Bayberry Town Center finally starts development north of Middletown

What's Going There in Delaware is Delaware Online/The News Journal's development newsletter, tracking what's coming to the First State. If you like what you’re reading, tell your friends it’s free to sign up here ​. Email tips, questions and brilliant story ideas to Matthew Korfhage at mkorfhage@delawareonline.com

🚧 Bayberry Town Center finally starts development north of Middletown

It's taken years of planning, and revisions. Well more than a thousand homes have been built in the meantime. But the master-planned village of Bayberry looks like will finally get its Town Center.

Bayberry developer Blenheim Homes announced Tuesday they've started site development at Bayberry Town Center , which will encompass 145 townhomes, 30,000 square feet of office space and nearly 250,000 square feet of retail and restaurants.

The project was greenlit by County Council on March 26, after sailing through a Land Use meeting.

Retail plans include a 64,000-square-foot Weis Markets supermarket and Weis Gas N' Go gas station, a pharmacy, a bank, a pet store, nail salon and spa, according to Blenhiem Tuesday. Plans submitted to the county show spaces for multiple drive-thru restaurants, a potential fitness center, and multiple other flexible retail or restaurant spaces.

Most of those tenants have not been announced — though Blenheim spokespeople promise to reveal more retailers as soon as they're able.

But the long-promised grocery store has long has also long been a source of frustration denizens of the newly constructed villages in and near Bayberry, according to testimony at county hearings. Those residents must drive into Middletown, in ever tightening traffic that can balloon a 15-minute trip by double or more.

Bayberry spans 1,500 acres between Route 1 and Route 301 and is one of the drivers of growth north of Middletown. Since 2010, about 1,700 homes have been built and sold in Bayberry. Another 1,000 are planned, and hundreds more units are coming to surrounding communities.

That Town Center, long promised, had to be the last piece of the puzzle, Blenheim's Jay Sonecha told county officials in March, because a critical mass of housing was needed to bring in big anchor stores like Weis.

Anyway, the ground is finally being prepared. First comes "bulk earthwork" and site grading. Then, andinstallation of utilities. Construction will come in the fall. Weis will open sometime in 2025 alongside other stores, Blenheim said in a release.

🎣Eastside Wilmington gets a fishing pier and a boat ramp

Where there used to be a boat ramp and a fishing pier in Eastside Wilmington, there is now... a boat ramp and a fishing pier.

State and federal and city officials gathered last week to re-dedicate the 7th Street Boating and Fishing Area, located at Wilmington's John E. Babiarz Park , which has re-opened after a $2.9 million renovation and refurbishment.

The fishing pier has new decking and handrails. The ramp has been resurfaced. There's more space for trailers, and better lighting. That boating ramp is in a pivotal location for anglers at the confluence of the Christina and Brandywine Rivers, just two miles from the Delaware.

But the ramp had closed in 2010 after years of deterioration. Strong tides and currents had eaten way at the surface and left parts of it as rubble. The fishing pier had also long been officially closed to the public, after years of decay.

“It was just a very poor version of what’s here," Purzycki said at the dedication on May 3. "You just had small ramps and concrete broken up, recreation areas that were dangerous for kids to play in, much smaller parking area that was inadequate.”

About $1.2 million of the money spent on the project came from state settlement money from the 2004 Athos I oil tanker spill in the Delaware River. Other funds came from a federal Boating Access program , from the US. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, derived from fees on fishing equipment, tackle, and the portion of the federal fuels tax attributable to motor boats.

Anyway, where there used to be a ramp and a fishing pier, there's now a ramp and a fishing pier.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Bayberry Town Center finally starts development north of Middletown