Wilmington lobbied Biden camp to bring presidential library to the city

In the email, the representative, Sheila Grant, indicated that the Biden team may have a particular interest in Riverfront East, stating that they would like the city to provide a “deep dive” into the area.

Long an area dominated by light industrial buildings, Riverfront East sits across the Christina River from Wilmington’s popular and prosperous Riverfront neighborhood. In recent years, it has benefited from at least $77 million in taxpayer redevelopment money, as local officials launch an ambitious plan to remake the area into a mirror of the Riverfront neighborhood.

Nearly two weeks after Grant’s initial email, the pitch meeting occurred at the CSC Station coworking office, near the Wilmington Riverfront. 

Spotlight Delaware, which also has an office there, observed a snippet of the meeting, then later obtained a copy of the PowerPoint presentation through an open records request. City officials redacted the specific proposed locations from the document. 

Spotlight Delaware also obtained emails sent between city officials and Biden’s team. Also included in several emails were officials from the Riverfront Development Corporation and from the Buccini/Pollin Group,  the city’s most politically influential development company. 

Wilmington Mayor John Carney moved to the top city role after serving two terms as Delaware’s governor. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JEA STREET JR.

When the March meeting ended, Carney walked out of a glass-walled conference room and past awaiting Spotlight Delaware reporters. He declined to answer questions then.

Along with Carney then was his chief of staff, Cerron Cade, who said “fingers crossed” when asked whether Biden would build his library along the Riverfront.

Prior to becoming mayor of Wilmington this year, Carney served two terms as Delaware’s governor. During that time, Grant served as his chief of staff and then later an assistant to then-President Biden.

‘Hopefully’ in Delaware?

The pitch followed months of speculation that continues to this day about where Biden may locate his presidential library, which would hold records from his term in the White House, and could provide a economic boost to whichever city it ultimately calls home. 

In January, Biden told the USA Today that he hadn’t decided on a future location but said it “hopefully” would be in Delaware. He told the publication that some were pushing for a location at the University of Delaware in Newark, while Wilmington officials wanted it in the city. 

When asked about potential discussions with Biden’s team, UD officials said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware that decisions about the library “will ultimately rely on the direction and preferences of President Biden and his representatives.” The university is already the home of Biden’s senatorial and vice presidential records, as well as a School of Public Policy and Administration that bears his name. 

Since Biden’s comments in January, his inner circle has said little publicly on the topic, even as recent reports emerged that the project has been hampered by reluctant donors and by the former president’s cancer diagnosis.

Still, the documents Spotlight Delaware obtained indicate that the Biden team was actively reviewing at least some potential locations earlier in the year. 

Grant, who communicated with the city on behalf of the Biden team, did not respond to a request to comment. 

When reached by phone, Valerie Biden, the president’s sister, said she did not know the latest details of the library planning process, stating she was not on the planning team. Her brother, Jim Biden, said he is not at liberty to discuss those details.

Officials from Carney’s office also did not respond to questions about whether their conversations with Biden’s team have continued in recent weeks. 

And, finally, the National Archives, which oversees the nation’s presidential libraries and would manage the Biden library, says on its website that “Biden has not yet indicated his intentions with regard to a Presidential Library.”

‘The lay of the land’

In her initial email to city officials about the library pitch, Grant said she was following up on a previous discussion she had with Cade, the mayor’s chief of staff. 

That email did not make it clear whether the city had first approached Biden’s team for the discussion, or whether it was Biden’s circle that initiated it. 

But Grant did say that the Biden team was interested in getting a “lay of the land” in Wilmington and would like to learn more about economic development projects being planned in the city. 

In response, Carney and his aides organized the private meeting at CSC Station. The ultimate attendees included BPG co-founders and longtime family friends of the Bidens, Rob and Chris Buccini. Their private development firm is also a major investor in the Riverfront East project.

Megan McGlinchey, executive director of the Riverfront Development Corporation, which is leading the Riverfront East project, was also in the meeting. 

In a state of close connections, McGlinchey’s husband, Brian, is also close to the Bidens, having served as the national fundraising co-chair for Biden’s 2020 campaign and a political advisor for battleground state strategy.

During the March meeting, city officials presented a plan that highlighted areas of recent redevelopment in Downtown Wilmington around Rodney Square, and around a cluster of largely vacant office buildings that once held the headquarters of the credit card company MBNA, known locally as Bainbridge.

One of those buildings is now the site of “The Bridge” – an education hub with plans to bring in academic programs from the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and Delaware Law School. 

“The Bridge is transforming Rodney Square,” one slide of the city’s presentation said, in part. 

The second half of the city’s presentation focused on the Riverfront East area, which BPG has heavily developed in recent years in partnership with the Riverfront Development Corporation, a state-chartered and taxpayer-funded organization. That includes the building of the Chase Fieldhouse that is home of the Philadelphia 76ers’ G-League affiliate team, the Delaware Blue Coats.

The presentation also noted that the Riverfront Development Corporation provides “financial incentives, including loans and grants, to stimulate significant private investments.” 

The last slide of the presentation read that there was “availability of construction funding.”  

Following the meeting, Spotlight Delaware asked city officials about the meaning of the sentence. In response, Carney’s deputy chief of staff, Daniel Walker, said he could not clarify “because the City of Wilmington has not offered or committed any money for the potential presidential library.”

Overseen, but not paid for, by the feds

The Presidential Library System, which is overseen by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, first began with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the late 1930s, with the goal of preserving the records and historical materials of each president. 

Since then, there have been 13 completed libraries and museums dedicated to U.S. presidents. 

Libraries for President Barack Obama and President Trump are still under development.

And presidential libraries can cost hundreds of millions to build. Former President George W. Bush’s library in Dallas cost over $300 million, according to the Texas Comptroller’s office.

Former presidents also cannot tap the federal government for money to pay for the construction of the libraries, according to the U.S National Archives and Records Administration. 

Wherever the Biden Presidential Library is ultimately built, it remains unclear how it will be funded. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that some potential donors “have been reluctant to give money” to Biden for the library project. 

And the potential funding struggles have prompted some Biden allies to worry that the library will not be built in his lifetime, according to the report. 

A FOIA fight for documents

On the day of the March meeting, a slide was projected onto a screen that stated, in part, “Joseph R. Biden Presidential Library.”

Spotlight Delaware reporters caught a glimpse of the slide from outside the glass walls of the conference room.

Following the meeting, Spotlight Delaware submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the mayor’s office to obtain the presentation, along with emails pertaining to the library and the coordination of the meeting. 

Wilmington initially denied the FOIA, with Assistant City Solicitor John Hawley stating that the information sought was “commercial or financial information obtained from a person which is of a privileged or confidential nature.”

City officials claimed that the presentation was prepared by a third party who told the city not to share the documents.

Spotlight Delaware appealed the city’s decision to the Delaware Attorney General, because it was evident that the meeting involved public bodies, including the city and Riverfront Development Corporation. 

In addition, reporters argued that the meeting took place in a glass conference room that faced a large open-access workspace, allowing others to observe the presentation of the “private meeting.”

In late May, the Attorney General’s office ruled in favor of Spotlight Delaware, saying that the city violated the Freedom of Information Act. 

The decision prompted officials to turn over the presentation and the requested emails.