Internet retailing colossus Amazon has petitioned the state for a $4.5 million grant to expand its Delaware footprint.
The news was first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Joseph DiStefano (a Wilmington resident), who said the request to the Delaware Strategic Fund was for the company “to establish operations in Wilmington,” assumed by many to be the Boxwood Road site that was the longtime home of a General Motors assembly plant.
The grant application will be reviewed by the Delaware Economic Development Authority’s Council on Development Finance on Monday.
Amazon and state economic development spokespeople did not respond to TSD requests for confirmation and comment. Amazon spokeswoman Rachael Lighty told the Inquirer the company is “yet commenting on any specific operations plans in Delaware. Stay tuned.”
In November of last year, the Delaware Business Times reported that Dermody Properties was building a massive five-and-a-half-story, 3.83 million-square-foot “LogistiCenter” on the Boxwood Road site. The new center would have parking spaces for 900 tractor-trailers and more than 1900 cars, which would make it by far the largest single-site of Amazon’s three in Delaware. Amazon currently employs more than 2500 full-time workers at those locations in New Castle and Middletown.
Dermody acquired a significant chunk of the Boxwood Road property in 2019 from Harvey, Hanna& Associates, and the company has built two facilities that Amazon currently leases, according to the Business Times.
The Boxwood Road location is viewed as an ideal site for a distribution center, with shipping by pre-existing rail lines and easy tractor-trailer access to I-95.
With a market cap of over $1 trillion dollars, Amazon has attracted scrutiny for its practice of actively seeking state and local funding and tax incentives to support its investment in facilities across the country.
