310-Acre South Carolina Land Purchase Heralds 3 MSF Industrial Park

Trammell Crow Co. has just taken a 310-acre parcel of land in Summerville, S.C., off the hands of Eastway Properties, thereby paving the way for the company’s development of Omni Commerce Park, a 3 million-square-foot industrial complex. Located about 15 miles from Charleston, the property will be built in segments, with the initial phase kicking off in September with construction of a 772,000-square-foot structure. Omni will have a vital position near the Port of Charleston and the Charleston International Airport, as well as leading thoroughfares I-26, I-95 and I-526. In addition to Building I, which will be built to satisfy LEED certification requirements, the first phase of the project will be able to accommodate build-to-suit developments as small as 100,000 square feet and as large as 850,000 square feet. The Charleston industrial market is keeping pace, according to a second quarter report by real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis. While the market is taking its hits from the souring economy, the outlook is strong. Construction continues on a three-berth terminal at the Port of Charleston–of the top U.S. container ports, the Port of Charleston ranked 10 by TEU volume in 2007, according to the American Association of Port Authorities–that will increase port capacity by 50 percent and drive the city’s long-term economic growth. Other developers are making the move to capitalize on impending change. Hillwood Investment Properties is in the midst of developing the 750-acre Charleston Trade Center in Berkeley County, which will ultimately offer 9 million square feet of primarily logistics and light manufacturing space, and the Rockefeller Group is planning a 2.6 million-square-foot industrial park near Trammell Crow’s project. Real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis/Carmody Co. is handling leasing for Phase I of Omni. The remaining phases of the park will feature buildings ranging from 100,000 square feet to nearly 470,000 square feet to be developed as the market demands. Headquartered in Dallas, Trammell Crow is a leading real estate investor and developer that has developed or acquired over 500 million square feet of buildings valued at a total of more than $50 billion. As of June, the company, an independently operated subsidiary of commercial real estate services giant CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., had over $9.9 billion of projects in progress or in it pipeline.