WILMINGTON, DE | The Tower at Avenue North | 140 FT | 12 Floors

[Jawnadelphia]

Title: The Tower at Avenue North
Project: 150,000 sq ft office with retail and restaurant spaces
Architect: Bernardon
Developer: Delle Donne & Associates
Location: Concord Pike (Route 202) and Powder Mill Road Extension
Neighborhood: North Wilmington
District/County: New Castle County
Floors: 12 Floors
Height: 180 feet (estimated)







Read more here:
https://rebusinessonline.com/delle-d...gton-delaware/

https://www.avenuenorthde.com/

https://www.instagram.com/avenorthde/

https://www.ediscompany.com/news-and...er-blog-posts/

[Jawnadelphia]

More renderings are available here, Avenue North's IG page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CigEHlIu1LR/

Also, I signed up for email updates, and got some news a few days ago:


-Vice President of Development Patrick Honeycutt with Delle Donne & Associates said Retail work began in the Spring of 2022 and the Office is set to break ground this month.

Honeycutt said construction is about 85% percent done with site work and utilities as of late November. Honeycutt said vertical construction for The Tower is expected to start the first or second week of March.

“It’s a development that fills a void for the surrounding communities by delivering high-quality restaurants, shops, office and living spaces,” Honeycutt said. “We have modeled the architecture after Paris, France, influenced by all the existing DuPont architecture in the area. It will have a lot of walkability and connectivity to the rest of the area. We also have some great restaurants we’re negotiating with to cater to the ‘foodies’ that this area is craving.-

[summersm343]

Love it! Love that Wilmington is getting another high rise already!

[summersm343]

Wilmington’s Avenue North development aims to 'create an alternative to the city'

Construction on a Parisian-inspired development that will feature luxury apartments, high-end restaurants, retail and office buildings is underway in North Wilmington at the former site of AstraZeneca's U.S. headquarters. Drawing on the glass exterior of the Louvre Museum and Paris' streets, a Delaware developer hopes to create a community that doesn't exist anywhere else in the state.

Known as Avenue North, the project from Delle Donne & Associates looks to bring the best amenities, such as dining establishments and a grocery store, to a single 79-acre campus. More than that, Delle Donne & Associates' Vice President of Development Patrick Honeycutt wants it in an architecturally pleasing style.

The overall concept will be reminiscent of projects in the region like Exton's Eagleview Town Center and the King of Prussia Town Center, both developed by different companies, but Honeycutt anticipates Avenue North's architecture will set a new bar.

Delle Donne's mixed-use project is located on the northwest corner of Route 202, a major thoroughfare in Wilmington that connects to I-95, and Powder Mill Road.

Delle Donne's goal at Avenue North is to create an activity hub. Plans call for 12 buildings, 360 apartments, four streets and 10.5 acres of green space.

“What we’re trying to do is create an alternative to the city,” Honeycutt said. “It’s a suburban approach through a mixed-use development without the hustle and bustle of a city.”

Delle Donne recently began construction on a 100,000-square-foot, 12-story office building as part of its master plan. In keeping with its Parisian inspiration, the glass exterior of the building is designed to emulate the Louvre.

The office building is scheduled to be completed in spring 2024.

No leases have been signed yet, but Honeycutt is hopeful future tenants will include law firms and wealth management companies. Delle Donne & Associates also plans to move its headquarters from Newark to the new building. JLL is handling leasing.

Being incorporated into the master plan are three existing buildings that were included as part of the 2017 sale. In addition to AstraZeneca, health care system ChristianaCare leases 400,000 square feet for its administrative offices, and water treatment company Solenis leases 100,000 square feet for its North American headquarters.

Two new retail tenants already onsite are local cafe concept Brew Haha! and BlkOps, a fitness center. The site could also attract multiple high-end restaurants that have presences in Lower Delaware and an organic grocer, Honeycutt said.

“We’re trying to create a very pedestrian-friendly street or avenue we plan to close down to vehicular traffic,” Honeycutt said of the overall plan, noting it could also host festivals or "things you’d find in a large city.”

Future phases could include up to 1.8 million square feet of development, though the exact configuration between retail, apartments and a hotel hasn't been solidified. No matter how the space is split up, it's meant to be well-connected and walkable.

Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...velopment.html

[giantSwan]

a fountain and circle with....parking

[mcgrath618]

...is this urbanism?

[PurpleWhiteOut]

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia

“We have modeled the architecture after Paris, France, influenced by all the existing DuPont architecture in the area.

LMAO now that's a good one

[TempleGuy1000]

I always found Wells Fargo tower next to this lot to be pretty interesting. Building walkway paths to the office buildings is a key feature this project needs

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

LMAO now that's a good one

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia
“We have modeled the architecture after Paris, France, influenced by all the existing DuPont architecture in the area.

Should have read like

"We have modeled the architecture after a Suburb, Multiple, Influenced by people who are scared of cities and parallel parking, as well as being out past 7pm on a Friday night, Ignoring how cities are actually built".

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

I always found Wells Fargo tower next to this lot to be pretty interesting. Building walkway paths to the office buildings is a key feature this project needs

This tower was built by a very rich businessman in hopes to extend the city of Wilmington North.

Of course it did not work do to nimbyism, and the city is a shell of what it could be.

[DeltaNerd]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

I always found Wells Fargo tower next to this lot to be pretty interesting. Building walkway paths to the office buildings is a key feature this project needs

Ummmm to connect you from Parking lot to parking lot? It's just an office tower and nothing to do in the area. It's perfect for the suburban who hate cities. This is not good urbanism

[Jawnadelphia]

John Rollins - NY Times obit from 2000 is a great read - for those interested (the old tycoon died literally in that building, top floor office). For locals, that building will always be - "The Rollins Building" - in fact, as a Wilmingtonian, that is all I've ever known the building as.
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/24/u...can-party.html

Yes, this is a suburban development, but hey - we get a high rise, and the site had become largely vacate after AstraZeneca significantly downsized, so I am not going to complain about it too much.

[Altoic]

Really nice design, it reminds me of 601 West 5th Avenue in Anchorage. It seems like this development is a lifestyle center more than an "Alternative" to a city. But it's a step in the right direction. Keep building Wilmington

[Jawnadelphia]

A sight you don't often see in the North Wilmington suburbs - a tower crane! It's up now at Avenue North.



Drive-by photo of the main building (the tower will rise behind this, when looking from Concord Pike/202).



Signage was posted a few months back on site:

[TK2001]

Wilmington is getting a mini Cira Center. Nice!

[summersm343]

Tower crane means this one is under construction!

[DZH22]

12 stories of office plus a mechanical crown means this has to be more in the 175'-200' range than just 140'. That height listing definitely looks wrong. Is there a diagram available for accuracy?

[Jawnadelphia]

Originally Posted by DZH22

12 stories of office plus a mechanical crown means this has to be more in the 175'-200' range than just 140'. That height listing definitely looks wrong. Is there a diagram available for accuracy?

Probably right on the height observation. I tried to search for design documents, and even reached out to the NCCo Land Use department .. and was told I could fill out a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for such info. Lame. Maybe the developer will stumble upon this forum and give us all the information we want!

[shakman]

Nice tower!

[jonesrmj]

I want to like this development but it it's just going to be car-centric suburbia, I'm going to be very disappointed.

How can we still be building car-centric developments when we know it's not financially solvent and just flat out worse than mixed-use, walkable development in literally every way?

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/...entation-rerun