Gibraltar: An Inside Job

WHYY’s earlier article on this highlighted some important facts that are worth repeating here. Facts matter, so let’s review them. (Link to that and other articles at the end of this post.)

1) There is a Conservation Easement on the Gibraltar property — paid for with $1 million taxpayer dollars — that ensures that the property will remain Open Space In Perpetuity.

2) Despite the limitations of the Conservation Easement, developers purchased the Gibraltar parcel from Preservation Delaware for $10 and pretty immediately took out a mortgage on it to buy an adjacent property.

3) Those developers proposed an office park/plaza in a residential neighborhood. That project met with robust community pushback. It failed. Whatever hardships they encountered in not being able to put a massive office park in a residential neighborhood were of their own making.

4) The developers then bought another property adjacent to the mansion parcel, effectively ‘locking down’ an over 5-acre corner of the neighborhood (except for a pesky city street that separated the 3 parcels).

5) The mansion was ignored and neglected by the owners for years with no enforcement from the City or State. Despite community pleas about what was happening at Gibraltar, the property continued to deteriorate.

6) The then-Mayor invited a new developer into the mix. That developer proposed a hotel/wedding venue “BUT FIRST”, they said, they would need ‘to build 9 townhomes and 9 single family homes’ in an area where only 2 ½ homes were would fit and were permitted. This was needed, they said, so they could afford to renovate the mansion. “And by the way,” they said, ‘we also want to demolish the historic home on Brinckle Avenue to clear additional space.’ That project met with robust community pushback. It also failed. The mansion and grounds continued to deteriorate.

The next move was rather head-snapping. The then-Mayor decided that the Wilmington Land Bank:

1) should purchase Gibraltar from the neglectful developer for $900K (taxpayer funds);

2) should give the neglectful developer a city street valued at $350K (taxpayer funds), *important to note that this street was the only thing separating the Gibraltar property from the adjacent properties also owned by the developers*. City Council voted against giving away a City Street, so the City paid the developers $350K for a street the City already owned. (!)

3) should involve the City of Wilmington in an important aspect of the conveyance agreement, which would pay for services (taxpayer funds) to the developers’ private property adjacent to Gibraltar: “1601 GREENHILL AVENUE PARCEL. BDK shall retain an engineering firm to prepare and submit a Resubdivision Plan to the City. The City agrees to pay the retained engineering firm, the selection of which is approved by the City, for the preparation of any and all plans, studies and/or analysis necessary and sufficient to accomplish the subdivision of 1601 Greenhill Avenue (Parcel No. 26-012.20-003) into two lots or parcels that are buildable as single-family residences.”

Those of you who travel Greenhill Avenue know that two houses are currently being built on these parcels.

4) This agreement also said:

LAND BANK BOARD APPROVAL. This Agreement is expressly subject to and conditioned upon the approval of the Land Bank Board of Directors.

The ENTIRE Land Bank Board of Directors did not approve this transfer. The Land Bank held a “phone vote” of the ‘executive board’ to approve this transfer. Land Bank Board members left out of this vote included 3 City Council representatives. At a subsequent meeting of the Community Development and Urban Planning committee, this topic was hotly explored.

The Land Bank is not overseeing the work that is happening at Gibraltar. By their own admission, they are simply writing the checks that the former Mayor – a ‘citizen volunteer’ instructs them to write.

Now the Land Bank wants to give this multi-million dollar property to a former mayor’s private foundation after taxpayers have paid over $4 million dollars: $1 million for the Conservation Easement, $1.25 million to the neglectful developers, and around $1.5 million to mitigate the damage done by the neglectful developers. The remaining taxpayer funds in the Land Bank coffers?…they could be transferred to the new private foundation. There is an effort in the works to re-join the Gibraltar Mansion and the Marian Coffin Gardens parcels. What will that mean for community access to the gardens if both parcels are owned privately?

Below are links to articles that may be of interest. Being well informed is cool!

https://whyy.org/articles/gibraltar-mansion-wilmington-delaware-restoration-historic-preservation-development/
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2025/07/03/wilmington-weighs-land-bank-dissolution/
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2025/07/08/wilmington-land-bank-reforms/
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2025/10/27/after-millions-from-taxpayers-gibraltar-mansion-may-transfer-to-new-company/
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2025/11/10/wilmington-city-council-passes-new-oversight-rule-onto-the-embattled-land-bank/