Purzycki’s business ties: asset or liability?

Mike Purzycki believes that if you make it pretty, they will come.Garbage-strewn streets suggest “your city is not well.” Rusted fences and 10-foot-tall weeds penetrate residents’ psyches, leading them to misbehave.“You do what you want to do because things aren’t going to get a whole lot worse,” says the man who brought an IMAX movie theater, luxury apartments, multiple corporate headquarters and even Starbucks to a 100-acre smokestack graveyard flanking a polluted river.Soon, the Riverfront development chief could face his biggest challenge yet: persuading the broader community — and the nation — that Wilmington has outgrown its “Murder Town” label.A former real estate developer and attorney, Purzycki’s recipe is to rehabilitate the city through community redevelopment fueled by private business. But critics worry that his history of negotiating advantageous deals with a select group of developers on the Riverfront could derail success and simply make the rich richer.”There is almost nothing I can imagine where what’s good for a developer would not be good for the city,” Purzycki said recently.After winning Wilmington’s Democratic mayoral primary last month, Purzycki is relying on his record of economic growth — calling it “unmatched in Delaware” — to sail through the November general election. He faces Republican businessman Robert Martin and Independent Steve Washington — two candidates lacking high expectations for victory… Read full this story

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