Park gets 1st tenant

It took more than two years to make the connection, but the group that owns the undeveloped land at Bushy Park Industrial Complex has landed a manufacturer of high-voltage cables as its first major corporate tenant.

French-owned Nexans said Wednesday it will invest $85 million and create up to 200 jobs at a new plant to be built on the property near Goose Creek.

Nexans expects to begin operations in Berkeley County in 2014. Its new plant will focus at first on making underground land cables that can handle 69 to 420 kilovolts.

“Establishing our Berkeley plant is a key strategic development that will enable Nexans to capitalize on the ever-growing demand for high-quality high-voltage cables designed and manufactured to meet the specific needs of the major power transmission infrastructure projects in North America and worldwide in the coming years,” said Dirk Steinbrink, a company vice president.

Nexans plans to start construction on the factory this year. It expects hiring to begin in late 2013.

Savannah also had competed for the Nexans deal. The Charleston Regional Development Alliance said in a statement that the combination of the site, the local labor force and the nearby Port of Charleston helped lure the company to the Lowcountry.

Government incentives also helped. The state’s Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved a $1.6 million grant for the county to help with site preparation and infrastructure work. Also, the company will qualify for tax credits when it exceeds certain hiring targets, and readySC will provide training for potential workers.

The deal is a breakthrough for Cooper River Partners LLC, which paid $10 million in late 2009 to buy the remaining acreage at the county’s oldest large-scale industrial site.

At the time, economic development officials hoped the new owners would lure new manufacturing jobs to the property, which has 400 acres of developable land along the Cooper River.

The size of the new Nexans factory site was not immediately available Wednesday.

The cable maker was founded in 2000 as part of the French telecommunications giant Alcatel, which spun off the business a year later. Nexans makes copper and optical fiber products for an array of commercial customers. It has 24,500 employees at operations around the globe, including two business units in North Carolina.