By Delaware Prosperity Partnership
Buoyed by the nation’s 4th-highest concentration of employed PhDs in health, science and engineering along with workforce development programs that start as early as middle school, Delaware is seeing heightened interest from science companies and manufacturers excited by the state’s ability to act quickly to meet the needs of growing businesses.
Delaware has the nation’s 5th best workforce (CNBC) and its 6th most competitive business environment (U.S. News & World Report). With a reputation for innovation-friendly policies and accessible business and governmental leaders – but no sales or inventory tax – Delaware is acknowledged as a great place for location and expansion investment. With a #7 ranking on the 2022 State Technology and Science Index (Milken Institute) and a #1 ranking for tax favorability in the manufacturing sector (The Tax Foundation), it’s no surprise that science-based and manufacturing companies are choosing Delaware with increasing frequency.
The state’s appeal to science and technology companies looking to grow or relocate is evident in the $1 billion, 163-acre Chestnut Run Innovation & Science Park (CRISP) in Wilmington. The MRA Group-owned campus for research, advanced manufacturing operations and business incubation already has leased more than half of the 700,000 square feet currently available there.
Among CRISP’s current tenants are DuPont, which owned the original Chestnut Run complex and is now leasing about a quarter of the site; Solenis, a Delaware-based global water technologies leader building a $40 million research and development center there; and Prelude Therapeutics, a privately held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a long-term lease for headquarters, research and laboratory facilities as part of the state’s evolving biotechnology hub.
One factor in Delaware strengthening its status as a biotech hub is the Graduated Lab Space Grant Program, which helps science and tech companies with a portion of the expenses associated with building out wet lab space. The program was created in 2021, and the grant value has since been increased by 40 percent to a maximum of $70 per square foot of lab space.
Another state-funded program that reinforces Delaware’s business-friendly reputation – particularly for manufacturing firms seeking locations – is the Site Readiness Fund. This program provides matching grants of up to $1 million to landowners to develop or improve industrial sites to receive location and expansion projects. Since its launch, the Site Readiness Fund has supported 15 projects with a collective $13.2 million in funding.
In addition to modernizing facilities on the CRISP campus, Site Readiness Grants are helping to fund Northern Delaware projects such as the development of First State Logistics Park in Newark and construction of St. Georges Logistics Center in Middletown – which will include three warehouse facilities totaling 2.5 million square feet. In Southern Delaware, Site Readiness Grants are supporting redevelopment of a 131-acre industrial park in Harrington and creation of the Milford Corporate Center industrial and business park, which will offer two dozen lots for potential office and industrial businesses.
According to Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP) President and CEO Kurt Foreman, both grant programs are important tools for Delaware’s economic development work in two of its biggest growth sectors: science/technology and manufacturing. The Lab Space Grants help keep wet lab-based companies growing in Delaware despite a nationwide shortage of such spaces, he said, and the Site Readiness Fund takes a proactive approach to developing a ready supply of sites for companies that are considering locating or expanding in Delaware.
Earlier this year, Delaware received $60.9 million in federal funding under the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program. Delaware’s SSBCI initiatives will include $30 million in venture capital opportunities – the state’s first state-supported venture capital programming for small business in many years – along with a capital access program and a loan-participation program. According to Delaware Governor John Carney, the funds will promote entrepreneurship and innovation while adding statewide resources for early-stage incubators and helping diverse businesses access capital.
With these newer funding opportunities joining established incentives such as the Jobs Performance Grants and Capital Expenditure Grants offered by the Delaware Strategic Fund, Delaware puts money where its focus is: growth. DPP is Delaware’s statewide resource committed to attracting, growing and retaining businesses of all sizes. The nonprofit public/private organization and its partners have over the last five years supported 56 location and expansion projects accounting for 5,634 new jobs, 2,343 retained jobs and capital investments exceeding $1.5 billion in Delaware.
Many of these projects fall within the science/technology and manufacturing sectors. For example, leading pharmaceutical contract research, development and manufacturing organization WuXi STA announced in 2021 that a 190-acre site in Middletown Business Center would become its second location in the United States. A groundbreaking ceremony for the $510 million Delaware campus – which is the largest-ever private-sector investment in Middletown – was held in August 2022. The site will begin operations in 2025 and bring nearly 500 new full-time jobs to Delaware by 2026.
Like WuXi STA, many 2022 Delaware project announcements by science/technology and manufacturing companies were supported by state grant funding. For example, global protective case and rack manufacturer CP Cases received a Jobs Performance Grant and a Capital Expenditure Grant to support its move to Delaware. The company’s new location in Frankford Business Park offered a gas line that had been funded by a Site Readiness Grant and was both necessary for the company’s preferred manufacturing processes and a key factor in CP Cases’ decision to relocate to Delaware.
Also supported by state grant funding in 2022 were the location of LaMotte Company, a water-quality testing instrumentation and reagent company, in Newark’s Pencader Corporate Center (Lab Space Grant and Jobs Performance Grant) and the expansions of Solenis (Lab Space Grant and Jobs Performance Grant) and the following other companies already operating in Delaware:
- Agilent Technologies, a global analytical instrumentation development, life sciences and manufacturing company, in Wilmington’s Little Falls Business Center (Jobs Performance Grant and Capital Expenditure Grant)
- DuPont Electronics & Industrial, a leading producer of specialty materials used in semiconductor production, in Newark’s First State Logistics Park (Jobs Performance Grant and Capital Expenditure Grant)
- Royale Pigments & Chemicals, one of The Royale Group of specialty chemical companies that manufactures, formulates and distributes chemicals, in a former BASF polymer plant in Seaford (Jobs Performance Grant and Capital Expenditure Grant)
- Uvax Bio, an early-stage biopharmaceutical company with cutting-edge vaccine platform technology that has produced both COVID-19 and HIV-1 vaccine candidates, in Newark’s Springside Plaza (Jobs Performance Grant and Capital Expenditure Grant)
- Versogen, an industry-leading green energy startup, in Newark’s FMC Stine Research Center (Lab Space Grant and Jobs Performance Grant)
For more information about locating or expanding in Delaware, visit choosedelaware.com.
