Feasibility Study Company Independent Feasibility Analysis

Delaware · Market Intelligence

Delaware Feasibility Studies

Project Washington, a 1.2 GW data center campus proposed near New Castle, cannot go ahead as designed: Delaware's environmental department ruled on February 3, 2026 that it is a use the 1971 Coastal Zone Act does not allow, and the state's industrial control board for the coastal zone upheld it without a dissenting vote 12. In Sussex County the decision on record is a budget: the FY2026 plan adopted on June 17, 2025 sets aside $76.7 million of its $285.1 million for wastewater plant expansions and new service areas 3. One is a refusal and the other a budget line, and a Delaware feasibility study treats a parcel as sited when it holds an answer of that kind, from the agency that reads the coastal zone or the provider that would take its flow.

Request a methodology briefing Go to the six county markets
$76.7M
Sussex County's FY2026 wastewater budget, adopted June 17, 2025 3
9,829
Residents Delaware added, July 2024 to July 2025, Census Vintage 2025 as the News Journal reported it 4
20.9K
Government jobs in the Dover metro, which is Kent County, July 2026 5
1,322
Housing units permitted in New Castle County in 2025 6
Siting Comes First

A ruling on New Castle's coast and a bill on large electric loads.

The contested project in Delaware's 2025 and 2026 record turned on where an industrial use may go, not on demand. Starwood Digital Ventures filed Project Washington in July 2025: 11 buildings and about 6 million square feet of data center space with 1.2 GW of planned capacity on roughly 580 acres near New Castle and Delaware City 1. The developer spoke of an economic impact of $9.7 billion, 3,500 construction jobs and $75 million a year in local taxes, none of it verified 1. On February 3, 2026 the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control ruled that the use is not allowed in the coastal zone under the 1971 Coastal Zone Act, pointing to 516 backup diesel generators and more than 2.5 million gallons of stored diesel 2. The Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board upheld the ruling unanimously, Starwood dropped its Superior Court appeal, and on August 28, 2026 Spotlight Delaware reported that the project cannot move forward under its current design 2.

The filing drew three answers before the ruling: a New Castle County ordinance, a large-load tariff proposal before the Public Service Commission, and SB 205, a bill that would let the commission approve or refuse new large-load customers partly on what they would do to household electric rates 72. No figure for Delaware's place in the PJM interconnection queue was found, so the tariff proposal and the bill are the dated record of the state's response to a large new electric load.

Six Markets, Three Counties

Six Delaware markets: three in New Castle County, two in Sussex, one in Kent.

Delaware has three counties.

New Castle County

Wilmington, Delaware

The state's one county inside a four-state metro, read on its own Census, permit and broker records.

State capital

Dover

Kent County is the whole of the Dover metro area, and its capital passed the first municipal pause on data centers in Delaware.

Sussex coast

Rehoboth-Lewes

Beach towns in a county that is enlarging its sewer plants while its council narrows the rules for new subdivisions.

Western Sussex

Seaford

An industrial park on US 13 and the Nylon Capital Center redevelopment lead a market.

Southern New Castle

Middletown

A town that runs its own water, sewer and electric systems and approved another large Amazon building in September 2026.

University town

Newark, Delaware

UD's STAR Campus is adding its first apartments.

The Census Bureau's 2025 delineation places Delaware's three counties in three different kinds of area 8. Kent County is the entire Dover metro area. Sussex County is the Seaford micro area by itself, and the Salisbury metro is now Wicomico and Somerset counties in Maryland, which our Maryland page reads in its Eastern Shore section; no Sussex figure on this page belongs to a Maryland area. New Castle County is the one Delaware county of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro, which also takes in Cecil County, Maryland, four New Jersey counties and five Pennsylvania counties 8. The Pennsylvania page and the New Jersey page each read counties of their own state in that metro, and every New Castle figure here is the county's alone.

Below the county level the dated readings are few: the BLS summary for Dover, Sussex County's budget and ordinances, and a set of project announcements whose sizes and costs describe single properties. The market sections give each with its date.

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware: New Castle County's residents and permits.

New Castle County only.

The Vintage 2025 county table puts New Castle County at 588,026 people for July 1, 2025 and 570,722 for its April 1, 2020 estimates base 9. Permits issued there covered 1,322 housing units in 2025; the count was 1,586 in 2024 and 1,796 in 2020, according to the Census permit counts FRED publishes for the county 6. The 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey sets the county's median gross rent at $1,448, a median taken over renter-occupied units that pay cash rent 10.

A hotel now stands beside Merck's campus at CRISP, the Chestnut Run Innovation & Science Park: a Residence Inn with 127 rooms opened there on June 16, 2026, and the Delaware Business Times described the campus as a $1 billion one in its report of the opening 11. No occupancy or rate series for Wilmington hotels was found.

The county's other anchors appear in broker reports without figures. CBRE's 2022 brief on Northern Delaware describes the Port of Wilmington as a full-service deep-water port 12, and Newmark's first-quarter 2026 Wilmington report records Wilmington University's purchase of a fully vacant building in the fourth quarter of 2025 13.

BLS publishes payrolls for a Wilmington DE-MD-NJ metropolitan division, an area whose title takes in Maryland and New Jersey as well as Delaware, so its jobs series is not printed here as New Castle County's 14. New Castle County may levy a lodging tax of up to 3% under the 2024 law that gave the power to it and to Sussex County 15; an adopted New Castle rate was not found.

Dover

Dover and Kent County, a metro area of one county with a pause on data centers.

Kent County only; in the Census Bureau's delineation the county is the Dover metro area by itself, so the metro's payroll figures are Kent's.

Dover City Council approved a moratorium on data center construction unanimously, the first by a Delaware municipality, Spotlight Delaware reported on October 13, 2026 16. The same report describes Kent County's rules for data centers on unincorporated land: buffers, noise limits and a ban on cooling systems that use large amounts of water 16. A data center site in Kent is read against both.

Kent's Vintage 2025 estimate is 194,786 for July 1, 2025, against an April 2020 base of 181,849 9. Kent builders drew permits for 1,261 units in 2025, set against 1,201 a year before and 2,136 in 2020 17. In the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey the county's median household income was $74,477 and its median gross rent $1,354 10.

Dover Air Force Base is on the federal CareerOneStop list of Delaware's largest employers, which gives no date for its counts 18, and no headcount for Delaware State University was found. The BLS area summary of September 4, 2026 puts government at 20.9 thousand of the metro's 73.0 thousand nonfarm jobs in July 2026, with total payrolls up 0.4 thousand on the year 5. Education and health services held 12.5 thousand jobs and professional and business services 6.7 thousand, while leisure and hospitality, at 7.4 thousand, was down 2.6% on July 2025; unemployment in the Dover area was 5.9%, against 5.4% in July 2025, and in the city of Dover itself 7.3% 5.

Bayhealth had 4,803 employees across its system in January 2025, the Delaware Business Times reported on October 17, 2025, with about 125 new positions planned for its Kent County expansion 19. The first phase of that expansion in Dover, announced that month, is a $248.67 million building of 225,000 square feet with 64 inpatient beds, set to start construction in late 2026 if approvals come; the system's chief executive put the need at 97 or more new inpatient beds by 2033 20.

Downtown Dover's master plan needs at least $500 million, of which more than $30 million had been secured by November 2025, with a parking garage under construction, and its later phases need wastewater improvements whose funding was not yet in place 21. In June 2026 the state announced that the Delaware State Housing Authority would buy Delaware State University's Living & Learning Commons on US 13 for $11.243 million to expand the Hope Center 22, and in February the Sports Tourism Capital Investment Fund awarded Dover Motor Speedway $1 million 23. A new industrial park on Lafferty Lane in Dover already had a signed lease when the Delaware Business Times reported on it in January 2025 24.

The 2024 law that lets New Castle and Sussex counties levy a lodging tax gives Kent County no such power 15, and no Dover city hotel tax was found, so a Kent hotel or rental budget carries the state's lodging taxes. Dover is also where USDA Rural Development keeps the one state office it runs for Delaware and Maryland 25. A program total that office reports for the pair is a two-state figure, and none is printed on this page as Delaware's.

Costs and Taxes

Gross receipts in place of a sales tax, lodging levies stacked by place, and a wage floor with no 2027 step.

Delaware levies no state or local sales tax. Sellers pay a gross receipts tax at rates that vary by activity instead, so the equipment and materials bought for a project carry no sales tax line in its budget 26. The Tax Foundation's 2026 edition lists the corporate income tax at 8.7%, on top of the gross receipts tax, puts the effective tax on owner-occupied homes at 0.50%, and ranks Delaware 24th on its State Tax Competitiveness Index 27; a commercial property rate was not found.

Lodging carries three layers. Hotel, motel and tourist home rents pay the state's 8% public accommodations tax 28. Short-term rental agreements entered on or after January 1, 2025 pay a separate state lodging tax of 4.5%, New Castle and Sussex counties may add up to 3%, and accommodations intermediaries need a $25 annual license 29. Towns add their own: Lewes charges 5% on rentals 28, and a secondary summary of August 2026 gives Newark and Rehoboth Beach a 3% hotel levy each 30. A typical combined rate for the state as a whole was not found.

Delaware's wage floor reached $15.00 an hour on January 1, 2025, the last step of its schedule, and no increase is set for 2027 31. Prevailing wage reaches a private project only where the state or a political subdivision is party to the contract and puts money into it: new construction above $500,000, or alteration, repair, renovation or demolition above $45,000. Its rates have followed collective bargaining agreements since January 1, 2016 and are published each year by March 15, and a violation carries a civil penalty of $1,000 to $5,000 32.

The Department of Insurance's Forms and Rates Bulletin No. 41, issued in July 2025, bars carriers from adding policy fees beyond installment, late-payment and rejected-payment fees; what a policy costs to administer has to sit in the filed rate 33. No carrier withdrawal from Delaware was documented for 2025 or 2026, and no insurer of last resort for Delaware property was identified, so the premium in a budget is the quote a carrier gives for that building.

Rehoboth-Lewes

Rehoboth Beach and Lewes: Sussex County's residents, its sewer spending and its land rules under revision.

Sussex County, which the 2025 delineation makes the Seaford micro area on its own; the market profile behind this section labels it a Sussex and Salisbury MD-DE metro, a grouping that delineation no longer uses. Seaford shares these county figures.

The Census Bureau's county table gives Sussex 277,140 people for July 1, 2025, with an estimates base of 237,379 9. The county permitted 3,885 housing units in 2025, with 4,354 the year before and 4,523 in 2020 34. The 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey counts 77,249 Sussex residents aged 65 or older, and it values the median owner-occupied home at $382,600 10.

The county's FY2026 budget, adopted on June 17, 2025, totals $285.1 million, and $76.7 million of it is for wastewater infrastructure: expansions at the Inland Bays and Wolfe Neck treatment plants, new service areas and added capacity 3. Private capacity is growing as well. Artesian Wastewater Management's Sussex Regional Recharge Facility would treat up to 1.875 million gallons a day after its third phase, with its disposal capacity unchanged, under a DNREC notice heard on December 18, 2025 35. No sewer moratorium in Delaware was documented for 2025 or 2026.

The council is narrowing the rules that decide how much of that capacity new subdivisions will use. In January 2025 a councilman's proposal for a one-year moratorium on large housing applications won no other support on the council 36. A working group's 20 recommendations, approved in September 2025, yielded six ordinances introduced on March 10, 2026 37, and on June 9, 2026 the council adopted the first ordinances of its land-use reform series, a revamped county rental program and technical code changes 38. By July 2026 the draft that would end cluster development in low-density areas was on hold and the open-space draft still pending, with density possibly left to the 2028 comprehensive plan 39. Nearby Dagsboro adopted a six-month moratorium on major and minor subdivisions on May 19, 2025 40.

Sussex County has taxed hotel and motel stays in its unincorporated areas at 3% since January 1, 2020, and the Cape Gazette put the collections at about $1 million a year in August 2024 41. A matching county tax on short-term rentals in those areas failed on December 10, 2024 42. Rehoboth Beach taxes hotel stays and home rentals under two separate city taxes 43. Impact fees were among the council's priorities for 2025 36; no county impact fee schedule was found. No occupancy, rate or room-revenue series for the beach hotels was found.

No beach-area employer with a headcount was found. The Sussex entries on the federal list of largest employers are inland poultry processors in Millsboro, Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Allen Harim Foods, with counts the list does not date 18, and no headcount for Beebe Healthcare, the beach market's medical anchor, was found. A beach market's demand evidence is therefore its county's population, age and home value figures above, not a payroll series.

Seaford

Seaford: an industrial park on US 13 and a hospital, on Sussex County's record.

Sussex County, the Seaford micro area. The county's residents and permits are given in the Rehoboth-Lewes section; no population, permit, payroll or rent series for the city of Seaford was found.

Developers announced on January 27, 2025 that they aim to invest $75 million in the Seaford Industrial Park: about 1.2 million square feet on a US 13 tract of 128 acres, with a largest building of at least 400,000 square feet and first warehouses of 88,000 to 120,000 square feet each 24. The Council on Development Finance approved a $1.9 million Site Readiness grant for the park at the same time 24. These are one project's figures; no vacancy reading for industrial space in Kent or Sussex County was found, so the park is the dated record of warehouse supply in this part of the state.

The second redevelopment is the Nylon Capital Center, where the Delaware Business Times names TidalHealth, Delaware Tech, The Mill and Community Bank Delaware among the anchors 44.

Seaford's medical anchor is TidalHealth Nanticoke. Its Form 990 for the fiscal year ending June 2025 reports $228.6 million of program service revenue 45.

No impact fee, moratorium or hotel tax of the city's own was found. The county's 3% accommodations tax applies only on unincorporated land 41, so a Seaford hotel inside the city limits carries the state's lodging taxes and any levy of the city's own.

Rules by Asset Class

Delaware's Certificate of Public Review, its child care license classes and local rental control.

Delaware's certificate-of-need review is the Certificate of Public Review under 16 Del. C. ch. 93, decided by the Health Resources Board 46. A review is required to build or establish a hospital, a nursing home, or a freestanding birthing, surgical, acute inpatient rehabilitation or emergency center, or to acquire one of these that is nonprofit, and for capital spending above $5,800,000, a threshold adjusted for inflation; an approval is valid for one year 47. Two 2026 bills went different ways: HB 17 took effect on July 1, 2026 and lifts the review for major medical equipment bought below a cost threshold, while HB 318, released on March 17, 2026 to amend the board's chapter, died in the House Health & Human Development Committee without a hearing 48. An earlier sunset review bill, HB 394 of 2024, had proposed renaming the review a certificate of need and making the board advisory 49.

Child care needs a license from the Office of Child Care Licensing before it opens, in one of three classes: a family child care home, a large family child care home or a child care center 50. The capacity a license allows is further limited by the State Fire Marshal and by local zoning 51.

No state preemption of short-term rental licensing was identified: towns and counties license rentals themselves, and the Division of Revenue's part is collecting the lodging tax 29. For assisted living and memory care, liquor licenses, fuel tanks, car washes and campgrounds no primary Delaware rule text was found, and this page states no rule for them.

Middletown

Middletown: Amazon's next building and a town that runs its own utilities.

New Castle County. The county's residents and permits are given in the Wilmington, Delaware section; no town-level series for Middletown was found.

On September 20, 2026 Delaware Public Media reported that Middletown had unanimously approved an Amazon facility on Middle Neck Road of about 1.95 million square feet on two stories, 52 feet high, in place of an approved manufacturing plan of 3.9 million square feet 52. Bluewater Property Group, the developer, said the building would be assessed at over $90 million and bring at least 500 permanent full-time jobs at an average of $22.50 an hour, plus more than 300 construction jobs 52. In May 2026 Spotlight Delaware had reported land bought for two Amazon buildings designed for robotics, with 1,500 jobs 53. These are statements by the developer and the company; no hiring figure was found.

The town runs its own water, wastewater and electric utilities, charges an impact fee for each, and waives part of those fees inside its Downtown Development District 54. In a letter of May 9, 2025 it told DNREC that its sewer system had sufficient capacity for Chapel Creek, a subdivision of 216 single-family houses and 190 townhouses with a design flow of 97,000 gallons a day 55. For a residential project here, the town's own capacity letter is the utility record, and its fee schedule was not found. No hotel opening in Middletown could be confirmed: one aggregator lists a planned property there with no date.

Newark, Delaware

Newark, Delaware: the STAR Campus and its first apartment buildings.

New Castle County. No 2025 population or permit series for the city of Newark was found, so the county figures in the Wilmington, Delaware section stand for it.

The University of Delaware's STAR Campus had 1.2 million square feet built and room for at least 5 million more when its first residential project broke ground in May 2025 56, and WDEL put the workforce on the campus at more than 3,000 that month 57. The project, The Asters, is two seven-story buildings with 229 units by Buccini Pollin Group and the university; it topped out in June 2026 at a cost REBusinessOnline gave as $75 million, against $71 million in UDaily's account of the groundbreaking 5856. The Newark Post reported in April 2026 that the buildings are set to open in 2027 and named Bloom Energy and Chemours among the campus's tenants 59. The Asters is the only apartment project with a unit count found anywhere in New Castle County, so a Newark rental study surveys the city's other properties itself.

A Residence Inn with 131 rooms opened on August 12, 2025 beside Delaware Park, in Stanton, by Newark 60. In March 2024 the city sought authority to tax gross residential rental receipts at up to 1%, including rentals the university owns, which would need a charter amendment; it estimated the revenue at more than $2 million 61. Enactment was not found, so a student or workforce housing budget in Newark carries the proposal as a possible cost, not a rate. A 2024 city planning report reviewed inclusionary zoning options and the enforcement of rental permits, and the adoption of either was not found 62. Renters occupied 69,449 housing units in New Castle County in the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey 10.

Statewide Economy

Delaware's residents by Census vintage and its payrolls by BLS month.

Census QuickFacts counts 1,059,952 Delawareans for July 1, 2025; the Vintage 2025 estimates base for April 1, 2020 is 989,950 63. The News Journal's reading of the same Vintage 2025 release puts the gain from July 2024 to July 2025 at 9,829 4. USAFacts splits that year into about 6,900 net arrivals from other states and about 3,500 from abroad, while natural change took away 554 residents, deaths having outnumbered births 64.

BLS's seasonally adjusted count of nonfarm jobs in Delaware was 496,000 in August 2025 and a preliminary 496,400 in August 2026, an over-the-year change of 400 jobs 65. The Dover figures in the market section come from a different BLS release and a different month, July, so the statewide and metro counts are quoted separately. A Joint Economic Committee update dated September 18, 2026 puts private payroll growth over the same year at 1,500, with education and health services up 2,100 and professional and business services up 1,800, while manufacturing lost 1,100 jobs and leisure and hospitality 1,000 66. Unemployment was 4.7% in August 2026, against 5.0% in August 2025, and labor force participation 57.9%, which the committee called a ten-year low and ranked 44th among the states 66.

Per capita personal income in Delaware was $68,061 in the Bureau of Economic Analysis's 2024 accounts 67. The CareerOneStop list of largest employers also names ChristianaCare, Nemours and the Amazon fulfillment center in Middletown; the list carries no as-of date, and this page prints no headcount from it 18.

Capital

One SBA district and SSBCI money released by tranche.

SBA's Delaware District Office in Wilmington serves all three counties 68, and the statewide totals in SBA's loan-level files are therefore that one district's. Counting approvals from fiscal 2016 through fiscal 2025 and leaving cancellations out, they hold 1,589 loans under 7(a) for Delaware projects and $42.6 million of debentures under 504, with loan status as of June 30, 2026 69.

M&T's own release of November 19, 2025 places the bank at the top of its footprint for fiscal 2025, counted by 7(a) loans, and gives its Delaware total for that year as 113 loans and $8.7 million 70; the rank is the bank's, not an SBA table.

The U.S. Treasury awarded Delaware $60.9 million under the State Small Business Credit Initiative in 2023, to be released in three tranches through the Division of Small Business; on February 26, 2026, having met its deployment mark of $14 million, the division said it was preparing to deploy the next $20 million; the program requires the state to deploy 80% of its initial tranche within three years 71. The money runs through the Delaware Loan Participation Program, the Delaware Capital Access Program, the Delaware Accelerator & Seed Capital Program and, new in 2026, the Delaware Early Stage Venture Capital Program, with Del-One FCU, True Access Capital and Community Bank among the participating lenders 72. The Capital Access Program is a loan-loss reserve whose loans may not fund passive real estate 73.

SBA

Where SBA's own rules enter a Delaware file.

A Delaware SBA lender that asks for a study does so under 13 CFR 120.160(b): SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, or a feasibility study 74. Equity, coverage and term tests are set out on our practice page for SBA 7(a) and 504 lending. Delaware's state totals for fiscal 2025 are in the year-end activity reports SBA issued, which were not opened for this page, so SBA's loan-level counts in the capital section are the program figures used here.

Bonds and Agencies

A conduit bond issuer, the 2026 volume cap and the agency channels still unconfirmed.

The Delaware Economic Development Authority issues tax-exempt and taxable revenue bonds on behalf of manufacturers, 501(c)(3) organizations, charter schools and health care borrowers, advised by the Council on Development Finance 75, and it holds public TEFRA hearings on its bonds, one of them noticed for March 31, 2025 76. Executive Order 16 of February 2026 sets Delaware's volume cap for private activity bonds at $397,625,000 for 2026, against $388,780,000 for 2025, allocates $99,406,250 of the 2026 cap to the authority, and moves $97,195,000 of its unused 2025 cap to the Delaware State Housing Authority to carry forward 77. For a manufacturing or nonprofit project, the bond route and its cap are the dated state record a lender can test.

Rural eligibility for USDA's guaranteed lending was not found for any of the six markets above, so a Kent or Sussex site's status is checked on the agency's own map before a USDA Rural Development structure is proposed. No primary source confirmed which HUD multifamily office has jurisdiction over Delaware, a point an apartment file headed for FHA insurance settles first; bank and bond structures for such projects are covered under conventional and institutional lending.

Hazards

No federal declaration in 2025, then a winter storm declaration for Kent and Sussex.

FEMA's data, as USAFacts counted them on September 3, 2026, show no federal disaster declaration for Delaware in 2025 78. The 2026 declaration followed the winter storm of February 22 and 23: declared on May 29, 2026 as DR-4916, it covers Kent and Sussex counties for public assistance only, with no individual assistance named in the release 79. SBA's notice of June 18, 2026 opens its disaster loans for that declaration to private nonprofits only, with deadlines of July 28, 2026 for physical damage and March 1, 2027 for economic injury 80. The previous major declarations on FEMA's list were for Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020 and the remnants of Hurricane Ida on October 24, 2021 81.

Neither a National Risk Index ranking for Delaware nor a quantified measure of its flood, wind or wildfire exposure was found, which leaves a coastal Sussex parcel's flood exposure to be documented for that parcel.

Statewide Supply

Hotel establishments and operating data centers: Delaware's two statewide supply counts.

County Business Patterns counted 185 establishments among Delaware's hotels and motels in 2023 82, and the Delaware Business Times, citing Data Center Map, put the state's operating data centers at five in July 2025 1. No statewide Delaware series for apartment vacancy, storage space or senior housing occupancy was found.

Below the state level the record is a set of single properties. The hotel rooms added in the record are two Residence Inns, at Delaware Park in August 2025 and at Merck's campus in June 2026, the second with opening rates from $149 11, and the one apartment project with a unit count is The Asters in Newark, Delaware; each is in its market's section.

Where Readings Go Wrong

Four Delaware readings a reviewer can test against this page.

Each is a figure in circulation for a Delaware market that this page leaves out, set beside the dated record it uses instead.

  1. Wilmington's metropolitan division quoted as New Castle County

    BLS's payroll series for the Wilmington DE-MD-NJ metropolitan division is named for three states 14, so its job count describes more than New Castle County. This page prints no payroll figure for the county; its New Castle evidence is the Census county table, the permit series and the American Community Survey.

  2. A town population with no year

    USAFacts lists populations for the City of Newark and the Town of Middletown without saying which year they describe 83. Neither is printed here, and the dated growth series for both towns is New Castle County's Vintage 2025 pair.

  3. An asking rent from a lender's web page

    A commercial lender's Delaware page relays RentCafe asking rents for Wilmington, Newark and Dover, with their yearly changes, and gives no publication date 84. The dated rent measure on this page is the American Community Survey's county median for renter-occupied units.

  4. A beach hotel year read from an Ocean City story

    The one 2025 hotel figure in the Sussex record is a statewide occupancy decline quoted by a Maryland trade-association official in a CoastTV report on Ocean City hotels, with neither its unit nor its data source stated 85. It is not a Rehoboth-Lewes reading, and no dated one was found.

Dated Decisions

Delaware decisions on siting, tax, land use and health review, each with its date.

Each row is a dated action by a state agency, a county, a town or a developer, with the source that dates it.

DateEventSource
January 1, 2025State short-term rental lodging tax applies to new rental agreements29
January 27, 2025Seaford Industrial Park announced, with a Site Readiness grant24
May 19, 2025Dagsboro adopts a six-month subdivision moratorium40
July 2025Project Washington filed in New Castle County1
July 2025Forms and Rates Bulletin No. 41 limits policy fees outside filed rates33
August 12, 2025Residence Inn opens at Delaware Park, by Newark60
February 3, 2026DNREC rules Project Washington barred under the Coastal Zone Act2
February 2026Executive Order 16 sets the 2026 private activity bond cap77
February 26, 2026Division of Small Business prepares the next SSBCI tranche71
March 10, 2026Six Sussex County land-use ordinances introduced37
May 29, 2026DR-4916 declared for the February winter storm, Kent and Sussex79
June 9, 2026Sussex County adopts its first land-use reform ordinances38
June 16, 2026Residence Inn opens at the CRISP campus in Wilmington11
July 1, 2026HB 17 exempts major medical equipment below a cost threshold from review48
September 20, 2026Middletown's approval of the Middle Neck Road Amazon building reported52
October 13, 2026Dover's data center moratorium reported16
Worked Cases

Worked cases in Delaware.

No worked case is published or promised for a Delaware site.

None of the site's worked cases is set in Delaware, and none is on the list of cases still to come. The published ones are listed by state and asset class on our case studies page; the market figures above are the Delaware evidence a case here would start from.

Asset Classes

Property types this Delaware record bears on.

Delaware Questions

Delaware siting, tax and lending questions.

Is there a moratorium on new subdivisions in Sussex County?

Not a county one. A councilman's January 2025 proposal to pause large housing applications for a year drew no support from the rest of the council 36. The council instead introduced six ordinances on March 10, 2026, drawn from the 20 recommendations a working group had approved in September 2025 37, adopted the first of them on June 9, 2026 38, and by July 2026 had put on hold its draft against cluster development where densities are low, and may leave density to the 2028 comprehensive plan 39. Dagsboro, a town in the county, adopted a moratorium of six months on subdivisions on May 19, 2025 40, and the record holds no sewer moratorium anywhere in the state for 2025 or 2026.

Who runs the sewer system a Middletown subdivision connects to?

The town. Middletown is its own water, sewer and electric provider, with an impact fee for each service and a partial waiver inside its Downtown Development District 54. Its capacity letter is the utility record for a residential project: on May 9, 2025 it certified to DNREC that the sewer system had room for Chapel Creek, 216 houses and 190 townhouses designed for a flow of 97,000 gallons a day 55. The town's fee schedule was not found.

Is Delaware's Certificate of Public Review a certificate of need?

In all but name. It is a review under 16 Del. C. ch. 93 that the Health Resources Board decides before a hospital or nursing home is built or established, before a freestanding surgical, birthing, acute inpatient rehabilitation or emergency center is, and before capital spending above $5,800,000, a threshold that moves with inflation 47. HB 394 of 2024 would have called it a certificate of need and left the board an advisory body 49. Of the 2026 bills, HB 17, in force since July 1, 2026, exempts major medical equipment under a cost threshold, and HB 318 died in committee 48.

Who pays Delaware's gross receipts tax, the seller or the buyer?

The seller. Delaware has no state or local sales tax; in its place sellers owe a gross receipts tax whose rate depends on the activity, so the equipment and materials a project buys carry no sales tax line 26. The Tax Foundation's 2026 edition lists an 8.7% corporate income tax that comes on top of it, sets the effective rate on an owner occupied home at 0.50% and puts Delaware at 24th in its State Tax Competitiveness Index ranking; no commercial property rate was found 27.

Does Newark, Delaware tax residential rents?

Not on the record found. In March 2024 the city asked for the power to levy up to 1% on gross receipts from residential rentals, the university's included, which would take a charter amendment; it put the yield above $2 million 61. No enactment was found, so a Newark student or workforce housing pro forma treats the proposal as a cost that may come, not a rate in force. Whether the inclusionary zoning or rental permit enforcement options in the city's 2024 planning report were adopted was not found either 62.

Can a Delaware manufacturer or nonprofit finance a building with revenue bonds?

Through the Delaware Economic Development Authority, which issues revenue bonds, tax exempt or taxable, for health care borrowers, charter schools, 501(c)(3) organizations and manufacturers on the advice of the Council on Development Finance 75; its bonds go through public TEFRA hearings, and one was noticed for March 31, 2025 76. In February 2026, Executive Order 16 set the 2026 private activity bond volume cap at $397,625,000, allotted $99,406,250 of it to the authority and let the Delaware State Housing Authority carry forward $97,195,000 of cap left unused in 2025 77.

Can Delaware's SSBCI money go into a real estate deal?

Not through the Capital Access Program: its loans, backed by a loan loss reserve, may not go to passive real estate 73. The Treasury awarded the state $60.9 million in 2023, released in three tranches; the Division of Small Business, past its $14 million deployment mark, said on February 26, 2026 that the next $20 million was about to go out, and the program wants 80% of the first tranche out within three years 71. The money reaches borrowers through the Loan Participation, Capital Access and Accelerator & Seed Capital programs and, from 2026, an Early Stage Venture Capital Program, with lenders such as Community Bank and True Access Capital taking part 72.

Neighboring Markets

States that border Delaware.

A Delaware scope opens on the parcel's permit record, then turns to the market.

For a site in New Castle, Kent or Sussex County the scope first lists the dated records the project depends on: DNREC's coastal zone reading where the use is industrial, any city or county rule on data centers and large buildings, and the sewer provider's statement of capacity. The demand chapter then works from that county's figures.

Request a methodology briefing
Sources

Data sources and dates.

County figures here come from Census QuickFacts' Vintage 2025 county table, the Census permit series on FRED and the BLS summary for Dover.

Market data reviewed by Mark Otava · Updated

  1. Delaware Business Times (citing Data Center Map for the count of operating data centers), New Castle could be the site of mega data center campus, July 10, 2025.
  2. Delaware Public Media; Spotlight Delaware, DNREC blocks data center, saying it would violate coastal zone law (Delaware Public Media); Spotlight Delaware reports of March 26 and August 28, 2026, February 4, 2026 (DNREC ruling of February 3, 2026); March 26 and August 28, 2026. The research gives this Delaware Business Times address for the coverage of the ruling.
  3. Sussex County Government (Delaware), Sussex County adopts $285.1 million budget for Fiscal 2026, June 17, 2025 (Fiscal 2026).
  4. Delaware News Journal, via Yahoo News (secondary, reporting Census Vintage 2025), Is Delaware's population growing? Here's what Census data shows, Census Vintage 2025 estimates, July 1, 2024 to July 1, 2025.
  5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mid-Atlantic Information Office, Dover, DE, Area Economic Summary, September 4, 2026 (July 2026 data).
  6. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), New Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits for New Castle County, DE (BPPRIV010003), updated May 28, 2026 (annual 2020 to 2025).
  7. Delaware Public Media, As Delaware mulls plans for massive data center, worries persist over electric rates, October 24, 2025.
  8. U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, 2025 Geography Information (Census Data API geoinfo): core based statistical areas, OMB Bulletin 23-01 delineation, geography in effect January 1, 2025.
  9. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts V2025: Sussex County, Kent County and New Castle County, Delaware (county table), Vintage 2025 (population July 1, 2025; estimates base April 1, 2020).
  10. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables (Census Data API), 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates.
  11. Delaware Business Times, Residence Inn opens near Merck's $1B campus, June 29, 2026.
  12. CBRE, Emerging Industrial Markets: Northern Delaware, 2022 brief.
  13. Newmark, Wilmington Real Estate Market Reports (1Q26), first quarter 2026 report (purchase in the fourth quarter of 2025).
  14. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Over-the-year change in total nonfarm employment for metropolitan divisions, August 2026 (preliminary).
  15. Delaware General Assembly, House Substitute 2 for House Bill 168 (county lodging tax authority), signed September 30, 2024.
  16. Spotlight Delaware, In a first for Delaware, Dover passes moratorium on data center development, October 13, 2026.
  17. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), New Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits for Kent County, DE (BPPRIV010001), updated May 28, 2026 (annual 2020 to 2025).
  18. U.S. Department of Labor, CareerOneStop (Data Axle establishment data; secondary), Largest Employers: Delaware, listing with no as-of date.
  19. Delaware Business Times, Bayhealth plans $250 million next wave expansion, October 17, 2025 (headcount as of January 2025).
  20. Spotlight Delaware, Bayhealth to pursue $250M expansion in Dover, October 8, 2025.
  21. Spotlight Delaware, Downtown Dover Partnership undertakes years-long revitalization effort, November 6, 2025.
  22. State of Delaware News, Governor Meyer and DSHA announce major step forward for Hope Center expansion in Kent County, June 11, 2026.
  23. State of Delaware News, Seven Organizations Awarded Sports Tourism Capital Investment Funding, February 6, 2026.
  24. Delaware Business Times, Developers plan $75M Seaford industrial park, January 27, 2025.
  25. USDA Rural Development, Delaware and Maryland Contacts, agency page, 2026.
  26. Delaware Division of Revenue, Gross Receipts Tax FAQs, agency page, 2026.
  27. Tax Foundation, 2026 Delaware Tax Rates & Rankings, 2026 edition.
  28. Delaware Public Media, New state tax impacts the landscape of Delaware's beach rental market, February 28, 2025.
  29. Delaware Division of Revenue; State of Delaware News, Short-Term Rental FAQs; Division of Revenue Releases Guidance on New Short-term Rental Lodging Tax, November 20, 2024 (guidance; tax on agreements entered on or after January 1, 2025).
  30. Nomad Lawyer (secondary), Delaware Short-Term Rental Tax Laws 2026, August 11, 2026.
  31. OnPay (secondary), 2026 Delaware minimum wage, 2026 (rate in force since January 1, 2025).
  32. Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs; Delaware Register of Regulations, Prevailing Wage Regulations (19 DE Admin. Code 1322), Delaware Register of Regulations, October 2025.
  33. Delaware Department of Insurance, Forms and Rates Bulletin No. 41, July 2025.
  34. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), New Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits for Sussex County, DE (BPPRIV010005), updated May 28, 2026 (annual 2020 to 2025).
  35. Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), Public Notice WR20250434: Artesian Wastewater Management, Sussex Regional Recharge Facility, Phase 3, hearing December 18, 2025; comments to January 2, 2026.
  36. Cape Gazette, Sussex eyes swift review of development limits, February 2025.
  37. Cape Gazette, Sussex County Council introduces six rules to limit housing growth, March 13, 2026.
  38. Sussex County Government (Delaware), Sussex County adopts first in series of land use reform ordinances, June 9, 2026.
  39. Cape Gazette, County efforts to reduce sprawl stall, July 14, 2026.
  40. Town of Dagsboro, Planning and Zoning Commission meeting minutes, May 29, 2025 (moratorium adopted May 19, 2025).
  41. Cape Gazette, Sussex can now tax short-term rentals, August 2024.
  42. Sussex County Government (Delaware), Ordinance to amend Chapter 103, Article VI, lodging tax, council vote of December 10, 2024.
  43. City of Rehoboth Beach, Lodging & Rental Taxes, city page, 2026.
  44. Delaware Business Times, The Mill opens Seaford hub at Nylon Capital Center, article undated in the research (redevelopment of 2024 to 2026).
  45. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Form 990), TidalHealth Nanticoke, Form 990, fiscal year ending June 2025.
  46. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Delaware Health Care Commission, Delaware Health Resources Board (HRB), agency page, 2025.
  47. Delaware Health Care Commission (DHSS), Health Resources Board, Certificate of Public Review Application kit, December 2025.
  48. Delaware General Assembly (bill text); Delaware House Republicans (status), House Bill 318; status in "Elephant's Graveyard (week 3)", bill released March 17, 2026; status of August 21, 2026.
  49. Delaware General Assembly, House Bill 394 (Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee review of the Health Resources Board), 2024.
  50. Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing (Department of Education), My Child DE, Licensed Child Care (14 DE Admin. Code 934), agency page, 2026.
  51. Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, DELACARE Regulations for Family and Large Family Child Care Homes, 2017 text, regulation in force.
  52. Delaware Public Media, A new Amazon facility is coming to Middletown, September 20, 2026.
  53. Spotlight Delaware, Amazon robotic facilities could quadruple tech giant's Middletown footprint, May 26, 2026.
  54. Town of Middletown, Downtown Development District, town page (program since 2019).
  55. Town of Middletown, Letter to DNREC approving Chapel Creek sewer capacity, May 9, 2025.
  56. University of Delaware, UDaily, Apartment complex coming to STAR, May 2025.
  57. WDEL, Residential groundbreaking at STAR Campus, May 9, 2025.
  58. REBusinessOnline, Buccini Pollin, University of Delaware Top Out $75M Multifamily Project in Newark, June 26, 2026.
  59. Newark Post, Seven-story apartment buildings set for 2027 opening on UD's STAR Campus, April 17, 2026.
  60. Newark Post, Extended-stay hotel opens adjacent to Delaware Park, August 13, 2025.
  61. The News Journal, via PressReader, The city of Newark moves forward on rental tax hopes, March 14, 2024.
  62. City of Newark, Planning and Development Department, Affordable housing report, 2024 report.
  63. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Delaware, Vintage 2025 (population July 1, 2025; estimates base April 1, 2020).
  64. USAFacts (secondary, reporting Census Vintage 2025), Is Delaware's population growing or shrinking?, Census Vintage 2025 components, July 2024 to July 2025.
  65. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Change in total nonfarm employment by state, over-the-month and over-the-year, seasonally adjusted, August 2026 (preliminary) and August 2025.
  66. U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (BLS CES data), Delaware Employment Update, September 18, 2026 (August 2026 data).
  67. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Personal Income by County, Metro, and Other Areas (Regional table CAINC1), calendar year 2024.
  68. U.S. Small Business Administration, Delaware District Office, agency page, 2026.
  69. U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Capital Access, 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan-level data, loan status as of June 30, 2026 (approval fiscal years 2016 to 2025).
  70. M&T Bank (company release citing SBA data), M&T Bank ranks No. 1 among 7(a) SBA lenders in its footprint, November 19, 2025 (fiscal 2025, ended September 30, 2025).
  71. State of Delaware News (Division of Small Business), DSB Prepares to Deploy Next $20M in SSBCI Funding, February 26, 2026.
  72. Delaware Division of Small Business, State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), agency page, 2026.
  73. Delaware Division of Small Business, DCAP Fact Sheet, 2023 fact sheet.
  74. eCFR, 13 CFR 120.160, Loan conditions, current to October 7, 2026.
  75. Delaware Division of Small Business, Incentives & Credits (Delaware Economic Development Authority), agency page, 2025.
  76. Delaware Economic Development Authority, DEDA TEFRA Notice, March 2025 (hearing of March 31, 2025).
  77. Office of the Governor of Delaware, Executive Order 16: Allocation and Sub-allocation of State Private Activity Bond Volume Cap, February 2026.
  78. USAFacts (FEMA data; secondary), How many disasters are declared in Delaware?, FEMA data as of September 3, 2026.
  79. Federal Emergency Management Agency, President Donald J. Trump Approves Major Disaster Declaration for Delaware, June 1, 2026 (declared May 29, 2026).
  80. U.S. Small Business Administration, in the Federal Register, Presidential Declaration of a Major Disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Delaware, June 18, 2026.
  81. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Delaware declared disasters, agency listing (declarations of 2020 and October 24, 2021).
  82. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns (Census Data API), 2023 (establishments with paid employees).
  83. USAFacts (secondary), New Castle County, Delaware: our changing population, page gives no year for its city figures.
  84. Select Commercial, citing RentCafe (secondary), Delaware Apartment Loan Rates, lender page with no publication date.
  85. CoastTV, Ocean City tourism data shows mixed results for hotels in 2025, 2025 season (article date not given in the research).