Proposals cause uproar in Wilmington
Residents Cringe at Possible Sale of Christiana Care Facility
By ADAM TAYLOR / The News Journal
05/28/2005
They would rather have the property at 1400 N. Washington St. stay as it is. Christiana Care operates the only full-service facility for AIDS patients in Delaware in a four-story, brick building there.
But the residents might not have that choice.
A nonprofit housing group, Brandywine Gateway Neighbors, has the right to buy the property from the hospital in July. The group will likely do so and then sell the property to one of two developers who would tear down the building and construct expensive condominiums in its place.
Some residents fear the condominiums would increase traffic congestion and reduce the amount of off-street parking spaces already at a premium in the neighborhood, which is nestled near high-rise office buildings at the downtown's edge.
Others say Brandywine Gateway Neighbors is acting like a for-profit real estate speculator in the deal, a charge the group's leaders deny. The group should be looking at a project that is less intrusive to the neighborhood, as it has been doing for more than 20 years, residents said.
"This is a money grab," resident Bob Goff said.
Brandywine Gateway Neighbors Co-Executive Director Sirena Turner said the high-end condominiums -- some of which would sell for more than $500,000 -- are the best use for the property. She said the profit the group would make by selling the property isn't the driving force behind the proposed sale.
Kym Liebler, a board member of the group, said she envisions a compromise before the details are finalized.
"This will be a negotiated development between us and the residents," she said. "Brandywine Gateway Neighbors is going to have to accept less money, and the residents are going to have to accept a larger building than they want."
The existing structure used to be the Red Clay Consolidated School District's administration building. The city bought it in 2000 for $1.3 million, at a time when Christiana Care's Wilmington Hospital had a short-term space crunch and Brandywine Gateway Neighbors had a long-term vision for the area. The vision included more residential units on Washington Street.
So the city tried to help both parties. It immediately sold the property to Christiana Care, with a clause in the agreement that allowed Brandywine Gateway Neighbors to buy it in July 2005.
Christiana Care spokesman Bill Schmitt said the hospital understands that it will lose the facility if Brandywine Gateway Neighbors exercises its right to buy the property, but would like to stay.
About 750 AIDS patients are served there, and Wilmington has one of the highest AIDS rates in the country. Schmitt said there is no room for the patients at the hospital's main facility across the street.
"We'll honor our commitments, but leaving the facility would be highly problematic for us, and we're gravely concerned about it," he said.
Millions of Dollars at Stake
Resident Liza Clapham, who lives near the site, asked the Brandywine Gateway Neighbors board to extend its July 5 deadline for opting to buy the property.
"I'd like them to consider allowing the hospital to keep it," she said. "I don't want a huge condominium near me, and I like the idea of having an AIDS clinic there providing a valuable service to the community."
The Brandywine Gateway Neighbors board will vote next month on whether it will buy the property. Liebler said she expects the board will make the purchase. And if it does, Turner said a large building will go there.
McConnell Johnson Real Estate Company, of Wilmington, wants to build a 20-story building with 70 units that would sell for at least $350,000 each.
Midtown Development, of Baltimore, wants to build a 10-story building with 46 units that would sell for around $550,000 each.
Brandywine Gateway Neighbors would purchase the property for about $2 million. McConnell Johnson would offer $2.5 million to buy it. Midtown Development would offer $3 million.
End of Urban Development Grants
Goff and other residents said they believe the group wants to make a profit because it is close to losing what has been its main money source for nearly a quarter-century.
Brandywine Gateway Neighbors has received $300,000 a year since the early 1980s from the city-run Wilmington Urban Development Action Grant Corp., corporation board President Richard V. Pryor said.
The annual payments to the group will end in 2007 or 2008, he said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development launched its Urban Development Action Grant program in 1978. It was designed to help aging cities attract big companies.
Many of Wilmington's older high-rise office buildings were built with the grants and loans given out by the program. Wilmington and companies in the city received 13 grants and loans worth $40.7 million over seven years.
The federal government ended the program in 1988, but the agencies in Wilmington and other cities formed to handle the loans stayed in existence as the repayments continued to come in.
The repayments were used to pay for other neighborhood initiatives, one of which was the 25-year contractual obligation to Brandywine Gateway Neighbors. The group has used the money to build more than 50 houses in Midtown-Brandywine, Brandywine Village and parts of the East Side and the old Ninth Ward.
Moving Head
While the community still has a chance to talk the group's board out of buying the property, that prospect seems unlikely.
"There will be lots of discussion, but everyone is going to have to be honest," Liebler said. "I really think this is just progress. I think this type of housing is good for the neighborhood and good for the whole city."
But resident Herrell said progress could take place in the form of a smaller condominium building.
"Something not as massive," he said.
"If you go put something like what is planned there, everybody's petrified about what is going to happen."
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Imagine, a high rise residential building a block from downtown. I can see why people are so upset.
Hopefully McConnell can steamroll these jackasses.