Page 23 - Innovation Delaware 2021

Delaware’s supportive business environment was also recognized by the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, which placed it at No. 1 among seven states in the region.
The First State’s laws also make it particularly easy to incorporate. As a result, more than a million limited liability companies incorporated in the state in 2019. Delaware’s Chancery Court and Superior Court have a nationwide reputation for their expertise on matters of intellectual property — a key issue for innovators.
“We continue to be the domicile of choice for members of the Fortune 500 and newly public companies, with approximately 89% of all U.S. initial public offerings,” Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock wrote in his latest annual report. All this action generated more than $1.3 billion for the state in fiscal 2019, which ultimately allows for lower taxes overall on Delaware residents and companies doing business in the state.
‘We Just Kind of Fell in Love’
When workers aren’t working, they have the entire Mid-Atlantic’s cultural and culinary attractions at their disposal. Not to mention the world-renowned estates and gardens in and around Delaware, or the state’s beautiful beachside towns.
“People are looking to flee,” says SCOTT THOMAS, executive director of Southern
SCOTT THOMAS
Delaware Tourism. And they can be lured by the possibility of new homes in what he calls “the land of high living and low taxes.”
Although quarantines and travel restrictions reduced the number of visitors to Sussex County’s famed beaches last summer, he says visitors stayed longer into the fall and on weekdays, too. “The potential to work remotely was always there, but with technology and all the tools out there, it’s real.”
People are spending more time in their second homes in Sussex, and that exposure can encourage them to abandon the rat race for Southern Delaware’s charms, Thomas believes. “Our open space is appealing for those in crowded cities and suburban sprawl,” he says.
“The business executives, site selectors and professionals that experience Delaware are seeing firsthand that its enviable East Coast location provides access to just about anywhere,” Schiavoni says. “The cost of living is affordable compared with surrounding areas in the Mid-Atlantic, and there is a remarkable diversity of lifestyle options from cities to smaller towns and, of course, our fabulous coastal communities. Another distinctively Delaware advantage is its commitment to building on our culture of innovation supporting startups and entrepreneurs.”
“The pandemic is accelerating the idea that people can live wherever they want to be,” Thomas says. “Everything starts with a visit.”
Serial entrepreneurs Rich and Beth Kahn were such visitors. They devoted a summer to researching communities with good schools, low crime and other attractive qualities of life that would justify a move from New York. “We just kind of fell in love with Middletown,” Rich told Delaware Business Times in an article about the Kahns’ latest business, Anura, which goes after online fraud.
“Delaware is a small state where everybody knows everybody,” says Martin Ruffert, a German entrepreneur who decided to relocate his European startup to Delaware. “To get to know somebody on top of the ladder, you can just give them a call or meet them at the gym.”
GOLDMAN SACHS
The banking titan
is moving part of its consumer credit and lending division to Wilmington. Last
fall, the company announced that 25
to 50 people would
be working out of a temporary office space along the Riverfront.
SHORELINE VINYL/ DURATEC
These two out-of-state companies teamed up to form 1886 Dover LLC and acquire a more than 163,000-square-foot manufacturing site near Dover last year. The companies said 90 people would be employed at the plant, which is going to manufacture vinyl fencing.
ADVANTAGE BUILDING SUPPLY
The New Jersey- based company announced in January that it would create 118 jobs at a former manufacturing
hub that has long
lain dormant in Wilmington’s Riverside community.
JUST FOOD FOR DOGS
This California-based maker of fresh dog food opened a 21,000-square-foot “master kitchen” in New Castle last year, creating 75 jobs within its first month of operation.
INNOVATION DELAWARE 21