WILMINGTON, DE — Wilmington and Washington D.C.-based developer The Buccini/Pollin Group, Inc. (BPG), announced the purchase of the historic DuPont Building and Hotel du Pont, a 950,000 s/f mixed-use complex, from Chemours Company, who has agreed to lease back office space for 17 years. CBRE acted as an advisor to Chemours on the sale.
This 950,000 s/f mixed use complex that takes up an entire city block facing the historic Rodney Square at the center of Wilmington, is an original embodiment of the Work/Play/Stay concept that now anchors the urban redevelopment of today’s U.S. cities. The DuPont Building dates back to 1908 as one of the first high-rises built in Wilmington, built to house DuPont headquarters, and is still considered the largest mixed-use building in the State of Delaware. Soon after the Hotel was commissioned by Pierre S. DuPont, built in the Italian Renaissance style, and debuted in 1913 as a showcase hotel, rivalling even the finest hotels and restaurants of Europe and New York City. In 1918 the DuPont Theatre, now known as the Playhouse on Rodney Square, was built to bring class-act Broadway theater to town. This blend of functions, executed with the utmost taste and style, is what made the DuPont building the place to be in Downtown Wilmington, and most importantly, the anchor of historic Market St.
Fast forward a century, through the multiple transformations that downtown Wilmington and the DuPont Company have seen, to a city in the midst of a transformation. A city with a growing downtown residential population, an innovative business culture, a blossoming entertainment and dining district, and The Buccini/Pollin Group at the helm continually pushing it forward with successes such as the rebirth of The Queen Theater and the opening of 20+ new dining and retail businesses downtown.
“The purchase of the DuPont Building and its assets couldn’t make any more sense to us right now,” said Chris Buccini, co-president of The Buccini/Pollin Group, who has purchased over 40 properties in Downtown Wilmington, including two former DuPont headquarter buildings that they repositioned into multi-tenanted mixed-use buildings. “There is no better way to coalesce our long-running vision for a vibrant downtown where people come together to live, work and play, than to take on the DuPont Building and re-envision it as a modern version of what it has always been, a lifestyle center for the City of Wilmington.”
The $175 million complete project that BPG has planned for the property includes the preservation of The Hotel du Pont and its signature Green Room restaurant, which were recently awarded Four Diamond status for 2017. BPG’s affiliate PM Hotel Group will manage the hotel, ensuring that it retains its historic elegance, world-class service and intense focus on modern technology.