Market West is the new name for five blocks that go from Market to West streets and Delaware Avenue and 12th Street. (Buccini/Pollin Group)

Market West is Buccini/Pollin’s new downtown Wilm. brand

Ken Mammarella Business, Headlines

The Buccini/Pollin Group, which has been called Wilmington’s largest private landowner, has rebranded its downtown holdings. Market West is the new name for five blocks that go from Market to West streets and Delaware Avenue and 12th Street. It features five buildings BPG bought from the DuPont Co. in 1999 and 2017 as the company downsized and moved to the …

bancroft

First new Wilmington school in 50 years topped off with joy 

Jarek Rutz Education, Headlines

Dozens of Wilmington elementary school students chanted “raise it up” and a drum team played while the ceremonial last beam on the first new city school in 50 years was lifted into place by a construction crane. The new $84 million Bancroft School in Christina School District, which will span several blocks in Wilmington, is expected to open for students …

Limen will serve 600 more Delawareans per year with the purchase of the ABC building. (Limen Facebook)

Limen purchase to help 600 more people get sober each year

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Health

Limen Recovery + Wellness hopes its recent purchase of the Aloysius Butler Clarke building on Washington Street in Wilmington will allow the recovery program to help an additional 600 Delawareans each year get and stay sober. Buying the ABC building also will allow Limen to offer in-house rehabilitation for the first time but not detox. Until now,  most Limen clients …

Wilmington is 14th on The Hartford’s list of America’s riskiest cities for home fires. (Photo by Dave Hoefleron Unsplash)

Wilmington at high risk for home fires, insurer says

Ken Mammarella Government, Headlines

    Wilmington is one of America’s riskiest cities for home fires, a new analysis of federal data has concluded. The Hartford 2023 Home Fire Index places Wilmington 14th out of 150 large U.S. cities with the highest home fire risk. Requests for comment from Wilmington Fire Department Chief John Looney and State Fire Marshal Michael G. Chionchio were not …

Wilmington has told a dozen build that they don't qualify for city trash collection. (Shane Rounce photo from Pexels)

Wilmington drops trash collection for a dozen buildings

Ken Mammarella Government, Headlines

Bureaucracy moves slowly, sometimes taking years to act. Online complaints, on the other hand, take just minutes or days to raise a ruckus. Both trends came together when Wilmington recently told the owners of about a dozen buildings that the city would no longer collect their trash or their recycling. City code, as revised in 2014, limits trash collection to …

Hell’s Belles is a new bakeshop on Union Street in Wilmington. (Courtesy of Yesenia Taveras, director of communications for Wilmington City Council)

Hell’s Belles becomes newest bakery on Union Street

Pam George Culture, Headlines

Wilmington’s Little Italy section has been home to some of Delaware’s most iconic bakeries. Take, for instance, DiFonzo’s, which opened here in 1945. After the Wilmington site closed in 2004, Black Lab Breads moved in. Meanwhile, Sheila Papa opened Papa’s Pastry Shop in 2001. Stephanie Grubb recalls each bakery. “As a kid, I remember coming down and going to all …

Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington. (Famartin photo from Wikimedia)

Wilmington gets $200,000 in Safe Streets and Roads funding

Ken Mammarella Government, Headlines

Wilmington has received a $200,000 grant from the new federal Safe Streets and Roads for All program. It’s the only Delaware grant among $800 million awarded for 510 projects nationwide. The city is partnering with the Wilmington Area Planning Council on the grant. The Delaware Department of Transportation and Delaware Transit Corp. (the DelDOT unit that runs DART buses) have …

What Fourth Street in Wilmington might look like, in the Wilmington Initiatives plan.

Wilmington Initiatives aim at transportation, quality of life

Ken Mammarella Government, Headlines

  Delaware’s largest city has a master plan to improve transportation and the quality of life, and it’s called the Wilmington Initiatives. Ten projects are listed on a landing page maintained by the Wilmington Area Planning Council. Creating a park over Interstate 95 is the most prominent and most expensive. The initiatives go back to 1996, when Wilmington started to …

Wilmington crime

Wilmington police chief selected to lead St. Louis PD

Charles Megginson Government, Headlines

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki hasn’t yet said how the city plans to replace police Chief Robert Tracy, who on Tuesday was selected to lead the St. Louis, Missouri Police Department. Tracy’s selection as the Gateway City’s top cop was announced by St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones Tuesday morning. It’s the first time in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s 214-year …

Orange Street between Seventh and Eighth streets with upcoming transit improvements, including a new bus shelter. (DelDOT)

Contract awarded to improve bus service in Wilmington

Ken Mammarella Government, Headlines

The Delaware Department of Transportation has accepted a $2.3 million bid to improve the bus system on four streets in downtown Wilmington. The Wilmington Transit Corridors Improvement project aims to reconfigure Orange Street (between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 10th Street) and also improve transit on King (between MLK and 10th) and Eighth and Ninth streets (between Adams and …