Soon, a trio of hotels could remake the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk, with an eye toward both the past and the future.

A population explosion in southern New Castle County area surrounding Middletown has caused a similar explosion of restaurants and stores and supermarkets hoping to feed and clothe all those new people.

The malls and shopping centers near Newark also continue to bloom. The inexorable tide of Wawas continues to swell. Soon, Delaware will be home to a Dick’s Sporting Goods bigger than any Dick’s Sporting Goods the region has ever seen.

As the pandemic fades to scolding memory, Delaware is seeing an updraft of new retail and hospitality projects across the state. Here are some of the biggest projects and trends we’re keeping an eye on in 2024.

Something we missed? Something you’re curious about? Feel free to send in tips or questions to mkorfhage@delawareonline.com.

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Massive Dick’s House of Sport planned at Brandywine Town Center; renovations in limbo

Delaware will soon be home to a whole new kind of Dick’s. Bigger. Maybe better. Certainly, more of an active experience.

“We are excited about our lease with DICK’S Sporting Goods at Brandywine Town Center,” wrote Acadia senior director Josh Bissinger in November. “They will be expanding into the adjacent former Bed Bath & Beyond space and introducing their larger-format House of Sport concept.”

MORE: Climbing walls, batting cages, indoor golf: Dick’s to open House of Sport store in Delaware

The 100,000 square foot Dick’s will be among the early locations of a massive new store concept called Dick’s House of Sport, an experiential concept store that Dick’s president, Lauren Hobart, has said is “redefining sports retail.” 

Previous Houses of Sport have included rock climbing walls, augmented-reality batting cages, indoor putting greens, treadmills to test running shoes and mixed surfaces to try out cleats. Some have even included outdoor fields and running tracks. Dick’s representatives say they expect a fall 2024 opening.

Acadia was less eager to talk about other big plans announced this year for Brandywine Town Center.

This February, the mall’s owner laid out an ambitious new proposal to demolish the existing Red Robin and community center, and install six buildings for “high-end” restaurants or retailers surrounding a pond. 

The plan, which would add 45,000 square feet of new retail space, was designed as a “shot in the arm” for the shopping center, which had 150,000 feet of vacant space as of February. 

THE PROPOSAL : How Brandywine Town Center could reinvent itself starting with new restaurants and stores

Since then, the shopping center’s Bed Bath & Beyond and Friendly’s locations have both also closed. But in October, Acadia quietly withdrew plans for the new retail and restaurant construction, and did not respond in November to the News Journal’s inquiries about plans for the site. The Red Robin remains open, and the community center still sits serenely by the pond.

New restaurants and stores at Christiana Mall

Mallgoers will have to wait longer for P.F. Chang’s.

The Asian and Chinese food restaurant is expected to open in late 2024, according to a company spokesperson. The company previously said it anticipated opening the restaurant at the end of 2023.

P.F. Chang’s is taking the space of the former Panera Bread.

Other recent arrivals at the mall include Kendra Scott, Tag Heuer and Squishable.

READ MORE: P.F. Chang’s is still coming to Christiana Mall, but when is the question

New boardwalk hotel projects designed to reflect Rehoboth Beach’s past

Three new hotel projects stand at the cusp of ushering in a new era of the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. But each has hurdles to clear before they become a reality.

When the Belhaven Hotel was bought for $34,000 by Greek immigrant Nicholas Papajohn in 1938, he couldn’t have imagined the hotel’s name would be at the center of a contentious debate in Rehoboth Beach almost a century later.

But for the past four years, that’s what has happened. At least seven times, Nicholas Papajohn’s nonagenarian son, John, has brought a series of plans forward to build a luxury hotel at the south corner of the boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue, the site of the original Belhaven Hotel — facing down appeals from local homeowners and revision after revision to hotel plans.

Current plans call for an independent hotel that’s part of Hilton’s curio collection, with 116 rooms with balconies, a second-level pool deck, a bar and restaurant, conference center and fitness rooms. The plans call for an underground parking garage and off-site street-level parking on Baltimore Avenue.

Changes could also be in store for the boardwalk icon across Rehoboth Avenue from the Belhaven site: the Dolle’s building.

Grotto Pizza wants to build a boutique hotel above a new restaurant and retail. Leaders of Grotto Pizza and its partner, Onix Group of Pennsylvania, plan a tan-brown-and-white four-story hotel with retail underneath that opens garage door style to the public.

The hotel would have 60 rooms with balconies, a second-level pool deck, a fitness room, a dining room and an underground parking garage.

Meanwhile, another Rehoboth Beach hotelier is pursuing a new version of a project on Baltimore Avenue after a previous proposal there reached a dead end, over a techincal fight about the square footage of balconies.

Gene Lankford, owner of the Atlantic Sands and Breakers hotels, is now pursuing a four-story, 55-room hotel called Atlantic Crowne at 17 to 23 Baltimore Ave. The hotel would have a bar and restaurant on the ground floor with an outdoor dining patio. The hotel passed an initial hurdle this summer, moving to preliminary site-plan review.

READ MORE: New boardwalk hotel projects designed to reflect Rehoboth Beach’s past move forwa

New owners revive hotel plan near Delaware Park

More than three years after New Castle County Council approved a plan for a hotel near the entrance to Delaware Park, a second hotel operator is planning a similar project.

Titan Hospitality Group of Harrisburg plans to build a 131-room, four-story hotel at Churchmans and Ogletown Stanton roads across from the Churchmans Crossing train station and south of the casino and racetrack. The county approved the project in July.

Last September, Titan bought the property for $3.3 million, according to county records. The group acquired it from Blenheim Homes, a Newark-based homebuilder that received approval in May 2019 to build a Homewood Suites at the site.

READ MORE: Delaware Park hotel plan is back with new hotel operator

A “Country Club” for Kirkwood Highway, and a mini-mall makeover

A restaurant-filled mini-mall along a forgotten stretch of Kirkwood Highway is getting a full update and renovation, a self-storage building and a “country club.”

In the early months of 2024, the Kirkwood Country Club hopes to open at the Meadowood II Shopping Center at 2610 Capitol Trail in Stanton. The Country Club will not be a country club. It’ll be a 2,600-square-foot tavern with bar games, a stage for DJs and live music and maybe dancing, a long 23-seat bar, TVs tuned to sports, a line of themed half-moon booths and a back bar for private parties or couples on a date. 

The country club name is just a bit of winking fun, said owner Justin Dougherty, who is also managing partner at Pour House in Pike Creek and Cork and Barrel.

That country club will be part of a wholesale renovation of the shopping center it sits in, according to Shane Malek, CEO of landlord Middletown-based Secure Management. He sees the Country Club, which will have a no-food tavern license, as the centerpiece of a plan allowing the shopping center’s restaurants to gain customers by offering food to the country club patrons.

Renderings of the new Meadowood II show a brick facade and neat trim, with a row of copper awnings. The first stage of renovations will be complete by early 2024, Malek said. An office building will be converted into a self-storage facility, and eventually, the parking lot will get a full resurfacing.

Malek sees the renovation as part of a re-imagination of this stretch of Kirkwood highway, where the Astro Shopping center across the street is also being renovated, and a large nearby mixed-use project in a former office building may bring hundreds of new residents.

“We’re putting some love here and it’s going to be great,” Malek said. “I think this ‘middle area’ is getting ready to come back to life.”

Even more Mission BBQs arriving in Rehoboth and New Castle County

Delaware keeps getting smoked … meat.

Maryland-based Mission BBQ, known for its pan-regional approach to barbecue and its focus on veterans and first responders, plans to open two locations in Delaware in 2024, doubling the barbecue chain’s footprint in the state. The new locations will arrive in Rehoboth Beach and along Kirkwood Highway in New Castle County, according to company representative Linda Dotterer.

“We are looking forward to opening two locations in Delaware,” Dotterer wrote. “And it will be our honor and privilege to serve and support the community in Rehoboth Beach and continue to support the Wilmington community.”

Mission BBQ’s upcoming location in Kirkwood Plaza, at 4433 Kirkwood Highway next to a forthcoming Raising Cane’s, first turned up in planning documents early last year. Mission BBQ had been slow to confirm the location, but now says they’ve signed a lease and plan a 2024 grand opening.

The Rehoboth Beach location was first made public after the company began posting hiring notices on various jobs sites.

Spokeswoman Dotterer declined to confirm the precise location, but verified they had signed a lease in Rehoboth Beach and planned to open in 2024. Though some sources placed the location at Tanger Outlets, representatives at Tanger were unable to confirm this as of November.

Where Wawa is heading next in Delaware

With more than 1,000 stores across the country, Wawa continues to expand in Delaware and into new territory.

Several plans are in the development pipeline to stretch Wawa further across the First State. The convenience store company has plans to build two stores in Newark: along South College Avenue and in place of Leon’s Garden World at Elkton and Otts Chapel roads.

A Wawa is part of plans submitted to New Castle County in 2021 to redevelop the Astro Shopping Center next to the Newark Farmers Market and across from Western YMCA in Milltown. A Wawa is also being advertised as part of a new commercial and office center on Naamans Road in Brandywine Hundred.

A Wawa recently opened on Corporate Boulevard along Route 896 in Glasgow at the Pencader Corporate Center. In September, the company pulled plans for a drive-thru only store in Newark.

READ MORE: Wawa in Christiana announces opening with more Delaware stores in development

Restaurants coming to The Grove at Newark

The Grove at Newark, the renovated College Square shopping center off Library Avenue, is expecting to add Del Pez and Starbucks to its roster of restaurants, in addition to Crunch Fitness, a gym taking a portion of the former Sears Hardware.

Starbucks will join the recently opened First Watch near the intersection of Wyoming Road and Library Avenue in spring.

READ MORE: Raising Cane’s, First Watch and everything else coming to The Grove at Newark

Middletown’s first Target to anchor new shopping center

More than a year after Middletown City Council approved a 148,000 square foot Target store in Middletown, the clothing, household and grocery retailer has finally offered a public signal it will indeed come to one of Delaware’s fastest growing communities.

The company has not responded to inquiries since 2022, but Target’s website now lists the Middletown store, at 361 Middletown Warwick Rd, as an upcoming store. The store will serve as an anchor to a new shopping development called Northside Shopping Center from developers Lee and Louis Ramunno.

Target bought the land on which the store sits in January 2023, according to county records.

The chain did not respond to inquiries about the projected opening date, but developer Louis Rammuno told Delaware Business Times in 2022 that he expected a mid-2024 opening.

When built, it will be the fifth Target in Delaware, joining locations at Brandywine Town Center off Concord Pike, the Christiana Mall, Prices Corner shopping center and on Route 13 in Dover.

New grocery stores coming to Middletown area

Grocery stores love to locate in areas with a growing, affluent customer base. And so they are flocking to Middletown.

As the Middletown Target comes to Northside Shopping Center, a very different grocery store will likely already be under construction next door: Sprouts Farmers Market. Advertising materials for Northside place the two stores side by side on Middletown-Warwick Road.

A company spokesperson said Sprouts plans to open the Middletown store in the second quarter of 2025.

The natural foods grocer opened its first Delaware store in March 2020 next to the Concord Mall on Concord Pike. The company shies away from selling nationally known food and drink brands and is instead focused on organic options and products from its own label. A Sprouts spokesperson previously described the store as a “starter” for those looking to adopt healthy eating habits. There are almost 400 Sprouts locations nationwide.

Just outside of Middletown, Weis Markets will serve the fast-growing Bayberry community. Also slated for 2025, the Weis Markets location will be the centerpiece of the Bayberry Town Center, a shopping center within the Bayberry master-planned community surrounded by townhomes and office space.

Bayberry spans 1,500 acres between Route 1 and Route 301 and is one of the drivers of growth north of Middletown, but no supermarkets have yet been built there. Currently, residents of the area drive into Middletown for their shopping needs — a 15- to 20-minute trip that can balloon with traffic.

Pennyslvania-based Weis supermarkets has three other locations in Delaware, but none in New Castle County.

READ MORE: Grocery store planned for the fast-growing Bayberry community north of Middletown

A mini-golf bar, a fast casual burger joint and more restaurants to line Middletown Warwick Road

Yet more people are clamoring to feed the newly arrived people of Middletown, as a new wave of restaurants continues to open or be announced. Rehoboth Beach’s popular Taco Reho opened a Middletown outpost in October at a former Steak ‘n’ Shake at 100 Sandhill Drive, while a new restaurant called Lore Modern Woodfyre opened in the St. Anne’s Club.

By January 10, 2024, Middletown will also be home to a massive 30,000-square-foot fun center comprising two full 18-hole miniature golf courses, eight immersive golf simulators, shuffleboard, ping pong, giant Jenga, cornhole and a full bar and restaurant serving Southern-inflected food alongside burgers and pizza.

Birdie’s Links and Drinks, from an all-Delaware family, is opening along Middletown’s fast-growing 299 corridor, at 320 Auto Park Drive.

More about Birdie’s: It’s got it all: Indoor golf, BBQ, beer. And it’s opening in Delaware soon

Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, a fast-growing restaurant franchise founded in Wichita, Kansas, is preparing to expand to Delaware with a Middletown location. The planned site is at 601 S. Ridge Ave. near the Westown Kohl’s off Middletown Warwick Road.

JRI Hospitality, the Delaware franchisee, plans to open the Middletown location by the end of 2024. And from there, other locations may follow, said JRI president Ingermanson told Delaware Online/The News Journal in May.

“We have a lot more in the pipeline,” Ingermanson said.

For months, one of the major landmarks on a lawn near the Hedgelawn Plaza shopping center was a sign for another shopping center: Merrimac Gateway.

That center, from Dover-based Axia Hotel Group, plans a Home2 Suites hotel, a Chili’s and an Outback Steakhouse. Construction began in summer 2023, and the approved plans call for restaurants along the road with a hotel behind. The Outback Steakhouse will be across the street from a Texas Roadhouse.

Momentum builds for Nylon Capital Shopping Center redevelopment

A mixed-use development with an early education center, co-working space and retail is set to reimagine the Nylon Capital Shopping Center, a once bustling center in Seaford a half mile from the DuPont nylon plant.

Early tenants include Delaware Technical Community College, The Mill co-working space and Bright Bloom, an early education Montessori School. But plans put forward by developers have included a cafe and a “social hall with beer”, pickleball and bocce courts, and the re-opening of the bowling alley that closed there in October.Some of the existing structures and businesses will remain, including Sal’s Italian Restaurant, Dollar Tree and Rite Aid. The city approved preliminary site plans in December.

READ MORE: Why Delaware leaders are turning their eyes and wallets to this run-down shopping center

Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Contact Matthew Korfhage at mkorfhage@delawareonline.com.