A spec bldg. beside Amazon is half the size of
potential 788K square-foot bldg. across Kimrey Road
The brisk pace of warehouse building projects in and around Graham appears to be continuing into 2023, as construction of one spec warehouse is underway, while another proposed warehouse of up to 788,550-square feet is also being marketed as a build-to-suit property for a warehouse/logistics company or tenant.
The larger of the two latest projects, for the proposed warehouse that could span up to 788,550 square feet, is currently being marketed through the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC), which works with the governor’s office and N.C. Department of Commerce to lure new companies to set up operations in the state.
Windsor Development Group of Greensboro began construction on the 296,940-square foot “spec” warehouse – dubbed “Alamance Ridge II” and located on 36 acres of land at 2130 Kimrey Road (on the corner with Governor Scott Farm Road) – late last year, based on documents that have been filed with the county’s Register of Deeds.
The Alamance Ridge II project is located within the North Carolina Commerce Park, based on a digital brochure that a commercial real estate firm has developed in collaboration with the N.C. Commerce Park, an 1,100-acre industrial park located between Mebane and Graham in the Hawfields community.
Alamance Ridge II is currently being offered for lease by Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm headquartered in Chicago with multiple offices in North Carolina, according to the firm’s brochure.
The second proposed warehouse – spanning up to 788,550 square feet on 68.70 acres at an unaddressed location along Kimrey Road, across the road from the other warehouse – would be built near the Walmart distribution center, as well as distribution centers for Amazon, Lidl, and United Parcel Service in the N.C. Commerce Park.
If built to the maximum square footage envisioned, at 788,550 square feet, the larger proposed warehouse would be the third-largest in the county, behind the UPS and Lidl distribution centers but ahead of the nearby 461,516-square foot Walmart distribution center at 2811 Sen. Ralph Scott Parkway.
That project is currently dubbed “Alamance Ridge III” and is located beside (but not within) the N.C. Commerce Park, according to the EDPNC, which is helping to market the property.
Alamance County tax administrator Jeremy Akins also confirmed for the newspaper Wednesday morning that the first warehouse project, Alamance Ridge II, appears to be inside the Hawfields industrial park, while the second site (the 68.70-acre property) appears to be beside it, based on Alamance County’s GIS mapping system.
While the city of Graham had previously annexed the 36-acre site for the spec warehouse (Alamance Ridge II) – and thus, extend water and sewer service to the property – the city has yet to receive a request to annex or provide water/sewer service to the 68.70-acre site (Alamance Ridge III), Graham’s assistant city manager Aaron Holland confirmed Tuesday for The Alamance News.
“We don’t know who’s going there [or] what level of service they may need,” Holland told the newspaper Tuesday morning. “They might want to hook on to utilities…it depends on what kind of end-user they may have. As far as logistics is concerned, that’s sort of the niche [for that area].”
Both of the latest warehouse projects are located near another 33.78-acre site at 3875 Sen. Ralph Scott Parkway that Graham had annexed several years ago. That site includes a 296,940-square foot warehouse, which is currently leased to Amazon and known as “Alamance Ridge I,” based on documents on file with the Register of Deeds’ office.
David Putnam, senior director of economic development for the Alamance County area Chamber of Commerce, shed more light this week on the two latest warehouse projects that are in progress or planned just outside the Graham’s current municipal limits.
Windsor Development, the contractor for the 296,940-square foot warehouse, is working directly with Cushman & Wakefield to market the property to prospective tenants, Putnam said in an interview Tuesday. “It is an industrial distribution building,” he confirmed for the newspaper.
On the other hand, the larger proposed warehouse project, Alamance Ridge III, “is a green field right now, pretty much a blank site,” Putnam explained. “I don’t have any building plans in front of me right now to attest to the full stature [of what’s envisioned there.] Right now, I don’t have anything that indicates any plans have been approved.
“Brokers can market a build-to-suit opportunity; they can market for an industry or an end-user to build whatever they can use [the site] for,” Putnam added. “I don’t have anything that says a client is on the line; Cushman & Wakefield is just marketing it.”
