Wilmington is having a moment

In a way, we have the Wilmington tech scene to thank for Delaware’s newest brewery.

Dew Point Brewery, a playful take on DuPont, opened in August just outside of Wilmington in Yorklyn’s historic Garrett Snuff Mill. It’s owned and run by Nick Matarese and his family. Matarese is a Wilmington tech fixture, the founder of branding agency The Barn.

Dew Point’s launch is just one of the ways that the state’s tech and entrepreneurship community is bringing the cool to to Wilmington. Because real talk? Wilmington has historically not been cool. It’s not been of the Brooklyn or Philadelphia ilk, places where young people flock for the nightlife, beer gardens and artisanal shops. But the tide is turning. Millennials are driving the real estate boom in downtown Wilmington, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s 2016 Wilmington Skyline Review.

Still, Will Minster, director of business development at Downtown Visions, is candid about the pace of this change.

“To be honest, it’s really been kind of a slow process,” he said, when we asked him if Wilmington is becoming a hotspot for millennials.

He said it started in 2010, when Wes Garnett, Steve Roettger and Pedro Moore started the coIN Loft coworking space, where Matarese’s The Barn was originally headquartered. The founders, Minster said, were were looking for a place for the community to come together.

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Dominique “Peak” Johnson is a North Philadelphia freelance journalist. He is one of the founding editors and writers of the North Philly Metropolis, blogger for The Huffington Post and contributing writer to numerous online publications. Click here to learn more about Peak.