Bayhealth to build $35M ER center, hybrid office near Milton

From Delaware Business Times

MILTON — One year after withdrawing an application for a freestanding emergency department 2 miles east of Harbeson, Bayhealth will be moving forward with opening an emergency room and walk-in care center within the next two years.

The $35 million facility will bring primary care physicians, specialists, diagnostic services and emergency care to southern Delaware on 18 acres near the intersection of Lewes-Georgetown Highway (Route 9) and Hudson Road. Early plans show a building measuring between 30,000 to 40,000 square feet and Bayhealth officials anticipate creating between 50 and 75 jobs. The walk-in center and emergency department approved by the Delaware Health Resources Board is estimated at $10.2 million.

Bayhealth’s Milton facility represents the health care system’s growing reach in southern Delaware and the announcement more than a year after opening a new $315 million facility in Milford. Bayhealth also partnered up with Nemours Children’s Health System on a new facility there, and Nemours will open primary care and senior care in November.

“Sussex County is growing at an exponential rate. The area directly surrounding the location of our new center, along Hudson Road and Route 9, is growing especially fast,” Bayhealth President and CEO Terry Murphy told Delaware Business Times. “There are also very few health care providers located in close proximity to our new site. This new location will provide our southern Delaware community with much-needed health care services all located in one convenient center.”

The land around Route 9 has one of the fastest  growing populations in Delaware, increasing 21% from 35,295 residents in 2010 to 42,729 in 2019, according to a study done by the marketing firm Claritas Company. The 65 and older population is particularly booming, growing nearly 60% in the same span to 10,135 residents. In the next four years, the overall population is projected to grow 8.2%, including an 18% growth in senior residents.

Beebe Healthcare, based in Lewes, has also been striving to meet the surge in people in the last decade. This spring, Beebe opened a freestanding emergency department and a cancer center at the Beebe South Coastal Health Campus near Millville. Construction work is also underway at Beebe’s $124 million surgical hospital on Route 24 near Rehoboth Beach with a target opening in 2022. Recent plans for a Milton campus recently were withdrawn.

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As Delaware’s bioscience sector grows, space is in short supply

From Delaware Business Times

From the earliest scientific advancements made at DuPont more than two centuries ago to the brand-new cancer therapies being developed by Incyte, Delaware has a long history of laboratory-based research and development.

As the competition for those future-billion-dollar companies heats up, however, the First State is often at a disadvantage when it comes to retaining such startups. The state has fostered an environment of innovation, often connected through the University of Delaware, but it is now watching expanding companies seek out-of-state spaces to further their growth due to a lack of resources here.

According to a recent survey of 60 companies that utilize labs by the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP), the state’s economic development agency, 12 anticipate needing more lab space within the next three years, totaling about 150,000 square feet. Only half of those companies said that they could accommodate that growth currently though, meaning tens of thousands of square feet of lab space need to be developed.

It’s not just about meeting the needs of Delaware’s current companies, however, but also attracting new prospects. DPP officials reported that over the past two and a half years, it has worked with 30 companies that were seeking lab space. It currently has 12 such companies in the pipeline, the majority of which need “graduated” lab space, or facilities containing more advanced features, measuring between 10,000 and 30,000 square feet. If able to be located, they could create upward of 400 well-paying jobs.

The challenge now is to continue to grow the innovative ecosystem for research in Delaware while also investing in new lab development to support their scaled growth. Neighboring competitors Maryland and Pennsylvania, which are home to hundreds of bioscience companies and have decades of financial backing and resources at their disposal, are ready and willing to poach those companies if progress isn’t made.

Bill Provine, president and CEO of the Delaware Innovation Space, a nonprofit incubator and accelerator that is home to 18 companies at the DuPont Experimental Station, agreed that more labs were needed in the state and that government aid may be needed to spur it.

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Policies will allow outdoor dining options in Rehoboth

From Delaware State News

REHOBOTH BEACH — As the weather starts to cool, Rehoboth Beach restaurants will be able to use outdoor space with heaters for dining options.

The Rehoboth commissioners approved a policy regarding the use of outdoor space Tuesday.

Restaurants must have a straight and continuous minimum of 5 feet of sidewalk in front of any outdoor seating that must be maintained at all times. Space allows pedestrians to move up and down the sidewalks without adjusting their path because of the outdoor seating.

The approved policy also requires that outdoor tables be set 8 feet apart from each other. A barrier is needed between the tables and the pedestrian path if a restaurant is serving alcohol. Commissioners also approved tents and canopies without sides to be used in outdoor dining areas.

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University of Delaware employees to take 5% pay cut for remainder of fiscal year

From Delaware Online

University of Delaware’s non-union employees will all take a 5% pay cut for the remainder of the fiscal year, the latest in a string of efforts to shore up the school’s projected $250 million financial deficit brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pay cut will come in the form of nine furloughed days: three days before Thanksgiving, three before Christmas, and three at employees’ discretion.

The salary reduction will be evenly spread through paychecks, starting Nov. 1 until the end of June 2021.

Two weeks ago, the university announced that it was facing a budget deficit of about $250 million, as significant revenue loss and increased expenses from the pandemic strained finances.

At the time, employees were offered a voluntary retirement option. Since then, 138 employees have expressed interest in early retirement, and will receive final approval tomorrow.

Over the summer, senior administrators at the university took a 10% pay cut. Thursday’s cut will be in addition to that.

Some units may face a salary reduction greater than 5%, the university said in a message to faculty and staff on Thursday. Future workforce reductions, restructuring and other cost-saving measures could be announced down the line.

The pay cut does not apply to student employees, postdoctoral fellows or anyone on an H-1B visa. The university continues to negotiate with faculty and other unions.

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Medical facility takes shape: Commercial development booming along Del. 1 in Milford

From Delaware State News

MILFORD — There’s a lot of commercial development happening in Milford, and that growth may be clearest to those passing by the town’s Silicato Parkway exit off Del. 1.

That’s where Silicato Development is nearing completion on a medical building near Grotto Pizza and Royal Farms.

“It’s projected that the building will be completed at the end of 2020, so we will be starting a few of the tenant build-outs soon,” said Nicole Silicato Miller, the vice president of Silicato Development.

She hopes the facility will bring 50 to 60 new jobs to the area and said the building is already 25% leased out.

“I’m not releasing the tenant names yet, but we do have local family practitioners who are leasing in the building, and a boutique pharmacy … about to sign a lease, which is something I really wanted to do on the first floor,” Ms. Silicato Miller said.

A Dolce café will be located in the lobby, supplementing its main location in downtown Milford.

“I wanted to have a boutique pharmacy with the coffee shop so you can do that one-stop shopping in the building,” Ms. Silicato Miller said. “You can go to your family practice, you can go to pharmacy and you can grab a sandwich, and it’ll be a nice, pleasant experience.”

She thought a local coffee shop with a good reputation in the community would suit her vision best.

“I reached out to Stephenie and Dean Tatman,” Dolce’s owners, Ms. Silicato Miller said, “and they were extremely interested. They signed an intent to be in the building a year and a half ago, before the plans were even done.”

Ms. Tatman hopes the new location will attract beach traffic.

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Will Delaware’s certificate of need law fall in 2021?

From Delaware Business Times

DOVER – Opinions about Delaware’s requirements for certificates of need (CONs) for large medical expenses vary so much that at first glance some stakeholders don’t seem to be talking about the same issue.

Dr. Chris Casscells, policy director for the Caesar Rodney Institute, calls it “a blunt-force instrument that has been brutal to the price of health care in Delaware” and therefore should be eliminated.

“It never did its intended goal,” he said of the law.

Casscells wants the marketplace to judge, and noted that in the late 1990s, when the system was temporarily unfunded, multiple freestanding surgery centers were created.

Wayne A. Smith, CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association (DHA), which represents hospitals and allied organizations, supports the intent of the regulatory process, but recommends operational changes involving quorums and staff experts.

And state Rep. Lyndon Yearick, a Kent County Republican, has changed his mind over the last five months to embrace the free market.

“If there’s a health care institution that’s willing to risk their capital and assets, I don’t know of any reasons why there should be any restrictions,” he said.

Certificates of need were put into the spotlight in 2019, when Bayhealth and Beebe Healthcare proposed emergency departments on U.S. Route 9 in Sussex County, within 10 miles of each other. The Delaware Health Resources Board, which hears applications for the projects and rules on their permissibility, denied Beebe’s application, while Bayhealth withdrew its application before a vote.

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U.S. Corrugated plans $80M Dover plant

From Delaware Business Times

DOVER — U.S. Corrugated plans to build an approximately $80 million corrugated cardboard box manufacturing plant near Dover while relocating its longstanding New Jersey operations to the First State.

With aims to break ground in November, the 497,000-square-foot “super plant” will be located on a 40-acre parcel between Camden and Dover, bordered by Route 15 and the POW/MIA Parkway. U.S. Corrugated founder and chairman of the board Dennis Mehiel envisions a facility featuring the latest in industry-leading technology.

It’s estimated that once U.S. Corrugated of Delaware is operational, it should bring around 150 jobs to the Dover area. Mehiel said that U.S. Corrugated will close its 35-year-old, full-line box plant in Newark, N.J., and plans to transfer operations to the new Dover plant by the end of 2021. Preliminary plans show the site at roughly 110 loading docks and potential to expand the building footprint somewhere down the line.

“We’ve had tremendous upgrades since we opened our New Jersey facility, and it’s been upgrading in leaps and bounds in the last 20 to 25 years,” Mehiel told the Delaware Business Times. “There’s substantial opportunity to grow in Dover to meet significant demands we will face in the next two to three years.”

Once the Dover manufacturing plant is fully operational, it would have the capacity to produce approximately 250% more boxes than the Newark facility and bring in $120 million in additional revenue per year, he said.

The project still has to clear the permitting process with state, county and city entities in the near future. Delaware Prosperity Partnership President and CEO Kurt Foreman noted that his office collaborates closely with Delaware and  Dover officials as well as the Kent Economic Partnership to help bring industrial and manufacturing operations to Central Delaware, and he is pleased to continue moving forward to potentially bring another company to the state’s capital. The DPP and its partners have been actively working with U.S. Corrugated of Delaware team since early 2020.

“We are excited to see the progress being made toward a possible facility in Dover, but several key steps remain to complete. DPP looks forward to sharing and celebrating the good news once everything is completed,” Foreman told DBT.

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State Labor Department announces extension of jobless benefits

From Delaware Business Now

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Goldman Sachs to expand consumer finance business to Wilmington’s Riverfront

From Delaware Online

Goldman Sachs’ expansion into retail lending is bringing a sliver of the investment bank’s operations into the credit card hot spot of Delaware.

Officials at the storied 150-year-old bank said they are securing a temporary lease for offices along the Wilmington Riverfront to house the company’s initial set of Delaware hires, estimated at 25 to 50 people.

The company plans to employ about 150 people in Wilmington at the end of next year, said Chantal Garcia, chief operating officer for Goldman Sachs’ Consumer Business.

Garcia declined to disclose the exact location of their initial office along the Riverfront, but noted it would be a small space. Later, the company will move to more expansive offices, she said.

“We have not yet determined … our long-term location, in part, because there are potential other businesses or partners within the firm that may be interested in co-locating with us,” Garcia said, noting that compliance operations might also expand into Delaware.

The news is certain to be welcomed by city and state officials, who have poured hundreds of millions of dollars over 25 years into a transformation of the Riverfront, once a declining industrial area.

While today it features modern offices, apartments and restaurants, the revitalization of the city’s overall core has been plagued in recent years by a roller coaster of restructuring within the financial services industry.

Last year, the British bank Barclays moved 500 Riverfront jobs to New Jersey.

In June, Delaware officials announced plans to give the bank $2.5 million in taxpayer grants to create another 300 jobs in Wilmington.

Garcia said Goldman Sachs last week began conversations with the state’s private economic development agency about potential incentives.

She said Goldman Sachs is committed to Delaware, whether or not it receives taxpayer grants. She noted the company already has extended offers to a portion of what will be its new Delaware workforce.

Goldman Sachs’ officials chose Delaware over locations in Texas, Utah and Illinois, Garcia said, because of the state’s substantial pool of finance workers, its relatively low cost of living and its proximity to the bank’s headquarters.

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Beebe drops plans for Milton campus

From Delaware Business Times

MILTON — Beebe Healthcare’s plans for a Milton campus were put on pause, as the development group tasked with constructing the building withdrew its application for the project last week.

Earlier this year, Phoenix RHCS Holdings announced a partnership with Beebe on a new campus, tentatively called the Jerry Ann McLamb Medical Pavilion, on 8 acres in downtown Milton. Early plans showed two 40,000-square-foot offices, one of which to be leased to Beebe and the other would have been used for complementary medical services.

In January, Beebe’s then-interim president and CEO Rick Schaffner told the Delaware State News that the Milton campus would provide primary care, walk-in care, as well as diagnostic imaging, laboratory services and rehabilitation services.

The office would have been Beebe’s most northern location, continuing a string of recent expansions through Sussex County. This spring, Beebe opened a freestanding emergency department and a cancer center at the Beebe South Coastal Health Campus. Construction work is underway at Beebe’s $124 million surgical hospital on Route 24 near Rehoboth Beach with a target opening in 2022.

The pavilion would have honored McLamb, a Milton native and a dedicated nurse that graduated from Beebe School of Nursing and spent most of her 50-year career at the southern Delaware health system. McLamb, who died in 2018, is the mother-in-law of Phoenix RHCS Holdings chief financial officer Chris Selzer.

The proposal would have also marked a first in Sussex for Phoenix RHCS Holdings, as it has previously developed medical offices in Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Castle County. Most notably, the company developed the Apex Medical Center with its memorable doctor’s bag sculpture in Christiana, according to a company representative.

All five parcels are owned by Lobolly, LLC,  the property management division of Draper Holdings, which owns the WBOC television station. Phoenix RHCS Holdings planned to buy the property from Lobolly, according to a Cape Gazette report, but the land has not changed hands as of Sept. 28.

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