DuPont Co. is moving to the suburbs after an activist shareholder criticized its ownership of the landmark DuPont Building once visited by luminaries such as Charles Lindberg and John F. Kennedy, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

 

Executive offices will relocate to its Chestnut Run Plaza campus from downtown Wilmington, Delaware, effective July 1, the company said today in a statement. DuPont's performance chemicals unit, which is being renamed Chemours Co. and spun off, will own the building and use it as temporary headquarters.

 

Trian Fund Management, the activist investor seeking two seats on DuPont's board, highlighted the building in a September letter as symbolic of the company's waste. The DuPont Building, which has served as its headquarters for 107 years, also houses the Hotel DuPont and a 1,250-seat theater. DuPont said the move will support management collaboration while saving money.

 

The Chestnut Run facility is about 4 miles (6 kilometers) west of the current headquarters. DuPont in 2012 added 220,000 square feet of office space at Chestnut Run, where the company has had a presence for more than 60 years.

 

As MRC reported earlier, Borealis AG is buying out DuPont Co.'s two-thirds share in their Specialty Polymers Antwerp NV joint venture. No purchase price was disclosed. Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont will continue to sell ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and acrylate copolymers made at the JV's plant, which is in Zwijndrecht, Belgium.

 

DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.