Delaware officials react to DuPont Headquarters move

Delaware and Wilmington officials are expressing mixed reactions after DuPont announced plans to move out of its main headquarters near Rodney Square.

Nearly 1,000 DuPont employees will move from its headquarters in downtown Wilmington to its suburban Chestnut Run location.

The consolidation decision was announced as DuPont plans to separate from its performance chemicals business, The Chemours Company.

Nearly 1,000 employees from the Chemours Company will move into the historic DuPont Building in Wilmington next year.

“Looking ahead, we concluded that a single location for our headquarters offices will help facilitate the close collaboration essential to our success and to the growth of DuPont. A consolidated headquarters at Chestnut Run where most of DuPont’s businesses are headquartered will make it possible to draw on people and knowledge across the company even more dynamically, on a daily basis,” said Ellen J. Kullman, DuPont CEO and chair in a statement.

Gov. Jack Markell expressed confidence that the Chemours Company will efficiently fill the void in downtown Wilmington.

“The Chemours business is building on DuPont’s legacy of invention and it is well-positioned to do that from its new headquarters downtown,” said Gov. Markell in a statement. “We will continue to talk to the new leadership of Chemours about their business and how Delaware is a great location from which it can write a new story of growth and innovation in the chemical industry.”

Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams and City Council President Theo Gregory released a joint statement saying their eager to ensure that the city will be a permanent fit for Chemours.

“The City looks at DuPont’s decision to reorganize as one that can positively affect the future growth of the DuPont Company, and therefore have positive benefits for Wilmington, New Castle County and the region.”

New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon said the move doesn’t send a good message to other corporations in Delaware.

“Globally all over this world, corporations are changing and they’re becoming global corporations and less interested in America, less interested in Delaware,” Gordon said. “I think until we change those world trade agreements, that we’re going to continue to lose all of our corporations. Most of the main ones that produce livable wages have already left.”

The moves will take place in the summer of 2015.