Page 17 - World Trade Center - 2024

DEL AWARE E- COM M ERCE & WAREHOUSING
“We have Route 1 and Route 13, which provide good
access to anywhere you might want to go in the country.
Plus, our land costs are lower than other areas.”
– Linda Parkowski, Executive Director, Kent Economic Partnership
its processed items to John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York to have
them sent on to their destinations.
Another important factor was the
support of local officials, Clark said. “Every-
one here is amazing and the state of
Delaware has been very supportive of us.”
Kango Express has been growing
alongside the explosion of e-commerce
demand. Since Clark and her husband
Michael Brockert started the business in
2016, it has gone through five increasingly
large locations. The first was no larger than
a dual-car garage, Clark said, whereas the
current warehouse is about 5,000 square feet.
As for the kinds of items Kango Express
ships, it can be just about anything —
from the latest iPhone to a jacuzzi or a
household appliance. On an average day,
about 1,000 packages arrive at the Kango
Express facility. The company’s workers
check and process them all to make sure the
correct items arrive safely at their global
destinations.
Warehousing Opportunities
in Kent, Sussex
With I-95 running through New Castle
County, many warehousing providers are
concentrated there. However, the down-
state counties of Kent and Sussex offer
terrific location advantages for warehous-
ing and logistics-dependent businesses too.
“In Kent County, we are not far from 95
and we have many industrial parks that are
already zoned for warehousing and logistics,”
said Linda Parkowski, executive director of
the Kent Economic Partnership.
For example, the Duck Creek Business
Campus in Smyrna is just a short ride north
on Route 13 to I-95. “The Garrison Oak
Business Park in Dover is also not far off
95 and is already set up as a shovel-ready
industrial park,” she said. “Then we have
an industrial park in Milford and one in
Harrington, which will also have rail access.”
In general, Kent County has a very
convenient road infrastructure that lends
itself to easy transport, Parkowski said. “We
have Route 1 and Route 13, which provide
good access to anywhere you might want
to go in the country. Plus, our land costs are
lower than other areas and we already have
several large distribution centers that have
located here, such as Walmart in Smyrna
and FedEx Ground in Dover. All our munic-
ipalities have zoning codes that are very
friendly to logistics and warehousing.”
FIND A LIST OF LOCATION
OPPORTUNITIES BY
SCANNING THE QR CODE
Sussex County, Delaware’s southern-
most county, “is within a couple-hour
driving distance of a large part of the popu-
lation here on the East Coast. From a trans-
portation standpoint, it is easy to get to
Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia and
New York,” said William Pfaff, director of
economic development for Sussex County.
With access to Route 1, Route 9 and Route
13, Sussex County’s logistics businesses can
reach I-95 and Wilmington within an hour
and a half, he noted.
A business park location in Selbyville
that straddles the Maryland state line
also provides easy access to Virginia and
points south via the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge-Tunnel.
Further convenient business park locations
can be found in Frankford and Georgetown.
In fact, Georgetown’s Delaware Coastal
Business Park is adjacent to the Delaware
Coastal Airport and provides access to a
local rail spur (see pages 8 and 12 for more).
One of the tenants there, Great Outdoor
Cottages, ships its products as far as South
Florida and Ohio from the Sussex County
location, Pfaff said.
Then there is the Western Sussex
Business Campus in Seaford. “The county
has made a $2 million investment in it, along
with the city of Seaford and a private
company. Those buildings are complete
with loading docks and are ready to lease
out,” Pfaff said.
FIND A LIST OF INDUSTRIAL
PARKS BY SCANNING
THE QR CODE
Pfaff also emphasized that Sussex’s size
makes it the perfect location for companies
that require a lot of space. “For any interna-
tional business that is looking to do large-
scale manufacturing, we have the capacity.”
Add to that the quality of life, proxim-
ity to Delaware beaches, low tax rates and
a low cost of living. “There is something
about Sussex County that is very unique
and hard to find anywhere else today,”
Pfaff said. «
FOREIGN TRADE ZONE (FTZ) #99
is a key advantage for companies doing
international business in Delaware. FTZ
#99 consists of several sites and areas
around the state (such as the Port of
Wilmington, the Delaware City Refining
Co., AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Bloom
Energy and the Delaware Freeport
warehouse) that are considered outside
the U.S. for duty and tax purposes. This
means that import duties and taxes
aren’t due until the goods exit the FTZ,
resulting in potentially significant
savings for the importer.
TO READ MORE ABOUT
THE FTZ, SCAN
THE QR CODE
WTCDE.ORG | WORLD TRADE CENTER® DELAWARE 2024 15