Bank of America Corp., which cut an estimated 4,000 Delaware jobs after it bought Wilmington-based credit card lender MBNA Corp. in 2006, says it's planning to hire 500 fulltime workers at suburban locations,  Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and BofA's local boss, ex-MBNA executive Chip Rossi, said this morning.  

That'll bring total local BofA employment up to 7,500, making it one of the Philadelphia region's largest private bosses. The bank didn't ask for state subsidies or tax breaks for the site, and it's not getting any, Markell spokesman Brian Selander told me.

The ex-MBNA offices now service "the broad franchise" of BofA, not just credit cards, BofA spokesman Tony Allen told me. "We like doing business in Delaware," he added, citing the state's pro-business governor and a congressional delegation that, although Democratic, typically supports the banking industry as a source of tens of thousands of local jobs.

The new jobs, "over the next three years," will be spread among MBNA's Christiana and Newark, Del. technology, operations and call center operations, Allen said.

While the bank is restoring suburban jobs, it's getting rid of some of its underused office space in downtown Wilmington. BofA plans to donate its 228,000 square foot Bracebridge IV building, constructed under former MBNA boss Charles Cawley and named for the Canadian hometown of the late MBNA facilities supervisor Roger Crozier, a onetime NHL star, for use by charter schools, which in Delaware are not guaranteed public construction funding.

The du Pont family-backed Longwood Foundation, which turned a former DuPont Co. building a few blocks away into a center for nonprofit organizations during the 1990s, will oversee the conversion. The building is worth around $6 million, Allen said.