Hey Friends! I’m enjoying another weekend on the road again, this time in the Carolinas. It’s been a beautiful couple of days in the 60s and 70s — not bad for early February.
I never get tired of looking for good industrial sites, but it seems like it’s tougher and tougher to find quality products with the right logistics location, good access, nice topography, and all the right infrastructure in place.
My blood still rises when I find a really good site. We looked a really nicely planned, rail-served park outside of Monroe, NC yesterday with Maurice Ewing, president of the Union County Partnership for Progress, www.unioncpp.com. Project Legacy (info@projectlegacync.com) is still in the planning stages, but when completed will have all the attributes of a world class intermodal park. It has excellent proximity to Charlotte and could be an important link between southeast ports of entry and national marketplaces. Multi-modal and intermodal products are becoming more and more important as companies look to reduce transportation costs.
I had the pleasure of addressing the need for a well planned park a few years ago when the leadership of Union County was first talking about this project. It is nice to see it moving forward thanks to Maurice’s leadership.
Today we were cruising sites in central South Carolina. One particular park, Lee County I-20 Industrial Center near Bishopville, SC stood out as a fine, fully improved park. The Center also has a nice 49,000-square-foot “spec building.” Spec buildings continue to be important tools for economic development since the majority of searches begin with the search for an existing building. Hence, if you have existing or spec buildings, you get more company/site selection consultant looks!
Keep up the planning of those good industrial sites. It makes our time on the road more rewarding! Happy Travels, Deane