Project Popup is in Laurel!
Offering three months’ free rent to selected businesses
Downtown Delaware’s Project Pop‐Up is an initiative to provide Delaware entrepreneurs the opportunity to open for business in downtown business districts and proximate locations, by offering space rent‐free for three months October through December 2015. In addition, selectees will receive one‐on‐one guidance, free of charge, from a small business advisor and other subject matter experts on an as‐needed basis. In years 2012, 2013, and 2014 Project Pop‐Up has consistently yielded tenancy well beyond the “three month free rent” incentive timeframe, with a high majority of tenants still occupying their original pop‐up location. Some have expanded to adjacent or nearby spaces. Thus, this initiative has proven to be a successful vacancy reduction strategy.
You can view the properties available in Laurel and their locations here.
Laurel redevelopment efforts date to 1992
Laurel Redevelopment Corporation is located at 115 Delaware Avenue.
In 1992, a group of community-minded citizens and business leaders formed the Laurel Redevelopment Corporation (LRC) specifically for the purpose of rehabilitating and revitalizing the blighted areas of downtown Laurel Delaware. Within months of its founding, and after raising private charitable contributions now totaling nearly $300,000, the LRC removed the worst of the derelict buildings on Market Street and initiated projects and improvements in cooperation with the Town Government which have resulted in the present-day Market Square Park, with its handsome Victorian gazebos and bandstand.
During the ensuing years, extensive property purchases along Broad Creek, in the Oldtown residential neighborhood, and in commercial Downtown Laurel, were accomplished. Six sizeable, vacant, derelict andunder-utilized commercial and light-industrial sites in the vicinity of Broad Creek were purchased and cleaned up. Where vintage commercial buildings were salvageable, they were renovated and leased to small entrepreneurial firms.
Today, all property along the Broad Creek waterfront is owned by either the Laurel Redevelopment Corporation or the Town of Laurel. Walkable parks, entrepreneurial jobs, and upscale villas have replaced run-down buildings and blighted areas. The LRC is an integral partner in The Ramble, a mixed-used redevelopment project, and efforts to brand and revitalize the central business area.