PALMETTO COMMERCE PARK MATURES INTO THRIVING HUB

Palmetto Commerce Park in North Charleston continues to be a hub of economic development activity in the Charleston region. Boeing’s interior fabrication plant is in the lower right. Daimler’s Sprinter Van assembly plant is upper right. FILE/BRAD NETTLES/STAFF/POST & COURIER

Originally published in The Post and Courier

BY WARREN L. WISE
Posted: September 23, 2014

Palmetto Commerce Park is no longer nestled in a sleepy stretch of woods.

The thriving industrial area in North Charleston is home to big-name businesses such as Boeing, Daimler, Cummins and a slew of others churning out everything from drive shafts to storage bins. Data centers and a 911 dispatch facility also are in the park.

Boeing leases site for new research center; to create 300-400 jobs in North Charleston

In just over a decade, the once-forested area between Ladson and Ashley Phosphate roads has matured into one of the Lowcountry’s premier industrial destinations.

“It’s actually grown a lot faster than any of us anticipated,” North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said shortly after Boeing announced Tuesday it will locate its new research and technology center in the sprawling business park.

It’s not Boeing’s first presence in the industrial area. Less than a mile away, it already makes cabin parts for the 787 Dreamliner, and by mid-2015 will open a factory to make engine inlet components for the new 737 MAX single-aisle passenger jet.

And yet, there’s still undeveloped tracts in the business park.

“We have room to double what we have out there,” Summey said.

The extension of Palmetto Commerce Parkway, connecting Ladson and Ashley Phosphate roads, in 2011 hastened development.

“The completion of that roadway caused the maturation and rapid growth that continues along that corridor,” said Eric Meyer with Meyer Kapp & Associates LLC, a commercial real estate firm.

The agency is marketing several hundred acres owned by Weber USA in the nearby Ingleside tract that straddles the road. “It’s going to continue until all that land is sold out.”

Real estate agent Mike White with Charleston Industrial LLC has worked on four transactions in the park, including the Boeing research center lease.

Since the four-lane road was completed, 24 separate industrial transactions have occurred along that corridor, he said.

“It’s a tremendous job generator,” White said. “It’s one of the fastest-growing submarkets for industrial and manufacturing development along the East Coast. It’s going to continue to attract more aerospace suppliers as well as other types of industrial development.”

 Reach Warren L. Wise at 937-5524 or twitter.com/warrenlancewise.
Originally published in The Post and Courier