Blue Hen Corporate Center
History
The Blue Hen Mall opened in the late 1960s, at which time it was the only enclosed mall in Delaware. The opening of the retail hub shifted several businesses away from downtown Dover. JCPenney relocated from Loockerman Street in downtown Dover to an anchor space at the mall in 1968. Woolco also anchored the shopping center. This store was shuttered in early 1983. It soon reopened as a Roses variety store. At its height, Blue Hen Mall housed over 50 shops.
Sears was interested in relocating to the Blue Hen Mall from downtown Dover, but could not agree with management as to where to place the store in the shopping center. As a result, Sears decided to relocate, along with other department stores, to the new Dover Mall which opened in 1982. Following the opening of the Dover Mall, many stores relocated from the Blue Hen Mall, turning it into a dead mall. It was also called by some of the local people as the "Blue Hen Chicken Mall." It was mainly used in the late 1980s when the mall was not popular anymore. At this time, the Blue Hen Mall was owned by Jardel Company, Inc. and Penn Mutual. Roses closed its Blue Hen Mall location in 1991. JCPenney relocated from the Blue Hen Mall to the Dover Mall in August 1993.
In the 1990s, the Blue Hen Mall was converted into the Blue Hen Corporate Center, with the retail space becoming office space. A Bank of America call center and an Aetna office facility served as the anchors of the corporate center. The Bank of America call center eventually closed and Aetna left the Blue Hen Corporate Center in 2009. In 2008, the property was sold by Blue Hen Venture LLC to Pettinaro Enterprises LLC for $17.4 million. Currently, the Blue Hen Corporate Center has several office vacancies.
In September 2013 Bayhealth rented the space and relocated all of its information services resources from Kent General Hospital and Milford Memorial Hospital to the former Aetna space. Bayhealth did a complete renovation of the space, including new office furniture, computers and phone systems for its employees and contracting staff. 24x7 helpdesk for the entire hospital system is operated out of this new space as well.
In January 2022 Bayhealth announced that is had completed acquisition of the 2 original anchor store spaces (JCPenney & Woolco/Roses) and plans to renovate and create a "Dover Medical Neighborhood with specialty clinical services and administration space.”. The former Bank of America call center was recently used for the Governor's Central Delaware Career Expo in 2022. The building showed signs that a renovation was going to begin soon.
List of anchor stores
| Name | No. of floors |
Year opened |
Year closed |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JCPenney | 2 | 1968 | 1993 | |
| Roses | 1 | 1983 | 1991 | Replaced Woolco |
| Sears | 0 | Never | Planned for Opening | |
| Woolco | 1 | 1968 | 1983 | |
References
- ^ "Regular Meeting". City of Dover. April 8, 1968. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
- ^ "Regular Council Meeting Agenda" (PDF). City of Dover. February 25, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 16, 2011. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
- ^ Gest, Jayne (June 17, 2009). "Blue Hen Corporate Center loses one more tenant". Dover Post. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
- ^ Brooks, Jane (July 30, 1993). "Penney's from heaven". The News Journal. Wilmington, DE.
- ^ "Underground Storage Tank LUST List". Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Archived from the original on 2006-10-14. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
- ^ "Regular Meeting". City of Dover. June 14, 1982. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
- ^ "Office Locations: Blue Hen Mall/Corporate Center". Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
- ^ "Bayhealth closes $17M Blue Hen center acquisition". 31 January 2022.
- ^ "Governor's Central Delaware Career Expo".