Bidens buy home in Cape Henlopen State Park area

Former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are spreading their roots downstate, after recently purchasing a vacation home overlooking Cape Henlopen State Park.

“Throughout our careers, Jill and I have dreamed of being able to buy a place at the beach at home where we can bring the whole family," Biden said in a statement released Thursday. "We feel very lucky that we're now able to make that happen and are looking forward to spending time with our family in the place that matters most to us in the world."

Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield declined to release the specific location of the property or provide details on when the Bidens are expected to move in. They will keep their primary home in Greenville, she said.

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The beach retreat is a sentimental location for Delaware's longest-serving senator, who helped secure the return of federal land at Cape Henlopen. The Bidens purchased the property using part of their advance from a multi-book deal. The respected statesman will write two nonfiction books, and Jill Biden will write one, publisher Flatiron Books announced in April. It is an imprint of Macmillan.

The first of Joe Biden's books will specifically look at how he worked at the White House while dealing with the loss of his son Beau, who died in May 2015 from brain cancer.

Apart from writing his memoir, Biden hasn't slowed down or wandered far from the public spotlight since leaving office. 

Last month, he launched a new political action committee, American Possibilities, to support Democratic political candidates. The move also signaled that he may still be weighing a third presidential run.

A new Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, a nonpartisan research and policy center, will focus on developing solutions to the most vexing domestic issues. Biden will also lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania. The center, to be headquartered in Washington, D.C., later this year, will concentrate on diplomacy, foreign policy and national security. Biden also will have an office in Philadelphia. 

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In addition, the Biden Foundation, an educational foundation, will focus on strengthening the middle class and decreasing economic inequality, along with accelerating lifesaving cancer research.

With all that, maybe Joe needs a breather and a beach sunset. The Bidens are not the only ones who rely on the Delaware coast to relax. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and actor Ryan Phillippe, a New Castle native, have been spotted sunning themselves here.

Biden sightings happen regularly on Rehoboth Avenue and at the nearby Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach.

Bookstore general manager Susan Kehoe said she was thrilled that the Bidens would be her new neighbors.

"It's about time they made a home here," she said. "We only hope that Joe will join the ornery group of retired men who have coffee in the store every morning."  

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.