Developers propose large industrial parks

Not one but two heavy-hitting developers from Texas — and another from New York — are proposing to build large-scale industrial parks near Summerville.

A division of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. this month paid about $6 million for about 97 acres of a former commercial nursery along U.S. Interstate 26 near Drop Off Lane.

The tract is the first phase of the firm’s planned 315-acre Omni Commerce Park. If fully built out, the site would house seven cavernous structures with nearly 3 million square feet of space for warehouses, distribution centers and light manufacturing, according to plans filed with Berkeley County.

Work is scheduled to begin on the first 505,000-square-foot building next month on the former Baucom’s Nursery site. The others will follow based on market demand, said Curt Grantham, managing director for Charlotte-based Trammell Crow Carolinas Development Inc.

Grantham said the project is being driven partly by predictions that Asian exporters will shift some of their U.S.-bound containers from the West Coast to less-congested East Coast ports, including Charleston’s.

“We like the direction that Charlestonis heading, and not just because of the port but the overall economy,” Grantham said. “I think it’s a good story, long term.”

The I-26 corridor near Jedburg has become the hotbed for master-planned industrial parks. One reason is that it’s roughly halfway between I-95 and the Port of Charleston, where a new container terminal is expected to open in 2012. Also, land on the interstate northwest of Summerville has been relatively cheap and plentiful, though prices are now rising rapidly.

Other developers have their sights on the area. Across I-26 from the Omni tract, another Texas group, Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood Investment Properties, is building Charleston Trade Center, which calls for 17 industrial buildings totaling more than 9.1 million square feet of space. Also, the New York-based Rockefeller Group is proposing to build 2.6 million square feet of industrial warehouse space on 400 acres near Trammell Crow’s property.

Grantham said all three projects can succeed because they have deep-pocketed owners and that the market for up-to-date warehouses remains “very much underserved” in Charleston compared to other major port cities.