New Wilmington Transit Center part of state plans to attract Amazon, other investments

As Wilmington vies to become Amazon.com's next home, Delaware’s elected leaders on Friday touted taxpayers’ quarter-billion-dollar investment in transportation projects in the city – home to the state’s biggest cluster of white-collar workers.

During a press conference held at the Wilmington Amtrak station, state officials said the job-market fortunes of Delaware and its largest city are inextricably tied.

“We have to be ready to compete, whether it’s for a project like Amazon or other proposals,” Gov. John Carney said to a gaggle of influential Delawareans, including elected officials, private developers and investors. “We are all in this together.”

Before the event, Carney attended a meeting where he discussed how state "assets" could lure Amazon to northern Delaware, he said.

Officials from the Seattle-based online retailer have stipulated that whichever North American site becomes its second headquarters should be within 45 minutes of an international airport, less than 2 miles from a major highway and have access to mass transit.

To compete, Carney said, Delaware also must have the best schools, the best transportation system and the safest neighborhoods, “and we’re working on that issue.”

“At the end of the day, if the people that we represent don’t have a good job, everything else that they try to do for their families is so much harder,” he said.

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New public, private transit center

While he spoke, Carney stood in front of displayed blueprints for a new Wilmington Transit Center, which were first unveiled to the public during the event.

The transit center, which will be built on public-owned land a block from the train station, will house seven indoor bus stops on its ground floor with parking above.

The multi-story garage for buses, rental cars and public parking likely will open in 2019, according to Colonial Parking President Jed Hatfield.

Colonial and developer EDiS in a partnership won a state contract to build and operate the new transit center. Theirs was the only bid submitted.

The Wilmington Area Planning Council in a 2014 transit report recommended moving laid-over buses off of the Wilmington streets. This facility will accomplish that goal, said DART CEO John Sisson.

"People can transfer under cover; they can buy their tickets there. It’s a better experience overall," he said.

The transit center may become connected with routes serving areas near Rodney Square using circulator buses, Sisson said. On Wednesday, numerous bus riders expressed their displeasure with proposals to move at least a dozen buses away from Rodney Square.

While the transit center may "ease" Rodney Square transit issues, buses still will serve the uptown area, Sisson said.

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The transit center houses an electric bus charging station for the state's soon-to-be fleet of alternative energy transit vehicles, Sisson said.

Last week, the agency announced it had been awarded a $1 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration toward the purchase of 10 electric buses and charging systems.

It is the second year DART received federal money for electric buses. By 2019, there will be 16 electric buses operating in Delaware.

The News Journal in January reported the transit center will be built on state-owned property using $18 million in private construction funds, through a public-private partnership that alleviates "the strain on the public treasury," Sisson said.

“A majority of the funding will come from the private sector who will recoup their costs through the parking revenues," he said.

State Transportation Secretary Jennifer Cohan said the transit center is sorely needed in Wilmington.

"We hadn’t had a proper transit center in the city," she said.

A reason for pursuing the public-private infrastructure partnership to build it, she said, is because those funding models have been promoted "at the federal level."

The News Journal in July sent an open-records request asking for records of communication about public-private partnerships between Cohan, her deputy, or Delaware Department of Transportation division directors with the U.S. Department of Transportation or the White House.

No such records existed, according to DelDOT.

Carney, Cohan and Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki highlighted numerous other transportation projects at the event on Friday.

They included an $89 million bridge and its approaching roads over the Christina River; an upcoming $177 million rehabilitation of I‐95 from I‐495 to the Brandywine River Bridge; a $24 million bike bridge and wetland boardwalk; and numerous smaller repaving projects, which include curb ramps, bike lanes, and traffic signals.

“If we don’t have infrastructure,” Purzycki said. “nobody’s going to come here to invest.”

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.