[summersm343]

As DuPont departs, Buccinis bet on Wilmington revival

Buccini/Pollin Group, the Wilmington-based developer and hotel-management company, plans to build 180 "luxury multifamily units" in part of the space formerly occupied by the DuPont Co. on Wilmington's downtown Rodney Square.

The Buccinis and local partners Chris and Rob Buccini, who are brothers, are ubiquitous in Wilmington, which is struggling to remake itself as DuPont and other big employers leave town.

The brothers say their hotel affiliate will take over operations for the 218-room Hotel du Pont, along with its current staff of 100, plus around 100 current hotel contractors they plan to hire.

After a fire last year, the Buccinis have also begun demolition of the long-closed Bancroft Mills on the Brandywine just north of central Wilmington, where they hope to build hundreds more apartments in former industrial space bordering two state parks. And their contractors are putting up another 200 apartments in a block-long parking garage in central Wilmington two blocks east of the headquarters.

DuPont in 2015 pulled out of the city and consolidated headquarters operations in modern suburban offices near its research labs west of town. The company has been sending managers, lawyers, accountants and scientists into early retirement and layoffs in preparation for a planned merger with Dow Chemical Co. later this year.

Buccini/Pollin acquired the headquarters from Chemours Inc., a group of older chemical businesses carved out of DuPont in 2015. Chemours remains a tenant in the original DuPont building, where it occupies 256,000 sf. Buccini/Pollin has agreed to update the space, Chemours CEO Mark Vergnano said in a statement. The Buccinis are seeking tenants for another 60,000 sf of offices.

Read more here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/i...n-revival.html