Business

Business Primed for New

Growth The Lake Norman area partners businesses with the perfect space

COMPILED FROM STAFF REPORTS

BRYTON COMMERCE CENTER IN HUNTERSVILLE.

The Lake Norman area is primed for new business development, with much of the recent growth planned for Huntersville. There is currently over 6 million square feet of speculative space in planning, review or under construction.

Below are a few speculative development projects of note as of June 2022:

• NorthCross Commerce Center has two buildings completed being 331,000 square feet and the other being 114,000. Two more buildings are planned for this site as well. •Bryton Commerce Center has completed three buildings totaling 350,000 square feet with plans for Phase 2, which is now under construction. •Selwyn Property Group completed a speculative building off Alexandriana Road that will be just over 100,000 square feet. •Scannell Properties has completed two buildings in The Park Huntersville that total 231,000 square feet. •Johnson Development has an industrial speculative building under construction in The Park Huntersville, which will total around 150,000 square feet. •Trinity Capital Advisors currently has 225,000 square feet under construction in Huntersville. • Two new Class–A industrial buildings are going up on Baily Road in Cornelius. One building will be 85,000 square feet, the other 110,250. •IDI Logistics is developing the 77 North Logistics Center, 153,990 square foot industrial building right off Mt. Holly- Huntersville Road in Huntersville. •In August 2021, Safeguard Medical announced moving its headquarters to The Park Huntersville, occupying 159,120 square-feet of the Edgewater Ventures and Alidade Capital industrial building. •In April of 2022, Financial Independence Group purchased a five-acre site in Cornelius which will house its new 80,000 square feet corporate campus.

Photography courtesy of Lake Norman Economic Development YOKOHAMA’S FACILITY IN CORNELIUS.

OERLIKON, A SWISS TECH CONGLOMERATE, INVESTED $62 MILLION TO BUILD A NEW 105,000-SQUARE-FOOT FACILITY IN HUNTERSVILLE’S THE PARK.

SPANISH PACKAGING COMPANY DAUMAR CHOSE HUNTERSVILLE’S THE PARK AS ITS NEW NORTH AMERICAN BASE OF OPERATIONS AND WILL FILL 40 JOBS TO WORK OUT OF A 120,000-SQUARE-FOOT FACILITY WORTH $21 MILLION.

Photography courtesy of Lake Norman Economic Development

Photography courtesy of Lake Norman Economic Development

This activity comes after years of work by Ryan McDaniels, head of Lake Norman Economic Development (LNED) and other local leaders to attempt to spur development. McDaniels’ focus now shifts from eagerly pursuing development to finding tenants to occupy the high volume of space that is coming to Huntersville. His team at LNED has done so by adding more virtual tours of sites, he says.

“It is exciting for us because I know we’ve missed deals because we just simply haven’t had the right product, and now we’re going to have that option.”

North Mecklenburg is in a competitive position for international projects due to being located just 20 minutes from Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The Charlotte airport is the 6th busiest airport in the world and is home to the second largest hub for American Airlines. The airport is an international gateway with numerous non-stop services to 175 cities including London, Frankfurt, and Munich.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport also has a 200-acre intermodal facility that is strategically positioned creating an intermodal hub linking air, rail, and truck to East Coast seaports. The facility, which is capable of 200,000 lifts annually, transfers containers between trucks and trains, and connects to the intermodal facilities at the Port of Charleston.

The following companies continue to be Lake Norman’s biggest employers, a list which has remained relatively unchanged over the past few years. Trane continues to lead the way with 1,600 employees on its Davidson campus, followed by Davidson College with 750 and MSC (350). McGuire Nuclear Station tops the list for Huntersville at 1,200 employees, followed by Novant Health (690), Metrolina Greenhouses (650), Joe Gibbs Racing (650) and Rubbermaid (400).