Why Should Delaware Care?
The expansion of Incyte will bring hundreds of new high-paying jobs to the state and contribute to the city of Wilmington’s tax base. A parallel development could bring new educational opportunities to downtown Wilmington.
With biopharmaceutical giant Incyte announcing Tuesday that it has purchased a pair of long-vacant office complexes in downtown Wilmington to soon become home to its global headquarters, the deal marks a significant win for the city government, school districts and local businesses.
Once a crown jewel in the MBNA empire, the buildings known as the Bracebridge complex have been steadily emptied out since the former credit card giant was acquired by Bank of America in 2006. By November 2025, Bank of America will move its last employees from the site to its Deerfield campus in Pike Creek though.
The news only further soured outlook on the future of center city’s office landscape as law firms have downsized space or planned to leave the city entirely after COVID. Several major high-rises have been converted into apartments after office vacancies rose to about a third of the downtown.
The arrival of Incyte, along with a proposal to bring together a trio of higher education institutions at the third Bracebridge facility, could be a “transformative moment” for Wilmington though, according to Mayor Mike Purzycki.
A Delaware deal
Founded in 2002, Incyte was born out of the sale of DuPont Pharmaceuticals and was originally located at the DuPont Experimental Station. Over time, it grew to a lab-and-office complex off Augustine Cut-Off just north of Wilmington.
The company develops small-molecule drugs that can treat rare cancers and disorders without the side effects of traditional chemotherapy. Its most successful discovery has been Jakafi, a small-molecule drug that is used in the treatment of rare bone marrow cancer, blood diseases and in certain bone marrow donations. It’s gross profit has risen 35% in the past four years, eclipsing $3.4 billion last year.
Today, the company has become a powerhouse in the Delaware market, employing more than 500 people in the state and helping to grow a biopharmaceutical industry ecosystem that includes companies like Prelude Therapeutics and NiKang Therapeutics.
Incyte has grown from humble beginnings to a billion-dollar biophmarmaceutical firm in Wilmington’s suburbs, and is currently expanding into dermatological drugs. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Incyte has grown several times over the years at its Alapocas headquarters, but it was forced to scuttle plans for a final major expansion there after opposition from neighbors. Afterward, they began exploring other options inside Delaware and in neighboring states.
City and state officials, working with the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, the state’s public-private economic development entity, began wooing the company in August, according to Mayor Purzycki. Conversations ran hot and cold for months.
In the end, city and state officials, working with the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, the state’s public-private economic development entity, were able to attract Incyte to the long-vacant Bracebridge complex. They formulated a taxpayer-backed state grant package totaling nearly $15 million to hire new employees and outfit the space.
“Delaware has been our home for more than 20 years, and we are looking forward to expanding our operations in Wilmington and continuing to grow our company here,” Incyte CEO Hervé Hoppenot said in a statement.
Vision for an education hub
While Incyte will move its about 200 employees from a Chadds Ford, Pa., site and hundreds of non-technical roles from its Alapocas site to center city Wilmington by 2026, another parallel proposal could bring additional energy to the area.
Bracebridge II, the final building to host Bank of America staff, is being targeted by the Longwood Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy founded by the du Pont family, as a future hub of higher education.
In 2012, Bank of America donated what was known as Bracebridge IV to the Longwood Foundation, which created the Community Education Building that today is home to several charter schools.
A new $57 million proposal recently pitched to city and state leaders is being called The Bridge, and would see Bracebridge II become home to a relocated Widener University Delaware Law School along with programs from the University of Delaware and Delaware State University.
That three-block radius is the beginning of Wilmington as a campus.
THÉRE DU PONT, LONGWOOD FOUNDATION
Thére du Pont, the president of the Longwood Foundation, said that the success of the Community Education Building has given them the confidence to tackle a new hub focused on the post-secondary education gap. Another $18 million plan in the works would create a Youth Development Center adjacent to the Community Education Building to serve children before kindergarten.
“So in a three-block radius, you’re gonna have an educational campus that starts an infant and goes all the way through law school with support services. To me, that three-block radius is the beginning of Wilmington as a campus,” he said, noting that the CEB serves primarily Black students right now. “This is Wilmingtonians who will be encouraged, nurtured and fit into this university structure so they can study their own social challenges, and then create solutions that are applicable here.”
The biggest piece of The Bridge plan involves the move of Delaware Law School from its longtime Concord Pike campus. The university has long been solicited to move downtown, where students would have closer access to the courthouses, law firms and law clinics. The Bridge would allow that plan without requiring the university to acquire and outfit their own building, but rather slot into space prepared by the Longwood Foundation.
The law school alone would bring more than 800 students, with about half currently choosing to live on campus.
While The Bridge has already received commitments from Bank of America for the building and $10 million in funding from Longwood, it still must secure $37 million from state, county and city funds. Gov. John Carney has backed it with $10 million in bond funding in the upcoming state budget that must be approved by legislators.
Impact on the city
A change in ownership of the Bracebridge buildings and reinvestment into them portends a positive gain to city coffers.
Last week, Incyte purchased the Bracebridge I and III buildings located at 1100 N. King St. and 1100 N. French St., respectively, for a combined $47.5 million, according to county land records. That deal alone resulted in a more than $700,000 windfall for the city coffers via its portion of the realty transfer tax. It’s the largest single transfer tax payment the city has seen since Barclays acquired its U.S. headquarters in the Riverfront district in 2021.
The addition of upward of 800 new employees will also be a welcome turn for the city’s wage tax revenue, which typically constitutes 40% or more of the city’s annual revenues. Calculated as 1.25% of wages earned by workers based in the city, Wilmington stands to benefit greatly from the arrival of Incyte, which has said that arriving jobs would have annual incomes between $90,000 and $200,000. That would translate to at least an additional $1 million in city coffers from Incyte employees.
The cobblestone streets and moose in front of Bracebridge III may soon have new life after being purchased by Incyte. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Finally, the renovation of the Bracebridge complex could also positively impact its property assessments, which have fallen 54% since 2018 when the last workers left the buildings. Today, the combined taxable assessment is just shy of $23 million, but in 2010 they were assessed at more than $100 million.
The impending reassessment of property in New Castle County could see the taxable assessment rise for the first time in years, contributing additional property tax revenue to the city of Wilmington as well as the Christina School District and the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District.
Those increases could help to offset the loss of property tax at Bracebridge II should The Bridge project be completed. Proposed to be owned by the Longwood Foundation, it is exempt from property taxes.
Change for economy
The arrival of hundreds of well-paid Incyte workers and potentially thousands of college students to downtown Wilmington will also help to boost office leases and secondary businesses.
Incyte’s purchase alone will help to push down the city’s top-class office vacancy rate by nearly 10%.
“The worst kept secret in Wilmington is now reality,” said Wills Elliman, the senior managing director for Newmark, a major commercial real estate brokerage in Wilmington. “The last time Central Business District Class A vacancy was this low was in early 2019. It’s great to see the market trending in the right direction.”
The Chancery Market, one of Wilmington’s food hall markets is near the Bracebridge complex, and could see new foot traffic from the projects. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Scott Johnson, the owner of major downtown office buildings like 1201 and 1313 N. Market St. just a few blocks from the Bracebridge complex, said he’s excited by the development. The addition of new workers and college students also spells a win for The Chancery Market, the food hall concept that his company, Johnson Commercial Real Estate, opened in 2022.
“It bodes well for the strength of the market in the future, no doubt about that,” he said. “There’s going to be people who service Incyte’s need that will come to Delaware. So, all boats rise with the tide, dramatically.”
While Wilmington, like most large cities, has dealt with the post-COVID prevalence of remote working, Mayor Purzycki said he believes the pendulum will swing back to the importance of having a communal office space. Incyte’s arrival after decades outside of city limits is a sign of the times, he said, and it will spell a brighter future.
“All people leaving the building going out and patronizing your businesses is a really, really significant shot in the arm for the city,” he said. “To me, more people living down here and more people working here is a big difference maker for the city.”
Funder Notice
The Longwood Foundation has supported Spotlight Delaware with a grant worth $800,000. The funding bears no impact on Spotlight’s editorial decision-making per our Editorial Independence Policy.
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