Why Should Delaware Care?
More than 10% percent of Wilmington’s savings fund is now being used to support a major educational hub in the city, potentially enhancing access to higher education and job opportunities. However, persistent concerns about transparency and loss of almost $1 million in tax revenue add complexity for taxpayers, who may bear the financial burden as a result.
The Wilmington City Council officially approved a $10 million donation from the city’s excess savings to help develop a new higher education hub downtown.
The legislation, which passed on a 12-1 vote Thursday after weeks of debate, will provide financial support to the Longwood Foundation, a philanthropic nonprofit founded by the du Pont family, to create The Bridge, an academic center that will house programs for Widener University Delaware Law School, Delaware State University and the University of Delaware.
The $10 million will come from the city’s Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund, an excess savings fund that was created by the city six years ago to pay for city initiatives and to “limit the need to increase taxes,” according to the Purzycki administration.
The reserve’s current unaudited balance is $79.9 million, representing about 40% of the city’s annual revenues, as the operating budget for this fiscal year is $193.9 million.
But this donation is also 20% of the total needed to fund Longwood’s project, and was reportedly a deciding factor in whether the project would move forward.
“I appreciate the city council’s interest and support, we’re humbled by it,” said Thère du Pont, CEO of the Longwood Foundation and chair of the board of the Community Education Building.
What is The Bridge?
The Bridge is an academic center that will occupy Bracebridge II, one of the six buildings that formerly served as the headquarters for credit card giant MBNA and today hosts the last employees of its successor, Bank of America.
The other three main office buildings of the Bracebridge complex have already been acquired by other organizations including Longwood, which was given Bracebridge IV for the Community Education Building, an education space containing several schools and programs for pre-K through secondary education.
Bank of America, which is soon moving its employees to a site in Pike Creek, decided to donate Bracebridge II to Longwood almost a year ago, which sparked the idea for the new project. With the help of CEB and inspiration drawn from their established model, the idea for the Bridge began to take shape.
In recent weeks, some locals have shown concern about the building being owned by a nonprofit, which would not pay property taxes to the city, and a possible need for other revenue sources that may hurt the pockets of taxpayers.
But project planners insist the education hub is a much-needed city resource that will outweigh the potential costs.
The center will house Widener’s Law School and restorative justice program, DSU’s nursing and other programs, and the University of Delaware’s Associate of Arts program, along with different nonprofit organizations.
Project planners aim to boost opportunity for people of color by increasing the job demand, downtown real estate and community engagement between different locals, leaders and organizations.
The Bridge now requires nearly $60 million to be completed. Longwood plans to provide $10 million and has received $22.7 million from the state’s bond bill, $10 million from the city, leaving between $6 and $10 million needed from New Castle County, according to du Pont.
BOA’s donation of the building, which is worth $10 million, will be the last thing they accept, but Longwood will not do so until they have lined up all the funding.
New Castle County has yet to provide their needed donation, but du Pont hopes it can provide at least $6 million, but the full $10 million would allow them room to build up their team ahead of time.
Longwood has also applied for a grant from the Crystal Trust Foundation for $1 million, which could relieve some pressure.
Without the county’s help, The Bridge may not make it off the drawing board, du Pont said/.
Potential impact
During the city council’s last Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting early this month, County Councilman Jea Street Sr. voiced appreciation for the project’s potential to expose city kids to higher education and different professions.
He also noted that his job to get the county to allocate the money to the project would be easier if the city passed their appropriation.
Many supporters were also present, including Mayor Purzycki, who noted that it was his first council meeting in years.
This project, in my mind, fills a yawning gap in the city’s self image, its profile.
mayor mike purzycki
The mayor’s office drafted the approved legislation, which District 4 Councilwoman Michelle Harlee sponsored and originally presented to council on Sept. 5.
At the meeting Purzycki addressed concerns about the project’s lack of fiscal transparency, arguing the focus should be on the qualitative impact of The Bridge.
“This project, in my mind, fills a yawning gap in the city’s self image, its profile – it is much less about the cash-on-cash return, it is about the intellectual, professional and social energy that thousands of graduate-level students can mean to a city,” Purzycki said.
Purzycki emphasized that the acquisition of the Bracebridge buildings by Incyte and Longwood, with the addition of The Bridge will reduce the 30% vacancy rate in the city by about 10 percentage points.
Other partners involved with The Bridge, including Thère du Pont, Tony Allen, president of Delaware State University; Todd Clark, dean of Widener Law School; Logan Herring, CEO of the WRK Group; and Jarrett Royster, president of YMCA of Delaware, were present.
Each of them spoke about the importance of the project to their organization and how each can benefit from being in downtown Wilmington.
The WRK Group, a collective of Kingswood Community Center, the Warehouse and REACH Riverside, is a more recent collaboration that Longwood has formed in order to provide more advocacy services for students and families inside the CEB and expand to provide the same services to EastSide Charter School.
Longwood will also be receiving support from REACH Riverside’s current housing project to provide housing to staff for CEB and The Bridge and even the students that will come in.
The YMCA of Delaware and Longwood will also be opening an already fully funded youth development center on Wilson Street next to The Bridge. The center will have new facilities, spaces for after-school programs and workforce initiatives for CEB. The building will also have an early learning center that will have between 80 and 100 seats.
The organizations plan to break ground for it in November, but the addition of The Bridge will allow for a cradle-to-career pipeline in the downtown area.
“This whole portfolio is gonna now be infant through law school,” said du Pont during the committee meeting.
Participants in the meeting like Harlee and Purzycki also spoke about the ongoing success of the CEB, Longwood’s last endeavor, which encouraged them to further support The Bridge.
The CEB contains different K-12 schools and family and student services that currently serve 1,100 students, 70% of which are from Wilminton, and provides a couple hundred jobs to those in the area. The organization also partners with different organizations like ChristianaCare, Network Connect, a community resource initiative; and Delaware Guidance, which provides outpatient behavioral health services.
The Bridge will also contain Delaware State University’s Early College School, a program for students from 7-12 grade who can earn up to 60 college credits before entering college.
The program currently serves 600 students and is headquartered in Kent County, but with 30% of their student’s coming from New Castle County, the downtown hub would benefit those coming from up north, Allen said.
Clark is also excited about expanding accessibility to city residents for the six legal clinics that Widener provides to residents.
The Bridge is expected to have an economic impact of more than $250 million, create upward of 500 city jobs and accommodate over 2,000 students, faculty and staff, du Pont told Spotlight Delaware in September.
Possible drawbacks
Shyanne Miller, a city resident and local advocate, and Christian Willauer, a candidate for the District 5 council seat, have both raised concerns about the project. They commented on the need for more evaluation on the impact of the building and clarity for taxpayers, as they are concerned about how the money from property taxes will be made back up and how it will affect taxpayers.
Willauer even suggested that Longwood make a payment in lieu of taxes, which would essentially front-fund some of the revenue loss to help the city bridge the gap.
Currently, the Bracebridge building pays about $300,000 in property taxes a year for the city, almost $40,000 in county property taxes and over $500,000 in school taxes, resulting in over $900,000 in taxes that the city will no longer see.
According to a fiscal impact report for the project obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, Wilmington expects to receive about $778,000 in one-time permitting and construction worker taxes and nearly $264,000 in ongoing annual wage taxes – equating to an annual revenue loss for the city, county and school district.
However, du Pont argued that because Bank of America was already going to leave Bracebridge II, the future retention on property taxes would have been uncertain regardless of whether The Bridge happened or not.
Another city resident, Lourdes Rivera, spoke on the need for investment into city neighborhoods and the issue of water billing she feels the money could be put toward instead.
But before voting, multiple council members, including Harlee, Zanthia Oliver, Maria Cabrera and Chris Johnson spoke in support of The Bridge, expressing excitement for the project as well as urgency they felt in needing the hub, as many feel it will bring stability to the city.
“I think this is a no-brainer,” said Johnson before the vote.
The vote was unanimously in favor, while District 2 Councilwoman Shané Darby was absent..
The building is expected to be given to Longwood by Bank of America toward the end of 2025, giving the foundation some time to prepare for development and gaining access to all the required donations.
Aside from acquiring needed capital, Longwood’s next step will be to begin developing leases for the partnering schools.
“We’ve got to arrive at a price and a service offering that the three universities at the core will find compelling,” du Pont said. “And they find the service offering, as it exists today compelling, but we’ve got to figure out how to make it work economically for us and them.”
The Bridge is set to be opened in the fall of 2027.
Funder Notice
The Longwood Foundation has supported Spotlight Delaware with a multi-year grant. The funding bears no impact on Spotlight’s editorial decision-making per our Editorial Independence Policy.
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