Ground broken for $60 million Nylon Capital Center

Seaford officials are hopeful that a shopping center that was the focal point of the community for decades will once again become a showplace for the city and Sussex County.

Ground was broken April 25 on the 243,000-square-foot, $60 million Nylon Capital Center on Stein Highway.

The anchors of the innovation district will be a 22,000-square-foot TidalHealth Nanticoke medical facility and a new Delaware Technical Community College facility. Community Bank Delaware has plans to build a new branch at the corner of the property along Stein Highway. Community Bank is scheduled to be the first business to open in the new center.

Existing businesses Dollar Tree, Sal’s Pizza Gallery and Rite Aid will remain.

Developer Rob Herrera of Ninth Street Development Co. of Wilmington has spent months meeting with local and state officials and potential businesses to get the long-awaited project off the ground.

Using state and local funds, Ninth Street purchased the property for $5.1 million.

During the groundbreaking ceremony, Herrera said he was contacted by Delaware Department of Human Resources Secretary Claire DeMatteis about doing what Gov. John Carney called something really big in Seaford. That set the wheels in motion.

“The City of Seaford staff has a culture of service to the community. Mayor David Genshaw has built a wonderful team. I thank you so much for your faith in me and this project,” he said.

City officials have been working on a way to bring the center back to life for more than 10 years.

Herrera said plans call for work to start on the rear section of the property, which will include some demolition and some repurposing of existing buildings. He said site work on that section will take more than a year.

Also committed to the project is Vanderwende’s Ice Cream, which plans to open a store in the complex.

The center will include pickleball courts, an open-space gathering area, walking trails, a social hall with a beer garden, a BrightBloom Center for young children with autism and other special needs, and The Mill, the developer’s company offering work space for remote workers, entrepreneurs, and start-up and established businesses.

Discussions are underway to rebuild the center’s bowling alley, and there will be about 32,000 square feet of space dedicated to retail. Herrera said he’s also working with the local Montessori school to open an early childhood center.

Funding included $20 million from the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, $3.1 million from Seaford and $2 million from the state.

The original 218,000-square-foot Nylon Capital Shopping Center opened in 1956 and became the retail center for the area. It had two sections of stores, including Peebles and Woolworth’s, a bowling alley, restaurants, a pharmacy, grocery stores and also included outdoor space for the Jaycee Pool and Seaford (now Nanticoke) Little League fields.

It took its name from the nearby DuPont Nylon Plant, the first plant in the world to produce nylon, which operated from 1939 into the early 2000s. During its heyday, up to 4,500 employees worked in three shifts.

The closure of the nylon plant in 2004 and development along Route 13 contributed to a gradual decline of the center.

The center was once owned by DuPont heiress Louisa Carpenter, who helped in the efforts to build the pool and Little League fields. After she died in a plane crash, the center was purchased by Cordish Companies, the current owners of the Rehoboth Mall, in the 1970s.