WILMINGTON — On Wednesday, the new owners of the Hanover Center submitted plans for apartments located behind the shopping mall facing Oleander Drive.
Hanover Center was acquired in a roughly $50-million deal in December 2019 by a Delware-based limited partnership; the shopping center, the oldest in Wilmington, was created by the MacRae family in the 1950s.
The new project, called the Flats at Hanover Center, is located on roughly 7.4 acres fronting on Park Avenue near the intersection with Independence Boulevard. It closely resembles the ‘Metro Park’ project proposed last year by the MacRae-owned Oleander Company, Inc. The new proposal calls for 145 single units, 106 two-bedroom units, and 15 three-bedroom units, with around 3,000 square feet of retail.
The project originally called for roughly 8,000 square feet of office or retail space, and 153 single bedroom units, 104 two-bedroom units, and 7 three-bedroom units.
The project shows renewed confidence in the development, which has struggled — like similar developments nationwide — over the last six months. Hanover Center lost anchor tenants Stein Mart, which cited both Covid-19 and pre-existing economic conditions, and Pier 1, which was dealing with corporate-wide issues leading to a June bankruptcy and plan to liquidate and shutter all stores by October.
