Intergovernmental Aid Under the Radar? Assessing the Redevelopment of the Wilmington Delaware Riverfront

This article examines the results of a decade’s public and private investment in redeveloping the Christina Riverfront of Wilmington, Delaware, in order to answer a version of Bartik’s (1991) question, “Who benefits from state and local economic development?” Specifically, the authors focus on measuring the project’s return for state and local governments. In an era of “fend-for-yourself federalism,” they ask if this project amounts to an alternative, “win-win” policy that provides a form of intergovernmental aid at little or no net cost to the grantor. They also consider the extent to which the fiscal consequences of the project are a product of the original project intent, and the degree to which the results achieved in Wilmington might be achievable in other contexts. The project appears in practice to have served as a remarkably cost-effective form of intergovernmental aid, in part by exploiting very specific characteristics of the site’s physical and economic geography, although this was never a salient part of the public rationale for the project.