Target follows Walmart’s lead with a Charleston distribution center | Business

The retail giant Target Corporation Looking for an import distribution center in Low Henry after bringing cargo into a temporary warehouse at Port of CharlestonS Leatherman terminal In the last few months.

Target, the country’s second largest importer Walmart, since August has been using a mobile interchange built at the site of the future expansion of the North Charleston terminal. Such arrangements allow a company to bring cargo containers on one side of the building and load them on trucks on the other side. The temporary facility is based in Minnesota. Doxilla CompanyBuilding mobile loading systems and warehouses.

The target is to bring 15,000 containers to the site a year – with the potential to grow to 50,000 a year – SC Government Ports Authority.

“It’s a temporary warehouse, and they need a permanent home.” Barbara MelvinPresident and CEO of SPA to the legislators in A House Ways and Means Committee Meeting in Colombia last week. “So while they continue to kick the tires in Charleston, we’re working for them.”

A Target spokeswoman said the company is “continually evaluating potential supply chain facility locations to serve our customers,” but “we do not have any new supply chain facility news to share at this time.”

The Minneapolis-based chain isn’t the only retailer setting up shop at the port. Amazon In S.P.A. It’s working on the node that is on. Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant, bringing an estimated 27,000 containers by 2022. Melvin told lawmakers the area has “huge growth potential.”

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, found its permanent location near the harbor when it opened a 3 million-square-foot import distribution center on SPA-owned property in Ridgeville. The $220 million Dorchester County facility, which is 52 football fields in size, officially opened in April. In the year By 2022, the port will bring 70,000 containers of mostly Asian-made goods.

The focus on retail is part of SPA’s efforts to grow its inventory base beyond the advanced manufacturing clients it has served for more than a decade.

Melvin said businesses like Walmart “take a lot of care” before settling in a location, and being in the Charleston area gives the port a big advantage in attracting other retailers.

“We were able to increase that speed by successfully handling their cargo,” she said.

Now Walmart is bringing containers. Ridgeville Business ParkSPA is looking for a shipper – Melvin mentioned agricultural or forest products companies as options – to ship those boxes to the port. Norfolk South A railroad crossing the property.

“It gives us an opportunity to take an empty import box, fill it with an export cargo … and then bring that box to the port,” Melvin said. “If you think about the Walmart impact for us, we can fill up to 100,000 … containers a year by exporting … I think this site represents one of the top loading docks in the Southeast. So this is a gem that we continue to market.”

Casey to SC

A Kansas City development company is making a push into the Palmetto State with speculative warehouse projects, including one on Clement’s Ferry Road in Charleston.

Hunting Midwest It has filed plans with state regulators to build a 163,800-square-foot warehouse on 13.9 acres of wooded property at the intersection of Clements Ferry and the Charleston Regional Parkway. of SC Department of Health and Environmental Control He is reviewing the project because the development will affect half a hectare of wetlands. The project also includes 186 parking spaces.

The building is located in an industrial area that already includes manufacturers Stoba America And Mankiewicz covers and a third party logistics company Contane Logistics.

The Charleston site follows a 476,280-square-foot warehouse built in Welford. of Fort Prince Logistics Center It wrapped on a 47-acre site west of Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County earlier this month.

“This location sits at the intersection of a growing manufacturing and logistics corridor with a highly skilled workforce.” Mike Bell, Hunt’s senior vice president of commercial real estate, said in a written statement. “The billions of dollars invested in this part of the Upstate by BMW, Walmart, FedEx and Inland Port Greer is a testament to how important this region is to the economy on the East Coast.”

Another Upstate project, a 259,000-sq.-ft Evergreen Logistics ParkIt is being completed in Anderson County.

All told, Hunt said he plans to build 2 million square feet of industrial space in South Carolina in the coming years. The privately held company has built more than $2 billion worth of industrial, self-storage, residential, multifamily and senior living centers in eight states.