Local developer revives Middletown-area warehouse project, neighbor concerns

Why Should Delaware Care?
A large industrial campus of three distribution warehouses has received new life after a local developer bought the project. Prior plans for development there had driven public concerns. Local leaders are now trying to respond to those. 

A plan for a massive distribution center near Middletown that in past years raised concerns with neighbors is gaining new traction after a local developer bought the land for about $25 million.

Last month, Newport-based developer Harvey Hanna & Associates acquired the site previously known as Scott Run Commerce Center, as well as its plans for a 1.3 million-square-foot warehousing campus.

Currently farmland, the property located off Jamison Corner Road near the intersection with the U.S. 301 bypass will be developed into multiple warehouses, Harvey Hanna spokesman Jordan Seemans said in an email. Plans for a warehousing complex were first filed there in 2022.

Seemans said the development would generate “meaningful economic benefits, including construction activity, jobs, business investment, and additional tax revenue that supports local services and public institutions, including schools.” 

But the property acquisition is also resurfacing residents’ concerns about air pollution, and traffic in a highly residential suburban area.

The 103-acre site consists of one 600,000-square-foot warehouse and two others that are around 300,000 square feet. 

Seemans wrote that the company bought the property because it’s an opportunity to develop a commercial site, and that it’s located in an area where “commercial infrastructure demand is accelerating.” 

Currently, the only commercial areas near the site are a small shopping center and a couple of fast food restaurants. But plans are pending for two other warehouse developments nearby, including a 2 million-square-foot plan across the road proposed by developer Dermody Properties.

A community adjacent to the site –  The Village of Bayberry – has sold more than 1,800 homes with 900 more under development, as of the end of 2025. Other nearby residential areas include the Town of Whitehall and Airmont Acres.  

New Castle County approved the site as a business park in 2005. In 2022, developer and then-property owner EQT Real Estate tried to build a logistics center under the business park zoning, which generally allows for that use.

But after neighbors learned of the plans, a backlash emerged. Leading it was Kevin Caneco, a resident of Bayberry who was later elected to the New County Council. At the time, Caneco launched a petition to halt the development, fearing it would change the character of the neighborhood. The petition eventually would garner more than 1,700 signatures. 

Now Caneco has constituents who live there.

Asked about the resurgence of the proposed development with the sale of the property, Caneco told Spotlight Delaware it is “improper planning” to have an industrial site amidst a plethora of residential communities.

He said he is particularly concerned about heavy trucks navigating local arteries, including Jamison Corner Road. He noted that the intersection of Jamison Corner and Boyds Corner roads has a school, a church, and a supermarket. Two other schools also sit near the intersection. 

Caneco also asserted the intersection has recently seen an increase in crashes.

“That’s already kind of a disaster right now,” Caneco said.

In response to resident concern, Seemans said Harvey Hanna’s approach is focused on responsible site planning, which includes consideration of buffering and landscaping, lighting design, noise considerations, traffic circulation, stormwater management and building placement and orientation. 

“We are evaluating these issues carefully as part of the redevelopment process,” Seemans said in an email.

Constituent concern bubbling for years

Bruce Wyngaard, a resident of the nearby development, called the Town of Whitehall, recalled his disapproval of the site’s transition from its original business park plan to a logistics center in 2022.

County land-use officials approved EQT’s request to build the center in 2022, deeming it a “minor change” from the previous plans from 2005. Since the developer planned to use the previously approved business park application, it did not need a public hearing. 

“There lies the rub for us,” Wyngaard said. “There was very little voice that we had about that.” 

Wyngaard reasoned that a business park would have provided more “diverse jobs” and lighter amounts of traffic.

With the air pollution that trucks would create by idling and moving slowly in the site’s parking lots, Wyngaard is worried about negative health effects for nearby residents like asthma, heart conditions and dementia.

Wyngaard also pointed out that other proposed warehouses surrounding the Scott Run site, including a 2 million-square-foot Dermody Property warehouse plan. He compared the diesel emissions from heavy trucks accessing the warehouse complexes to “big smokestacks rolling into your community.”

Wyngaard said he believes there should be a formal review of emissions and air quality impact before projects like these are approved. 

“We’re not anti-warehouse, we’re not anti-distribution center, but what we believe is that the county has approved these things without consideration to the emissions,” Wygaard said. 

The Harvey Hanna site, according to Newmark’s marketing, is approved to have 259 trailer spaces and 233 loading doors.

Middletown-area land use activist Dale Swain affirmed that the site has been a concern for years for residents.

At a meeting of Citizens Alliance for Responsible Land Use on Wednesday evening led by Swain, a few residents of the nearby communities expressed unease.

Dan Gorman, a resident of South Bayberry, said he is concerned about the traffic issues that could come with trucks using local roads like Boyds Corner Road.

“A lot of those homes, mine included, are 300 feet or less off of Boyds Corner Road,” Gorman said. 

Bill Robbins, a resident of a 55+ community in the Whitehall neighborhood that is close to the site, said one of his biggest concerns is air pollution from the diesel trucks.

“No one in the county or the state or the feds want to take responsibility for this mobile source of pollution,” Robbins said.

In an interview, Swain pointed out that there are at least five large warehouse logistic centers in the county that are unoccupied, saying it “makes no sense.” 

“Why would they want to build another one instead of buying one that’s already built? That’s odd,” Swain said.

What now?

There’s little to nothing that neighbors can do to stop the project from happening, since it’s permitted under current zoning.

New Castle County Councilman Dave Carter, whose district contains the site itself and some nearby residential areas, affirmed the developer’s legal right to move forward with the project. 

He attended the Wednesday evening meeting, where he said the county council is working on legislation to change how minor changes to plans work.

“This isn’t going to happen again, and I’m going to fix it so that we can’t redesign these things,” Carter said.

The councilman said he planned to meet with developers in a month to learn more about the type of tenants they envision. 

Carter called Harvey Hanna a “tolerable” developer to work with, and emphasized that it’s locally headquartered in Delaware.

He also noted that site plans show the construction of new turn lanes on local roads. 

Seemans from Harvey Hanna said there is no construction schedule yet for the site, but that it is “fully approved and shovel-ready.”

After talking to Seemans, Carter said he believes their goal is to break ground in the fall.