Bulldozer Work in Blue Ridge Greenville County Sc
- Park stretches across 745 acres in south of Interstate 185 in Piedmont
- Vermeer has hired 30, plans another 25
- Company had been looking 18 months for a suitable site
In a sign of potentially more good things to come the South Greenville Enterprise Park — the county's first new industrial park in 20 years — is set to gain its first tenant by early 2021.
On Thursday, Vermeer Co., an Iowa-based heavy equipment manufacturer, closed on a 43-acre parcel in the park off U.S. 25 in Piedmont. It will be home to a new 150,000-square-foot manufacturing plant.
"We're building it with the intent to grow," Vermeer spokeswoman Liz Sporrer said.
Vermeer, a family-owned company whose founder invented the round hay baler, makes a variety of agricultural and industrial equipment. Outside the U.S., it operates in Brazil and Singapore and has plants in the Netherlands and China. The Greenville plant makes vacuum excavators — useful in the laying of underground utility lines.
With land ready for development growing increasingly scarce in Greenville County — including quick access to transportation, sewer and water infrastructure — site selection experts have told The Greenville News in recent years that the area has missed out on economic development prospects.
Park stretches across 745 acres south of Interstate 185 in Piedmont
The South Greenville Enterprise Park currently includes 745 acres of land owned by five different families who have agreed to a strict set of zoning rules created just for this park, said Mark Farris, who leads economic development for Greenville County as president of the Greenville Area Development Corp.
"We, thank goodness, got utilities worked out in this area," Farris said. "We're also close to another piece of property we're working on further south. We're adding to our inventory finally after a couple of decades of not having any product."
More:Greenville County official's family owns 149 acres where new business park off U.S. 25 planned
Doug Hundt, president of the company's industrial division, said he could not disclose how much they paid for the acreage but said it was a "sizable investment." The new plant will be triple the size of their existing one.
"We are 72 years in business," Hundt said. "When we commit to an area, we commit to an area long-term. The reason we have more land than we need right now is we think this is going to be a great opportunity to grow our presence over time."
Vermeer has created 30 jobs in Greenville since 2017 and plans to add another 25 jobs at the new site, said Lisa Holcomb, head of human resources for Vermeer in Greenville. Most of the jobs are in welding and assembly, Sporrer said.
"Our equipment is very complex," she said. "It is hand assembled using hand tools."
Vermeer deal is a 'project to build on'
Company officials were meeting with architects Thursday about the building's design — which will include 40-foot ceilings for much larger equipment.
Spartanburg developer John Montgomery, who has worked with property owners on bringing the South Greenville Enterprise Park together, said Vermeer is the kind of company — with more than $1 billion in business last year — that could attract new property owners and potential tenants. The park's creation first went public in February when Montgomery presented the first four of what would be seven individual parcels for industrial park rezoning. But efforts to create the park date back to at least 2006.
"What we need is that first project to build on," Montgomery said. "This is what we've been working on for the last several years, is to position the property for projects just like this."
This particular deal with Vermeer started about 18 months ago, Farris said, as the search began to find a suitable spot for the company. The Vermeer plant will be on the east side of U.S. 25, just north of the highway's intersection with Sandy Springs Road in Piedmont.
Company is leaving Donaldson to build at new park
In a tax incentive package the Greenville County Council passed unanimously earlier this week, Vermeer agreed to invest $19.8 million over the next five years and add 25 jobs. In exchange, the company's tax rate was reduced to 6% over the next 30 years, a sharp reduction from the 10% rate industries otherwise pay. Vermeer also received grants through the state and through utility partners Duke Energy and Piedmont Gas, though exact figures were not available this week.
This will be a relocation for Vermeer, which had operated out of a leased, 49,000-square-foot building on a 7-acre site at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center, previously known as the Donaldson Center. Vermeer took on the site when it purchased the vacuum excavator business from another manufacturer, McLaughlin, in 2017.
Key to the future:How 250 acres off the Southern Connector could unlock Greenville's economic future
Plant General Manager Dave Van Wyk said finding a site close by — the new industrial park is just five miles away — was important to the company's current employees.
"Obviously we hadn't developed a new business park in 20 years in Greenville, so we are very excited for what the potential is for the assortment of properties in that general area," Farris said. "Not just this but five or six in the area that we are working on to bind and make a signature property to hopefully give us options going forward."
Source: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/money/2019/12/06/new-industrial-park-south-greenville-sc-welcomes-1st-tenant/2587463001/
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