Nylon Capital Center breaks ground in Seaford. Nylon plant for sale

Spring sprang with a vengeance in the Western Sussex town of Seaford — where there's a hive of activity since April.

A massive project finally got some shovels in the dirt last week, a Pittsburgh company took over Delaware's only asphalt terminal, a new Puerto Rican bakery is all the rage, and a historic nylon plant is on the block for a new buyer.

Here's the lowdown on what's happening in Seaford these days.

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🚧$60m Nylon Capital Center officially breaks ground in Seaford

Seaford's long-awaited Nylon Capital Center officially broke ground with a ceremony last week.

The 285,000-square-foot Nylon Capital Shopping Center, long a decrepit and mostly vacant retail husk on a 22-acre property at the western edge of town, will soon become a mixed-use hub of education, offices, health care, pickleball courts, restaurants and retail.

The long-fading shopping mall in a formerly bustling DuPont factory town first saw construction crews move in to erect fencing and prepare the ground in March, as reported in Delaware Online/The News Journal.

Previous: A $60 million education, health care and retail hub picks up in Seaford

Offices and schools will go in the back of the center. This will include a two-story, 30,000-square-foot vocational training center from Delaware Technical Community College , a “new, state-of-the-art” TidalHealth medical facility and an early education center from BrightBloom , a company that specializes in working with children with autism and special needs.

Also confirmed is a 20,000-square-foot outpost of Herrera’s co-working space The Mill , which already boasts the region’s largest dedicated co-working office space in Wilmington’s Nemours building, at 108,000 square feet.

Developer 9th Street Development Co. plans a town-center feel — with open spaces, trees, public amenities like pickleball courts, and a mix of institutional tentpoles and Main Street businesses. 9th Street partner Robert Herrera envisions foot traffic from businesses and educational facilities feeding the health of Nylon Capital's retail and entertainment.

Seaford city officials hope the $60 million project will help revitalize the onetime “Nylon Capital of the World” — and potentially bring back some of the prosperity that has eluded Seaford since DuPont sold off the pioneering textile factory that once gave the town its nickname and its primary identity.

“The people of Seaford deserve better. They’ve been very hopeful, and they deserve this. I’m excited for the future of Seaford,” Mayor David Genshaw said at the groundbreaking ceremony, on local news reports.

🏭Seaford's historic nylon factory is up for sale

The groundbreaking coincides with other nylon news in the Nylon Capital, however: The Koch Industries-owned Invista corporation announced in early April it would like to unload its entire nylon fabric business for strategic reasons — including the plant it snagged from Dupont a couple decades ago.

Though the chemical company takes its name from Seaford's historic Invista plant — the first nylon plant in the world, in fact — it may not be its owner soon.

The company plans to explore "strategic alternatives" to nylon fiber production, and look into unloading its "fiber-focused portfolio" including manufacturing locations in "Seaford, Delaware; Martinsville, Virginia; Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Gloucester, UK; and Qingpu, China."

"Nylon fibers is a great business, and we believe there are other companies with different focus and capabilities that could create even greater value with those assets," Invista president and CEO Francis Murphy said in an April statement.

Invista also produces a number of chemicals that go into nylon production, and says it will continue doing so. The company has announced no plans to close the Seaford plant if it doesn't find a buyer.

"If, however, through this process, we find that other companies don’t value it more highly, we’ll continue to operate the business,” Invista's CEO wrote.

🥯Sweet Sister's Fault Bakery takes off in Seaford with Puerto Rican sweets

Meanwhile, a new bakery has taken off fast in the old nylon town. Milford-founded Puerto Rican bakery Sweet Sister's Fault Bakery expanded into a Seaford location last month, and apparently has been selling out its goods as fast as it can bake them.

Angie and Rous Robles' Puerto Rican cooking, including empanadas and Cubanos, is already popular in Milford. The Seaford location is a somewhat sweeter endeavor, with a focus on desserts, coffee and pan sabao, a Puerto Rican bread.

The new spot's downtown Seaford location is near other popular Seaford Latin American eateries, including Salvadoran spot Doña Maria's Pupuseria and year-old Mexican antojitos restaurant Sabor Con Amor.

According to the Sweet Sister's Fault Facebook page , they're regularly selling out. Its owners proudly announced April 20 they'd finally gone through a whole day without running out of inventory. So if you visit, visit early, The bakery opens at 10:30 a.m. Thursday and Friday, and at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

🛣Delaware's only asphalt terminal has gone to new owners

Delaware's only asphalt terminal went to new owners at the beginning of April, as Pittsburgh pavement company Russell Standard expanded its operations into Delaware by taking over the terminal in Seaford.

That terminal, formerly owned by ICP Group , serves Delaware's three counties, the state Department of Transportation, and contractors across the state.

Russell Standard is a family owned business stemming back to 1929. In a statement, CEO Matt Johnson said he was happy to enter the Delaware market, and declared his company's commitment to cutting edge asphalt technologies.

"Our world-class lab is constantly working to ensure our material is meeting or beating specifications and operates with a near-obsessive drive to solve our customers’ biggest problems and innovate new solutions along the way," Johnson wrote.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Nylon Capital Center breaks ground in Seaford. Nylon plant for sale