McCraney, AEW Move Forward With 1 MSF Charlotte Facility
Santander Bank issued a $60.1 million loan for the York County industrial project.
A partnership between McCraney Property Co. and AEW Capital Management has secured a $60.1 million construction loan for Firetower 77, a 1 million-square-foot development in Rock Hill, S.C. JLL arranged the financing on behalf of the companies.
Santander Bank issued the loan and HGR Construction is acting as general contractor, according to York County records. The developers expect to deliver the logistics center in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Firetower 77 will be taking shape at 1798 Fire Tower Road, close to Interstate 77 and less than 20 miles from the interchange with Interstate 485, just over the state line. Occupying a 96-acre lot, the site is some 25 miles from Uptown Charlotte, while Norfolk Southern’s regional intermodal facility serving the Greater Charlotte area and being located next to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, is 25 miles north.
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The building is set to have a cross-dock configuration, 40-foot clear heights, 52- by 50-foot column spacing, 60-foot speed bays and 200-foot truck courts. Firetower 77 will have 608 car parking spots and 392 trailer parking spaces. The logistics facility will provide access to more than 21 million residents within a four-hour drive, according to JLL.
JLL Senior Managing Director Melissa Rose and Senior Director Michael DiCosimo, along with Director Kate Rathman, Associate Nicole Diaz and Analyst Magnus Kron, negotiated on behalf of the borrowers.
Charlotte’s pipeline reflects national 2026 trends
One current defining trend for U.S. industrial is the demand for such large facilities, a recent Yardi Matrix report shows. The growing need for bulk logistics space has been strengthening the U.S. market for large developments over the past few years. Year-to-date through August, developers started construction on 49 projects exceeding the 1 million-square-foot threshold. This already made 2026 the year with the highest number of million-plus-square-foot starts since 2022.
Charlotte’s strong pipeline is supporting this trend. Area developers had 10.2 million square feet under construction as of August. That figure placed the Queen City eighth nationwide in terms of space underway. This space accounted for 2.9 percent of Charlotte’s inventory, above the 2.1 percent national average. When adding developments in the planning stages, that share reached 5.2 percent, the fifth-highest among top U.S. metros.
Where industrial development clusters in Charlotte
Beyond the international airport area and several northern hubs and corridors, the Rock Hill area also stands out as a recent industrial development hot spot. Since January 2024, almost a dozen projects totaling 1.3 million square feet came online within a five-mile radius of central Rock Hill, according to Yardi Matrix.
Across the wider metro, recent pipeline additions include Rapid Commerce Park, a roughly 1.5 million-square-foot, 137-acre Class A project near the city’s international airport. Beacon Partners broke ground in August on the 410,037-square-foot first phase, expected to come online next year.
Earlier in 2026, Crescent Communities and GTIS Partners purchased land for AXIAL Commerce Station, a two-building campus in Huntersville, N.C. The 465,036-square-foot project is rising along Interstate 77, a high-growth North Charlotte logistics corridor, and is scheduled to reach completion by the end of the year.
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