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200 market-rate apartments open in Midtown Wilmington

Sophia Schmidt, Delaware Public Media
City and State officials, BPG and other business leaders cut the ribbon at the new apartment complex

Buccini/Pollin Group cut the ribbon on the Residences at Mid-town Park this Thursday.

The new 200-unit complex at 9th and Shipley is Buccini/Pollin Group’s (BPG) newest residential project to open in Wilmington. It sits on the site of the old Midtown Parking Center and a civil rights landmark.

The 5-and 7-story buildings are connected by a pedestrian bridge and include retail space along with the apartments. BPG officials say it’s one-third leased.

All units in the project are market rate, with the cheapest units renting for over $1,100 a month.

The complex includes roughly 500 new underground parking spaces, which BPG officials say are owned by the Wilmington Parking Authority and managed by BPG.

Gov. John Carney, who attended the ribbon cutting, says he sees the project as having a broad impact in Wilmington.

“It’s really one part of a comprehensive effort to strengthen our city, our downtown business district, its neighborhoods, its schools, its economic base,” he said.

Credit Sophia Schmidt, Delaware Public Media
The Coalition to Restore Bus Service on Rodney Square protested outside of Buccini/Pollin Group's newest project to open

The project received state money through a Downtown Development District grant.

The ribbon cutting was not without controversy.

 

Roughly thirty minutes before the event began, citizens with the Coalition to Restore Bus Service on Rodney Square gathered on the sidewalk in front of the new development to protest Robert Buccini’s involvement in last winter’s changes to bus routes in Wilmington.

 

Coalition leaders presented a letter to the co-founder of BPG requesting a meeting.

The Residences at Mid-town Park The complex sits on the former site of a civil rights landmark.

In 1958, African American City Councilman William “Dutch” Burton was denied service at the Eagle Coffee Shoppe, which leased retail from the Wilmington Parking Authority. The Delaware Supreme Court upheld the company’s right to discriminate against Burton. Prominent Wilmington attorney Louis Redding appealed the case to the US Supreme Court, which ruled in Burton’s favor, effectively broadening the Equal Protection Clause.

BPG officials say the significance of the place will be marked with a plaque and an alley named “Burton Place.”  

Credit Sophia Schmidt, Delaware Public Media
A common space in the new Residences at Mid-town Park

Robert Buccini says he feels his projects are close to creating what he calls a “critical mass” of people living downtown.

“We’re accelerating. The momentum is accelerating. We’ve never leased as many apartments as quickly as we have in this project. And the parking garage filled up far quicker than we thought,” he said.

Rates in the Residences at Mid-town Park are $1,110 to $1,155 for a studio unit, $1,275 to $1,535 for a one bedroom and $1,865 to $2,015 for a two bedroom.

Buccini says the company’s next residential project will be announced in the coming weeks. He says the company’s projects will keep getting "bigger and bigger."

BPG also broke ground this week on the 76ers stadium and multi-sport complex on the Wilmington Riverfront.

 

Sophia Schmidt is a Delaware native. She comes to Delaware Public Media from NPR’s Weekend Edition in Washington, DC, where she produced arts, politics, science and culture interviews. She previously wrote about education and environment for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA. She graduated from Williams College, where she studied environmental policy and biology, and covered environmental events and local renewable energy for the college paper.
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