The Mill is growing with new private office space and more

The Mill isn’t just for coworking anymore.

The Wilmington community workspace isn’t dropping coworking — on the contrary, it will be expanding it, both at the original 1007 N. Orange St.’s fourth floor location and at the new Concord Plaza location opening later this year. That’s good news for startups, contractors and freelancers looking for a seat at the communal table, a private desk or a mini-office, all of which are near or at capacity in the current space.

And it’s not just because it has expanded its offerings to the community to include live music and comedy at Theatre N.

The Mill is currently in the process of adding two new non-coworking multi-office spaces, one on the seventh floor of 1007 N. Orange, and the second at The Mill Concord location, which we first told you about last November.

These new office spaces are designed for businesses and organizations with a number of employees that need more room, but have limited real estate options in existing buildings that, like 1007 N. Orange Street, were designed to occupy a single large company.

As a bonus, the companies and organizations will be associated with The Mill and its brand recognition, and will benefit from The Mill’s amenities.

“We’re looking at an early fall launch for both new spaces,” said Rebecca Parsons, director of operations for The Mill, in an interview with Technical.ly.

Where once The Mill was home to early-stage entrepreneurs, gig workers and small local satellites (including, full disclosure, Technical.ly Delaware) exclusively, that’s been changing, with the addition of the TrafficCast headquarters, an office of the California-based fintech company Acorns, international law firm MWE and even DuPont’s digital tech team.

“Now we’re seeing everything from startups to branches of companies that have been around for years,” said Parsons (and in the case of DuPont, 217 years). “Things are growing fast.”

Rethinking existing space is increasingly important in Wilmington, where there is plenty of vacant space in most of the downtown office buildings and fewer mega companies like MBNA and DuPont able to fill a building or even a whole floor. 1201 N. Orange has The Hub at 1201, which incorporates coworking with coworking-alternative spaces, and Buccini Pollin Group (which owns 1007 N. Orange) are converting vacant space in The DuPont Building above what is now DE.CO into living spaces.

The Mill office tenants will be just that — tenants; companies and individuals in the coworking model are members at different levels.

“Most leases are only for two to five years,” said Parsons of The Mill. “So there’s more flexibility than you’d have with another [more traditional] lease of 10 years.”

The idea, of course, is that these businesses (or their Delaware branches) will grow during those shorter lease durations. It’s not an incubator, but it’s all about growth and economic development.

It’s fitting, then, that one of the new tenants at The Mill’s seventh floor location will be the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP), a nonprofit committed to the state’s economic development and innovation.

“We’re really looking forward to it,” said DPP Director of External Relations and Marketing Michele Schiavoni.

Seeing how The Mill is growing, it sounds like a good fit.