A 21-acre site beside Tanger Outlets, just over the Alamance County line on the Orange County side of Mebane, is being cleared and prepped for the construction of a 244,000 square foot spec warehouse that could also be outfitted for a light industrial project.
Dubbed Oakwood Commerce Center, the site is located between Armacell and Tanger Outlets and faces I-85/40.
Oakwood Commerce Center is being marketed as a “Class A” industrial/flex space by Colliers, a commercial real estate broker, and is targeted for completion by mid-2026.
The commerce center is being developed by the Keith Corporation, a commercial real estate firm in Charlotte whose portfolio includes the $120 million renovation of the 500,644-square foot American Tobacco campus in Durham in 2004, along with dozens of industrial parks, health-care facilities, spec buildings, and other projects along the Eastern Seaboard.
The Keith Corporation purchased the property from Armacell – which is located at 7600 Oakwood Street Extension in Mebane and had owned the property for years – for $1.2 million in December 2024, based on documents filed at the time with Orange County’s Register of Deeds.
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The property is being developed for lease or sale, though no tenant or user has been identified yet, Orange County officials confirmed this week for The Alamance News.
The location and plans for Oakwood Commerce Center are ideally suited for the region, Orange County officials told the newspaper Tuesday.
“Light industrial and logistics are two very strong business sectors in North Carolina right now,” Orange County economic developer Steve Brantley said, pointing to the slowdown in the development of indoor shopping malls and retail, generally, amid the ongoing shift to online commerce.
The developer recently cleared trees from the site, built a retention pond, and passed five erosion control inspections over the past two months, based on documents on file with Orange County’s planning department.
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Once construction is completed, the 36-foot tall spec building will have 35 trailer parking spaces for tractor-trailers to drop off or pick up deliveries; 159 traditional parking spaces; and 25 loading docks with overhead doors and room for additional overhead doors in the event of a future expansion.
Colliers’ marketing materials for Oakwood Commerce Center highlight the site’s proximity to two major airports – Raleigh-Durham International (35 miles away) and Piedmont Triad International (46 miles) – and six ports, including Wilmington (181 miles away) and Morehead City (196 miles).
The property is also less than a mile from I-85/40.
The marketing materials also tout North Carolina’s ranking as the best state for business in 2023, as well as 2025, based on 10 categories for competitiveness outlined in the latest survey published by CNBC in July 2025.
Other warehouse/light industrial projects planned near Buckhorn and West Ten roads
The site of the forthcoming Oakwood Commerce Center is located within Mebane’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and near several other planned and/or completed warehouse projects.
