Work is proceeding at a pace worthy of the label “overnight express,” as contractors begin to prepare the grounds of a new distribution center that United Parcel Service plans to set up in a publicly-developed business park in the Hawfields area between Mebane and Graham.
UPS ultimately plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in this facility. Originally announced as 521,000-square-foot facility, the size evolved into a total square footage of about one million square feet. The site, itself, was also expanded, ultimately to 165.5 acres, within an industrial park that the cities of Mebane and Graham have been developing in tandem with Alamance County’s government in the hinterland south of I-85/40.
In order to secure the shipping giant’s commitment to this location, the three local governments offered UPS nearly $4.5 million in incentives last year provided that the company followed through with its plans for the facility.
These inducements, which were formally offered up in the summer of 2020, include about $3.9 million in cash grants to be jointly paid out by the three governments in five separate installments. Mebane and Graham have also chipped in $490,000 in land for the new distribution center, while Mebane, which has jurisdiction over the property, has further agreed to waive some $150,000 in planning and development fees for the facility.
In return for this largesse from the local authorities, UPS has pledged to construct a distribution complex with a workforce of 451 full-time employees and an accessed tax value in excess of $262.2 million.
During a hearing before Alamance County’s board of commissioners last summer, a company representative predicted that this new distribution hub would be operating at half capacity by 2023. He added that the facility would reach its full output of 30,000 packages an hour by 2024.
Meanwhile, on the Graham side of the industrial park, Amazon appears to be closing in on completing its own distribution center: https://alamancenews.com/construction-appears-to-be-entering-final-stages-for-amazon-center-in-graham/
