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Deaton delivers message to city council intended for media

By Jim Fair, Editor
Published on Thursday, March 13, 2014

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AL Solutions, Inc. a distributor of filtration products for the automotive aftermarket, occupies 50,000 square feet at 110 Caliber Ridge.
 

Jim Fair

AL Solutions, Inc. a distributor of filtration products for the automotive aftermarket, occupies 50,000 square feet at 110 Caliber Ridge.

 



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Greer is marketing a speculative industrial building with 100,000 square feet of class A industrial space.
 

Jim Fair

Greer is marketing a speculative industrial building with 100,000 square feet of class A industrial space.

 

Reno Deaton, Greer Development Corporation executive director, implored GreerToday.com to report one thing from his presentation at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

In the midst of describing a portfolio of prime Greer industrial sites, Deaton paused and several times emphasized: “For the very first time in a very, very long time a speculative industrial building of 100,000 square feet of class A industrial space is available in Greer. You won’t travel throughout South Carolina and find that,” Deaton said.

Deaton might have missed the mark presenting to City Council. Last Friday he had an audience of 200 business people from the upstate at the Greer Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday luncheon. He did not mention the GDC’s inventory. City Council meetings routinely don’t have residents attending or speaking at the public forum.

Two years ago Deaton, in the same setting, cautioned City Council that Greer was void of a 150,000 square foot speculative building to entice new industry. Last October Liberty Property Trust announced construction of the 156,000 square foot Class A industrial building at Caliber Ridge. Harper Construction Corporation was contracted as the builder.

AL Solutions, Inc. a distributor of filtration products for the automotive aftermarket, occupies 50,000 square feet of that space.

Caliber Ridge is a planned Class A Industrial Park, located off I-85 at Hwy. 101, across from BMW Manufacturing, with five buildings offering a total of 720,000 square feet of space. The industrial park can accommodate tenants from 20,000 – 400,000 square feet with several configurations including cross docking.

Wryley Bettis, GDC Chairman of the Board and city councilman (District 5) said, “We have a large amount of inventory and that’s good. We have a mixture of manufacturers like BMW and Honeywell that draw suppliers to the area. Caliber Ridge is another Gateway and Velocity (industrial park),” Bettis said. “We get some good jobs out of businesses in those areas.”

The corner of Hwy. 101 across from BMW is prime real estate Bettis believes will be developed sooner than later.

Deaton shared potential inland port sites ranging from 10.58 acres tracts to two parcels of 71 acres each and a 91-acre site at Dobson Road and E. Poinsett Street.

Commercial targets include big box retail. Deaton referred to the Kohl’s photos posted on GreerToday.com to show its progress toward a September opening. Other entities are office, specialty retail, restaurants and personal services. Spa Lenore on Victoria Street has opened and Crossfit on Wade Hampton Blvd. is scheduled to open this month.

GDC 2014 Goals and Objectives

• New capital investment ($50 million)

• New job creation (400 new jobs)

• Business retention (100 business retention calls)

• Contacts with decision makers (minimum of 150 initial list)

• Healthy pipeline (6 industrial / 10 commercial)

Program of Work Focus

• Automotive

• Aviation / Aerospace

• Advanced materials manufacturing

• Data centers

• Transportation / distribution / logistics

Visit GDC for more information.

 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 >>

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