. Sandra Ben, of Praying Ground Community Church at 41 E. 22nd St., said as the homes were renovated, criminals began to see that people were checking the streets and it drove them away.

Since the development was completed, Habitat has bought up dilapidated homes or vacant lots nearby, finding homeowners to settle in those neighborhoods. Smith estimates Habitat has already invested $4.1 million in the neighborhood.

“Nonprofits like us and the housing partnership, their role is to be the instigator,” Smith said. “You start developing enough property and others start to care.”

Further east along Vandever Avenue, the Wilmington Housing Partnership is expanding its development to the former home of Walt’s Flavor Crisp chicken shop at Pine Street, where four townhouses will be built in place of the large, vacant storefront.

Brown, the councilman, said he hopes the investment from Habitat and the Wilmington Housing Partnership will continue, but also that new, private investors will see the value in the open land overlooking the Brandywine to bring in new residents and a better life for the ones that already live there.

“We are creating opportunities for residents again,” Brown said, as he drove past blocks with a majority of boarded up homes. “These neighborhoods have been negatively impacted over the years with disinvestment so with these continued projects we have to show that we are continually making efforts.”

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2837. Follow her on Twitter @JennaPizzi.