Delaware will pay Bank of America $13 million for an office building and parking lot in downtown Wilmington, and create a state employee education and training center at the site, legislators decided Sunday in the waning hours of their 2007 session.
The General Assembly’s $539.5 million bond bill, approved shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, includes $6.5 million for the building, just northeast of the Carvel State Office Building. State Sen. Robert L. Venables, co-chairman of the Joint Bond Bill Committee, said he expects to include the remaining $6.5 million in next year’s bill.
The property includes five parcels that make up the entire block between Ninth and 10th streets and between French and Walnut streets. A parking lot covers about two-thirds of the block. The rest is a 24-year-old, three-story office building with almost 54,000 square feet of space.
Combined, the five parcels are assessed at $4.5 million, which is supposed to reflect their value in 1983 dollars, New Castle County records show. Bank of America paid about $81,500 in Christina School District taxes and $7,500 in county taxes last year on the property.
By MIKE CHALMERS, The News Journal
