Why is Delaware pursuing a $3M lease for the Department of Justice from Wilmington’s most prominent developer?

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Delaware state Rep. Kim Williams couldn’t believe her eyes in January when she scrutinized outgoing Gov. John Carney’s proposed budget.

Carney had included $3 million to move the state Department of Justice and 375 of its Wilmington employees from their state-owned building into a high-rise owned by the city’s most prominent developer. The money would pay for relocation costs and a one-year lease.

Williams was irritated that Carney had resurrected the quest initiated last year by Attorney General Kathy Jennings, only to have it soundly rejected then by Carney’s budget team and lawmakers.

Williams, co-chair of the legislative Joint Finance Committee that can add or remove items from the governor’s budget request, said she had repeatedly rebuffed Jennings in 2024 after the state’s top law enforcement officer and her top aides made a series of pleas for the money.

Sen. Trey Paradee, her fellow co-chair, said he also “made it crystal clear” to Jennings in 2024 that “we’re not going to do this lease.”

The main reason for their strident opposition, Williams and Paradee told WHYY News, was that in January 2024, the state paid $6 million for another downtown building, where it planned to relocate the AG’s staff from their current cramped quarters.

In addition, the state had allocated $18 million more to retrofit that property at 704 King St. The state even created artistic renderings for the renovation that included a big Delaware Department of Justice sign at the entrance, along with the seal of the attorney general.

Williams and Paradee said the state’s $24 million investment in 704 King St. is part of a movement in recent years to reduce the cost of expensive leases for the government’s thousands of office workers.

There’s also the issue of proximity.

The King Street property is a three-minute walk to the state courthouse, where criminal and civil prosecutors spend many of their days.

That’s even closer than their current office, which is about five minutes from the courthouse.

By contrast, the Brandywine Building, where Jennings wanted to move, is a nearly 15-minute walk to the courthouse. “They would have to take a shuttle car back and forth,” Williams said.

But when Carney submitted his budget for fiscal year 2026 the day before he left office in January to become mayor of Wilmington, Williams and Paradee were astonished and infuriated.

The controversial lease had returned.

Carney’s budget request included a $3 million, one-time expense to relocate the DOJ to vacant space in the Brandywine Building. The 19-story building, once part of the chemical company DuPont’s downtown empire, is now owned by the Buccini Pollin Group. The Citi banking conglomerate is its major tenant.

“I was outraged, outraged,” Paradee said, “because we have had so many knockdown, drag-out arguments over this, and we thought it was settled.”

So on the first day of budget hearings in February, the matter was the first one Rep. Williams addressed.

“The $3 million for the lease, we have repeatedly said, ‘No, no, no.’ And it’s back in here again,” an incredulous Williams told the panel. “It’s very disappointing.”

Yet today, the $3 million request still remains in the revised budget proposal of Carney’s successor, Gov. Matt Meyer.

Jennings ‘adamant that the Buccini space is the right space’

The story of the proposed lease that just won’t go away involves actions on its behalf by Jennings, Carney and Meyer — three Democratic titans of Delaware politics from Wilmington who all have received generous campaign donations from developers Robert and Christopher Buccini, co-founders of Buccini Pollin Group.

Williams and Paradee are also Democrats but aren’t from Wilmington and haven’t received donations from the Buccinis. Rep. Williams represents the Stanton area a few miles southwest of Wilmington. Sen. Paradee’s district includes the Dover area.

Landing the $3 million lease for the Brandywine Building would be a lucrative deal for Buccini Pollin Group in a tough commercial real estate market. To that end, company officials and lobbyists have called and met with lawmakers in an effort to gain support for the lease.

BPG, as the company calls itself, has built hundreds of apartments and also renovated several commercial buildings downtown in recent decades. WHYY rents office space from BPG on Wilmington’s Market Street for its Delaware Desk.

Beyond the political and business power dynamics, the dispute is also noteworthy because elected Delaware officials from the same party, especially the ruling Democrats, rarely squabble in public, especially over something as seemingly mundane as the cost and location of office space for a state agency.

It’s not exactly a hot-button issue.

But with such strident opposition from the two lawmakers who have the greatest legislative influence on what actually gets into the budget, why is the proposal still alive?

That answer depends on who you ask.

Jennings, who had initiated the effort more than a year ago, would not agree to an interview with WHYY News on the subject. Her spokesman Mat Marshall said that while the move initially appealed to her and she pitched it in Dover last spring, Jennings abandoned her effort months ago.

She’s now focused on increasing salaries for the agency’s nearly 250 deputy attorneys general, who have formed a union and are negotiating for their first contract, Marshall said. He added that attraction and retention of attorneys is a continuing problem for the DOJ.

In a written statement to WHYY News last week, Jennings emphasized that she was no longer interested in leasing the Brandywine Building.

“We are not pursuing space in the Brandywine Building. It is not viable and we moved on,” the attorney general’s statement said. “We are satisfied that the state has the space we need at 704 N. King Street.”

Robert Buccini, who often discusses projects with the media, would not agree to an interview about the proposed lease. Instead, Buccini said in a written statement that he agrees with Jennings’ decision to prioritize pay for her staff attorneys over getting “upgraded office space” to help the DOJ “attract and retain talent.”

The change of heart by Jennings, who is seeking a third four-year term in 2026, seemed to surprise Carney, who is now the mayor of Wilmington.

“I only put it in the budget with support from the Attorney General’s Office,” Carney told WHYY News last week. “So you might ask her that question again.”

Carney, who wants to reduce the city’s commercial office vacancy rate of roughly 20%, said the move does make sense because several state agencies could use office space in Wilmington.

Even if the Attorney General’s Office does lease the Brandywine Building, other state agencies with leases that will be expiring, such as the Criminal Justice Council, could go to 704 King St. once it’s renovated, Carney said.

“It’s much more complicated than the simplistic way that you’re presenting it,” Carney told a reporter.

Meyer, who took office in January, would not agree to an interview about the subject.

Nick Merlino, his deputy chief of staff, said that when Meyer began preparing his required revision of Carney’s budget after taking office Jan. 21, both Carney and Jennings told him they supported the $3 million for the DOJ’s relocation and lease.

Rep. Williams said Gov. Meyer told her in February that Jennings said she still wanted to make the move to the Brandywine Building.

Williams said Meyer told her Carney had mentioned the need for the lease during a transition meeting, but what mattered more than what his predecessor wanted was what Jennings wanted.

Williams said Meyer told her Jennings “made it clear that she’s adamant that the Buccini space is the right space.”

It makes sense that Meyer would want to check first with Jennings. While he and Carney are both powerful Democrats, Delaware political insiders have described their relationship as distant. Carney also had vocally supported then-Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long over Meyer in last fall’s gubernatorial primary.

Jennings and her spokesman Marshall would not address the discrepancies between the attorney general’s account and the ones provided by Carney, Williams and Meyer’s aide Merlino.

Williams said the conflicting stories illustrate why she remains baffled by the proposed lease that Delaware’s political elite so far have refused to kill.

“I don’t understand all this, honestly,” Williams said. “I just don’t understand why everyone is so invested in a $3 million lease. It’s just mind-boggling.”

‘Just bizarre to me, focused on this lease that we didn’t need’

So how did what Sen. Paradee calls a political and budgetary “kerfuffle” ever come about?

The saga all began at the Carvel State Office Building at 9th and French streets, where for decades the DOJ has crammed its lawyers, paralegals, investigators and clerical workers into three floors of the 12-story building. Several state agencies, including the governor’s office, have offices at Carvel, which is also being renovated.

To reduce overcrowding, in 2021 the DOJ’s Consumer Fraud Division moved several blocks away to the Brandywine Building. The unit, which Marshall said is financially self-sufficient, has 73 employees there and currently pays $447,000 a year in rent, according to the lease.

The fraud section has, for example, collaborated with other states on several lawsuits against companies such as opioid manufacturers and won hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for Delaware.

Marshall said that even though Jennings ultimately wants the entire Wilmington workforce of about 450 “under one roof,” moving the fraud section to another location made sense because the unit’s lawyers don’t work in the courthouse and mostly work independently.

That arrangement at the Brandywine Building has worked out well, said Marshall, and spurred leaders in the office to initiate discussions with Buccini Pollin Group about relocating the entire office into vacant space there.

Jennings bought into the idea, Marshall said, so she and top aides began trying to drum up support.

Williams and Paradee said two top aides to Jennings — Chief Deputy Attorney General Alexander Mackler and Chief of Staff Elmer Setting  — worked the halls and offices of Dover’s Legislative Hall in a bid to secure funding.

Williams and Paradee said they discussed the proposal several times with Cerron Cade, Carney’s budget director, who told them the administration didn’t support it.

The key reason was that the state had just paid $6 million in January 2004 for 704 King St. and was working on getting legislative approval for the $18 million in renovations. That money was approved in June.

Cade “made it very clear that the administration was very much opposed to Kathy moving into the Brandywine Building, which would require the approval of the Joint Finance Committee because that lease would become part of her ongoing operating budget,” Paradee said.

A budget office document prepared last spring and provided to Williams last May said the renovation of 704 King St. was “proposed for the Department of Justice.” The summary of the project included artistic renderings of the exterior and interior with DOJ signage.

Williams said she told Jennings during a private meeting last May that beyond the fact that the Carney administration had bought a building for the DOJ, the state had worked diligently to move away from leasing office space during his eight years as governor.

“I just said to the AG, ‘The answer is still no from me,’” Williams said. “I don’t know how many times I need to say no. This is not a good investment of taxpayer dollars at all.”

But Jennings persisted with her pursuit, as aides peppered Williams and other lawmakers with requests to approve the lease until the waning days of the legislative session, which ended June 30, Williams said.

“It was just bizarre to me, focused on this lease that we didn’t need,” Williams recalled. “It was just so strange to me.”

Carney says Jennings wanted lease in fiscal 2026 budget

Williams thought that after several months of saying no, that was finally the end of it.

She was wrong.

In December, after Carney had been elected mayor of Wilmington, Williams said she saw him at a meeting and he asked if they could discuss the state leasing the Brandywine Building.

She didn’t have time that day but they spoke by phone Dec. 30 — just days before Carney by law had to resign to take the mayoral oath of office.

“He just asked me to sign off on the lease,” Williams recalled. “I’m sure he was advocating for the city at that point.”

Williams said she told the outgoing governor and incoming mayor that her answer was still no.

Carney said he understood the lawmaker’s position.

“I did talk to her at some length and she was not for it,” Carney recalled, adding that Williams’ “primarily responsibility is not the city of Wilmington.”

Carney said that even though his budget office rejected the lease a year ago, he has been intrigued by the prospect of the state leasing the Brandywine Building for the DOJ and having other state agencies occupy 704 King St. when it’s renovated.

Such an arrangement, Carney said, would be a “win-win” for all parties.

“One of the realities that we’re dealing with here in Wilmington, which is a big challenge for me as the mayor and for people who own office buildings and commercial buildings, is the demand for that space is not what it used to be, particularly in light of people who are working remotely,” Carney said.

So when Carney unveiled his proposed state budget for fiscal year 2026 on Jan. 6, his final day as governor, he exercised his right to include the $3 million lease so the DOJ could move to the Brandywine Building.

Carney stressed, however, that he would not have included the request “if the attorney general wasn’t supportive of it.”

‘Like a slap in the face’

Williams decided to declare her opposition publicly Feb. 4, during the opening minutes of the first day of a series of budget hearings and meetings that continue formally and informally until lawmakers approve a spending plan at the end of June.

Addressing the 12-member panel she co-chairs, Williams expressed her displeasure about the $3 million requested for the lease and associated expenses such as furniture. “I just want to be on the record that we said no to this last year,” she said.

Later that day, Williams expounded on those remarks when Brian Maxwell, the new director of the Office of Management and Budget under Meyer, made his presentation to the panel.

Noting that the state has allocated $18 million to buy and refurbish 704 King St., Williams didn’t mince her words while addressing Maxwell.

“I’ve never spent so much time talking about where someone’s going to sit at a desk,” Williams said. “For me, it was like a slap in the face that the money’s back in after we said no.”

Maxwell replied that Gov. Meyer, who took power just two weeks earlier, knew of their opposition and would take that into consideration as he prepared the revised budget proposal he’d submit in late March.

“I’m not sure this item that you’re referencing will be a part of that budget reset,” Maxwell told Williams. “It’s something that the governor is aware of and we’ll have discussions about that.”

Williams held a Zoom meeting with Meyer three days later.

During their conversation, the new governor said Jennings still wanted to lease the Brandywine Building but was more focused on getting raises for staff attorneys, according to Williams.

Williams said Meyer told her he was content to let Jennings work out her funding needs and  “figure out the space issue” with the budget office. “He said he didn’t want to get directly involved in that.”

Jennings did not discuss the proposed $3 million move during her own budget hearing on Feb. 20, and no one asked her about it. A day earlier, though, she had written to Maxwell, noting that while she wants the office “under one roof, I defer to the recommendations of your office on location and cost.”

Again, William thought the matter was dead.

Yet moments before Meyer presented his revisited budget March 27, Williams said Maxwell briefed her on what to expect.

“I was told that, ‘Hey, you’re going to be upset,’” because the $3 million for the lease was going to be included in Meyer’s budget.

“I probably used a few cuss words,” she said. “I was very mad and very disappointed.”

Meyer aide Merlino explained that the lease remains in the budget because the governor is committed to providing the attorney general with the resources she needs.

Merlino stressed, though, that Meyer only included the $3 million because Carney and Jennings still supported it.

Told of Jennings’ explicit statement to WHYY News that she no longer wanted to lease the Brandywine Building, Merlino said that should be fine with the governor.

“It tells me she doesn’t want to be there anymore,” Merlino said. “It was included because at the time it was the governor’s impression that it was still something the attorney general wanted. And if that has since changed, it was really not a priority of his to begin with.”

Williams said she hopes she won’t have to deal with the matter ever again, but noted this week that company officials continue reaching out to other lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee for support. Members will meet again next week to review the budget.

Seven of the 12 panel members would have to approve the lease to move it forward. Both the full House and Senate must approve Delaware’s $6.6 billion general fund budget by June 30.

Williams and Paradee insisted, however, that they will do everything in their power to kill plans for what they insist is a needless, duplicative, irresponsible and inexplicable $3 million expense.

“I can tell you there is no way that we’re going to fund that lease,” Sen. Paradee said. “We are not interested in the state taking on more big leases. It’s not in the best interest of Delaware taxpayers, especially when you own a perfectly good building that can be renovated and used by the state for decades to come.”

Rep. Williams concurred.

“It’s exhausting,” she said. “I’m tired of talking about it. There’s too many important issues to be talking about.”

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.