Why Fairfield County is building a construction-ready site the size of 17 football fields | Columbia Business
FAIRFIELD COUNTY — Crews are felling trees and soon the graders will move in along Interstate 77 near the small town of Ridgeway. When they finish, Fairfield County will clear space for a 1-million square-foot construction-ready pad — large enough to house 17 football fields — all with the hope of edging out regional competitors in luring a major manufacturer that will provide employment for the county’s 21,000 residents.
The groundwork at the I-77 International Megasite was made possible by $6.5 million allocated from Fairfield County’s $99 million legal settlement from Dominion Energy, received in the wake of the abandoned VC Summer nuclear reactor project that dealt the state a major economic blow five years ago .
Now the county is hoping to reverse its fortune by taking advantage of a booming industrial market, with manufacturing and warehousing companies scrambling for available space.
“The manufacturing landscape has changed,” said Ann Broadwater, the county’s economic development director. “By pre-grading 26-acres, we can help a company get their product to market much faster than if they had to start building from scratch. This makes our site much more attractive than other megasites, which might require more initial site work. “
Commercial real estate brokers say it’s a strategy that could prove beneficial.
“I think what they’re doing is a positive thing,” said Dave Mathews, a broker with Colliers International who specializes in industrial property. “Everyone is looking to have buildings delivered as soon as possible. By going ahead and doing that significant groundwork, they’re creating an advantage for themselves, there’s no doubt about it.”
Matthews estimates it could reduce construction time by as much as six months. Other South Carolina counties have employed a similar strategy in the past, he said.
For example, nearby Richland County pre-graded a site at Northpoint Industrial Park near Blythewood, enough for a roughly 300,000-square-foot building. That site is still awaiting a tenant.
“That way, big companies are not encumbered by the added due diligence on the front end,” Mathews said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty when dealing with a raw piece of land.”
At the same time, industrial vacancy rates are at an all-time low across South Carolina.
Columbia’s rate sat at 3.16 in the third quarter of 2022, according to Colliers, with only about 407,160 square feet of top-end space coming available for lease over the next several months.
In Charleston, the vacancy rate dropped from about 5 percent to less than 2 percent over the past year despite 7.4 million square feet of space coming on to the market. Another 4.13 million square feet is currently under construction. And around Greenville, the rate was 2.76 percent with 18.3 million square feet under construction.
Meanwhile, site selectors who help companies hunt for new locations say they expect large international investment activity will remain constant or increase over the next five years, with North America boasting the highest growth potential in these types of billion-dollar mega projects.
The electric vehicle and battery industries are expected to be drivers of this, according to the Site Selectors Guild.
These major deals often require thousands of workers and Fairfield County is marketing the more than 848,000-labor force within a 60-minute drive of the site. Blythewood is 7 miles to the south of the site, and the fast-growing northeast edge of Columbia is just 15 miles away.
But by being across the county line, companies would be eligible for greater state tax breaks — $20,050 for each new job rather than the $1,500 per job offered in neighboring Richland, Newberry and Kershaw counties.
In addition, Fairfield County has made road improvements, expanding an existing bridge to accommodate industrial-level truck traffic, and is pushing for construction of a new interchange to serve the site.
The megasite was purchased by the county for $8 million in 2016 with a combination of state and county funding. Another $2 million grant from the state Department of Commerce was used to build out utility infrastructure. The county has also set aside $46 million to construct a new wastewater treatment plant to serve the site.
At 1,500 acres, with the ability to accommodate 9.2 million square feet of industrial space, the I-77 Megasite is by far the county’s largest planned industrial park, Broadwater said. If successful, she said the rural county would have the ability to expand the site even further, doubling its size.
“For Fairfield County to be considering for these projects we must be ready for those projects, which is why we are pre-grading building pads, doing roadway improvements, and expanding utility capacity,” Broadwater said.
The county is looking for an economic win, holding out for the type of major deal that is a career-maker for those in the industry.
The state Commerce Department has only touted five economic development deals in Fairfield County since the nuclear failure five years ago:
- Sheet metal fabricator, QuaLex Manufacturing, invested $2 million in 2021 that brought 60 jobs.
- Building materials company Oldcastle APG invested $25 million and added 100 jobs in 2020.
- Pill bottle maker Pharmacy-Lite Packaging invested $2.9 million to bring 33 jobs.
- China-headquartered mattress manufacturer MLILY invested $45 million in 2018, bringing 250 jobs.
- Boat maker Sea Pro announced a $3 million expansion adding 135 jobs.
Going back a decade, State Commerce had announced only four other deals in the county, two of which have since permanently closed.
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