Delmar Targeted for Next Warehouse Project by New Developer Group

Katie Tabeling, Delaware Business Times

DELMAR — The upstart developer Ocean Crest Properties is planning its third industrial park in four years and, this time, the company has set eyes on building an 800,000 square-foot park in Delmar.

Ocean Crest Properties is a new venture formed with Chesapeake Plumbing and Heating owner Travis Martin and Bret and Kirk Davis, developers from Salisbury, Md. to identify and develop industrial space for small to medium companies in the southern Delaware region. The latest project will feature 13 buildings at the intersection of U.S. Route 13 and Old Stage Coach Road between 32,500 square feet and 100,000 square feet in size.

The developers will soon settle on the 73 acres of land for the Delmar Business Center and, pending approvals, construction will start in the summer. Phase one of construction would include three buildings totaling 175,000 square feet of space at a cost of $11.2 million.

Formed in 2024, Ocean Crest Properties’ sweet spot is building flex space for small and medium-sized companies that want to enjoy Delaware’s low cost of doing business but not be too far from prospective customers in Maryland.

“We don’t have any competition; there’s no other product out there. There’s one-offs and singular buildings, but those are contractor slips at 500 to 5,000 [square feet]. We can build 1,000 square feet for someone, or even larger, depending if someone calls and asks,” Bret Davis told the Delaware Business Times.

The Sussex County Economic Development Office receives inquiries every week for companies looking to expand, sometimes looking for space as much as 40,000 square feet to as much as 100,000 square feet. But there’s little to be found in commercial and industrial space, according to Sussex County Economic Development Director Andrew Harton.

Right now, Ocean Crest Properties is receiving calls for businesses all over the map, from sports facilities to automotive parts. A “small” data center will also be placed on the site for Bret Davis’s other venture Simple Fiber as a selling point for prospective tenants. That would also grant Delmar — a town split between the Maryland and Delaware borders and under 6,000 people on either side — high-speed internet, according to Delmar officials.

Davis said he considered data centers as a possible use, but the Delmar Business Park was being designed as flex space for any user’s need.

The Council on Development Finance recommended awarding the Delmar Business Center $1.4 million for Level II Site Readiness Funds at its Monday meeting. The grant will be used to build an entrance to the property from U.S. Route 13. Cash equity and secured bank loans would help cover the rest of the costs for the first stage of construction, according to Ocean Crest’s application to the council.

The Delmar Business Center will be Martin’s fourth project and his third with the Davis brothers. Martin was one of the first recipients of the Site Readiness Funds when he embarked on his first industrial park in Frankford, a half mile south from the Chesapeake Companies’  offices. That business park had 212,000 square feet of floor space and created 179 jobs, Martin said.

The success he had in quickly leasing up the Frankford Business Park sparked his interest in becoming a developer and, in recent years, Ocean Crest Properties have started construction on similar speculative industrial parks in Dover, Seaford and have considered Selbyville as well. 

The first phase of construction for the Dover business part on Lafferty Lane is expected to be completed in March. That will bring 54,000 square feet to market, and pending a new lease, it will soon be 50% occupied, Davis said. The Seaford industrial park is expected to close financing next month as well.

“I do see Seaford being more diverse in users, where there might be some retail-esque users. Almost all the conversations we’re having in Delmar are for warehouse flex, business space. They might be competing. We’ve had such a high level of interest in both, we feel that these might be the only two large scale business parks going up in Sussex County,” Davis told the council on Monday.