An article from today's News Journal gives an update to the area's progress and the long planned refurbishment of the Wilmington Train Station. Though there really isn't much substance, I thought I'd post it to give a good overview of what's going on and coming up.
I also took a page from NYguy and put the important info in bold.
Riverfront Proposal Comes to Life
With Renaissance Under Way, Attention Turns to City's Amtrak Station
BY MAUREEN MILFORD / The News Journal
08/19/2005
When the Rev. Patricia Bryant Harris moved back to Delaware in July, she had occasion to take a tour of the Christina River waterfront after a six-year absence.
"Ah, the extent of what's taken place -- the park, the apartments, the marketplace -- it's awesome. My favorite area is around the train station. It's just a great uplift for Wilmington," said Harris, new pastor of Marshallton United Methodist Church in Marshallton.
Not so long ago, the train station district was "very rugged," said Harris, who once regularly commuted by train.
Now, businesspeople and public officials think it's time for a total makeover of the 100-year-old Amtrak passenger station on French Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. With nearly $1 billion in construction projects on the waterfront either completed, in progress or proposed in the past seven years, Wilmington needs a new front door, experts said.
"It's a cornerstone of the whole development," said Arkadi Kuhlmann, chief executive of ING Direct, the nation's fourth-largest savings bank, which has its headquarters on the waterfront. The bank spent $20 million to renovate three historic buildings, including two historic railroad buildings, there. "Our train station shouldn't look like a third-class bus stop."
Robert Buccini, a partner in Buccini/Pollin Group Inc., which has more than $300 million in real estate projects on the waterfront, said the station is the first impression visitors get of the city. The Wilmington station is the 13th-busiest in the Amtrak system. Approximately 90 trains serve Wilmington every day.
"It needs work. It's tired. The interior finishes need to be comparable to Philadelphia or Washington," Buccini said.
Now, said Sen. Tom Carper, "The sun, the moon and the stars are coming into alignment" for the train station.
With recent passage of the federal transportation bill, $6.5 million has been earmarked for station renovations, said John Sisson, manager of projects and facilities for the state Department of Transportation. But Delaware must match 20 percent of the federal monies, and DelDOT is experiencing a budget crisis.
There is enough money, however, for design work to begin, Sisson said. The architectural firm Bernardon Haber Holloway Architects, of Wilmington, has been hired by Amtrak for the renovation. A kick-off meeting is next week.
City and state historic preservation officials will be part of the process. The red-brick Victorian building was designed by the noted Philadelphia architect Frank Furness. Furness also designed the nearby Pennsylvania Building and the B&O Water Street Station on South Market Street, both now used by ING Direct.
The three Wilmington buildings represent the largest grouping of Furness railroad buildings in the nation and show the range of his railroad work, said Michael J. Lewis, an art history professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and author of "Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind."
In 1905, at about the time the du Ponts were building the DuPont Co. headquarters in downtown Wilmington, the Pennsylvania Railroad was trying to capture the railroad business along the Northeast Corridor.
Although Furness also designed buildings for competing railroads, he was hired by Pennsylvania Railroad President A.J. Cassat to build a station in Wilmington on a limited budget.
Today, the station needs renovations of the exterior, work on the windows, and improvements in lighting, restrooms and handicapped access, Sisson said. If money from the state were to become available, work could begin in the spring, he said. The station last underwent a major renovation in the early 1980s.
In 2002, ING, Amtrak, and the state and federal governments proposed a major overhaul of the station that would include an atrium bridging the station with the Pennsylvania Building, now occupied by ING Direct and called the Orangerie. Under the proposal, the atrium would serve as the new entrance to the station. The work would free up more space for shops in station's existing waiting area.
"I want to make that a reality," Carper said. "The idea is to create office space in the unused portions of the station to be leased, hopefully by ING. That would provide a cash flow to Amtrak."
Meanwhile, across the river from the train station, work is progressing on the $130 million Christina Landing project. The residential complex includes two residen- tial towers and town houses.
One 22-story apartment tower, which is visible on leaving the station, will be open by late November, Buccini said. The 25-story condominium building adjacent to the tower is under construction and should be completed next year. The 63 town houses should be finished by the end of September. About half of the town houses -- all of which have been sold -- have gone to settlement.
Buccini/Pollin also is planning to start work at the end of the year on a $100 million development with a hotel, residences, offices and retail sites on 10.9 acres of publicly owned waterfront land. The property, off South Madison and West streets, has been used by the city's Department of Public Works and the state's Delaware Transit Corp. The hotel project would complement the Riverfront Development Corp.'s plan to remake the Center on the Riverfront into a conference center.
Work is also under way on the 250,000-square-foot expansion of Juniper Bank, a credit card bank, and parking lot at West and Justison streets. The $65 million project is expected to be completed in September 2006, said Greg Pettinaro, partner with Pettinaro Enterprises in Newport.
For environmental consultant Marian R. Young, the improvements on the waterfront nearly bring tears to her eyes.
"I feel such pride that I've been a part of this," said Young, president of BrightFields Inc. in New Castle. "It's a true renaissance."