WILMINGTON, DE | 2 Towers | 22 FLOORS

mglan80 · #1 Posted **Feb 25, 2005, 10:20 PM**

Since the first one was purged and construction is picking up, I thought I'd re-thread it.

The developer Buccini / Pollin is building two 22 story towers, and sixty-three townhomes in the block bounded by the Christina River, Market Street, A Street, and Walnut Street. Between the river and the residences will be a two acre park designed to compliment Tubman Garrett park directly across the river. Both the Market and Walnut Street lift bridges will be refurbished and accent lighting installed. Also, A Street will be raised above the flood plain and completely rebuilt with the brick sidewalks and black street lanterns (the, it now seems, standard Wilmington street pattern). Construction is expected to be completed in summer of 2005 for the townhomes, and fall 2005 for the apartment tower. The condominium tower is expected to be completed by spring of 2006.

Architect: Kling
Height: Residences at Christina Landing: 22 Floors (173 Units)
River Tower: 23 Floors (141 Units)
Townhomes: 63 Units (2,300 sq. ft.)
Retail Space: 1,500 sq. ft. (educated estimate)

A rendering of the condominium tower. The apartment tower will be very similar to this. Unfortunately nearly all the site's images are Flash, so this is the best I could do.

The Tower

Early June 2004

Late September 2004

Early January 2005

Early September 2004

Early February 2005

Early January 2005

Early February 2005

There are steel studs up to the 4th floor, and concrete work is under way on the 14th as of this afternoon. The pace is about a floor a week for rebar and concrete work.

The Townhomes

Amazing Indy · #2 Posted **Feb 26, 2005, 4:40 AM**

Could you post the rendering for this building, because im curious as to what the exterior will look like. It's hard to tell with the skeleton showing. Great pics by the way and good news for Wilmington, DE.

FlyersFan118 · #3 Posted **Feb 26, 2005, 3:40 PM**

Yeah, what ^he said. A rendering would be nice.

Congrats Wilmington. This is great news.

mglan80 · #4 Posted **Feb 28, 2005, 3:12 AM**

Sorry, I threw this thread together pretty quickly. As I mentioned above, there is only one picture that I can find of the project.

Amazing Indy · #5 Posted **Feb 28, 2005, 4:51 AM**

Not to shaby! I like the glass and the brick together...good to see wilmington getting something nice like this.

mglan80 · #6 Posted **Feb 28, 2005, 9:32 PM**

^The design is pretty good, but is still traditional. Kling of Philadelphia is the architect, and are known for more daring designs, but Wilmington is still a bit conservative.

What I'm curious about it the trees on the parking garage (lower right). I know that's where the pool will be, but is the outdoor deck going to be landscaped, too?

buildup · #7 Posted **Mar 1, 2005, 10:23 PM**

I like the townhouses especially the ones along the waterfront. What are they going for pricewise? Do you know?

mglan80 · #8 Posted **Mar 1, 2005, 11:39 PM**

^They sold out in 6 weeks. They started at $350M and ended up at $450M. The condos start at $210M and go up to the penthouses for $1.4MM or so. One penthouse is already sold. The townhomes were so successfull that BPG is planning another batch of them.

Joey D · #9 Posted **Mar 3, 2005, 10:37 AM**

The Condo is said to be 2 stories higher than the apartment complex from what is said.

Residences at Christina Landing -22 Stories (Under Construction)
Christina River Tower - 24 Stories (Approved)

giovanni sasso · #10 Posted **Mar 3, 2005, 2:10 PM**

go on 'head, wilmington. glad to see it, mglan. i just hope those peeps on the river have flood insurance!

buildup · #11 Posted **Mar 4, 2005, 12:46 AM**

Those are hefty prices for Wilmington. They're almost as high as in Philly! Where do all these wealthy people work? I need to get a job like them.

mglan80 · #12 Posted **Mar 4, 2005, 12:46 AM**

Joe - From the floor plans it looks like 23 + the mech. penthouse. Also, 5:37 A.M.? What the Hell are you doing up that early?

G. Sasso - Right. You can see in the last picture how the street is being built up about 2.5-3 feet, and then the site about two feet higher. Further down South Market and in the Southbridge neighborhood they get flooded out during really heavy rains, like hurricanes.

Damn I wish it would start to warm up. There's plenty of projects waiting to break ground.

Buildup - That's what it costs to get a nice house in Delaware, and especially in New Castle County. There's money in the area, mostly from companies like AstraZeneca, DuPont, MBNA, W.L. Gore, BankOne-Chase Manhattan-JPMorgan, Citi, Discover, but also law firms, and general professionals.

Swede · #13 Posted **Mar 14, 2005, 2:55 PM**

Nice development that. Am I right in assuming Christina is after the Swedish Queen? Which could possibly make this the biggest development named for a lesbian...

SJPhillyBoy · #14 Posted **Mar 14, 2005, 3:42 PM**

Very nice, but indeed not cheap.

Hamilton · #15 Posted **Mar 17, 2005, 3:12 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swede

Nice development that. Am I right in assuming Christina is after the Swedish Queen? Which could possibly make this the biggest development named for a lesbian...

You, sir, are right about that. Named after Fort Christina, the old capital of New Sweden, named after Queen Christina.

mglan80 · #16 Posted **Mar 26, 2005, 10:42 PM**

^^It is named after the Swedish Princess, and I didn't know that she was a lesbian.

Very good Hamilton. Interested in history, or just knew that?

Any way, here's some new shots of the tower taken this afternoon (March 26, 2005):

The man-lift was put up around the beginning of March or late February. The first piece of facade was put up last week (17 or 18th?), and the pile driving rig is back on site. That site is getting awfully crowded!

The Market Street bridge has been undergoing repairs and refurbishment since October, but has been raised for the past month to repair the mechanisms to raise it. Looks good with the new pedestrian treads (now with no holes!) and railings.

Six of the townhouses are occupied now, and its really hard to believe this project is actually happening. When all is said and done there will be approximately 700 new people living down here. We don't get things on this scale much in Delaware; that is, things that are dense and vertical.

The guys on the stairs must be the on the rebar on concrete crews because they walked down from the top, or is that only for steel gangs (or maybe the man-lift operator doesn't work Saturdays)?

Guess I needed a tripod for this one...

Also, the project's website now has a slick aerial shot flash photo.

Joey D · #17 Posted **Mar 30, 2005, 5:13 AM**

What are they gonna do with that block to the south, Mglan? It's beat with an ugly stick. I thought the condo would go there 'till I saw the Foundation. It looks like they are ripping it up yet what will go there?

Benhamin · #18 Posted **Mar 30, 2005, 5:50 AM**

Great work on the construction pics man. It's nice to see small/medium sized cities getting projects like these.

mglan80 · #19 Posted **Mar 30, 2005, 10:56 PM**

Joe - BPG has said since the first batch of townhomes sold so quickly that they'd like to do another project nearby. I'm certain that this is it. Don't know if you get down to that end of town much, but on the approach into Wilmington from the south (up Walnut Street), there are sidewalks and curbs going in on the left (west) side of Walnut. I'd say that the Market Street side will get work done on it maybe this fall. Also, these are developer funded jobs, no state or city money is in the street work, another reason to suspect that this is BPG's new townhouse site.

Benhamin - Thanks! I'll probably start updating every weekend now that things are really starting to happen visually. There is already two more floors of facade up!

Philly-Drew · #20 Posted **Apr 2, 2005, 7:34 PM**

This is a great project. Lookin’ real good! From some angles it reminds me of Water Front Square in Philadelphia.