MRA Group secures $63M in loans to advance redevelopment of former DuPont campus in Wilmington

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Philadelphia Business Journal

MRA Group has secured $63 million in financing for the next portion of the Chestnut Run Innovation and Science Park, a $1 billion redevelopment of a 164-acre former DuPont campus in Wilmington.

The funding is primarily for construction of a 102,000-square-foot building for specialty chemicals manufacturer Solenis, MRA Group Executive Vice President Phil Butler told the Business Journal. Work has been underway for months and the building is expected to open in 2024. A portion of the funding will also be used to renovate existing buildings on the campus for lab, research and development, and advanced manufacturing space.

Fulton Bank, along with Nuveen Green Capital through C-PACE, provided $50 million of the financing and the other $13 million was secured through WSFS Bank. C-PACE financing offers borrowers favorable terms as long as the developments include certain sustainability measures and energy efficiency. Butler said MRA Group already planned to include sustainable features in the redevelopments regardless of the financing mechanism and didn’t need to make any design changes in order to qualify. 

“We’re very happy and proud that the financial markets continued to respond to the vision that we’ve casted, us as a sponsor and the project as a whole,” Butler said. “Even in these financial times that we’re in, we’re still able to really lean on our partners in Fulton and WSFS and now Nuveen.”

This is the first time MRA Group has secured C-PACE financing and the company plans to use the mechanism more in the future, according to Butler.

MRA Group, based in Horsham, bought the former DuPont campus for $40 million in 2021 with 14 existing buildings spanning 780,000 square feet. The company initially planned a redevelopment totaling 900,000 square feet at a cost $500 million, but later expanded the project to 1.4 million square feet. The larger scope, along with rising construction costs, increased the price tag to about $1 billion.

The change was due to the rising demand for life sciences space, MRA Group CEO Larry Stuardi said in March.

MRA Group is also close to completing redevelopment work on one of the existing buildings for biopharmaceutical company Prelude Therapeutics. Occupancy is expected later this year.

Plans for the rest of the campus call for a hotel, fitness center, conference space and outdoor amphitheater.

The new financing was secured despite high interest rates and increased scrutiny from lenders, which has slowed deals across the country and forced some developers to pause projects.

“It speaks volumes that not just [Chestnut Run Innovation and Science Park] and MRA are getting deals financed in the market, but the Philadelphia region as a whole, we still have a lot of opportunity,” Butler said. “A lot of belief from the financial markets.”