Equus Capital Builds Spec Warehouse in South Carolina

95 Inland Port Logistics Center. Image courtesy of Equus Capital Partners Ltd.

Equus Capital Partners Ltd. has broken ground on 95 Inland Port Logistics Center, a speculative warehouse project in Dillon County, S.C., near the North Carolina-South Carolina border. The 373,100-square-foot, Class A facility is sprouting up less than one mile from the new Inland Port Dillon.

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95 Inland Port Logistics Center is taking shape on a 30-acre site along Interstate 95, neighboring the Florence-Myrtle Beach submarket. But it’s the project’s proximity to the Inland Port Dillon, which reached completion at the hands of the South Carolina Ports Authority in 2018, that will serve as the main draw. “Demand in the area prior to the IPD was very thin and the driver for this project of ours is certainly the IPD; we anticipate that the demand will rise considerably because of the port’s presence,” Daniel DiLella Jr, senior vice president at Equus Capital Partners Ltd., told Commercial Property Executive.

Equus has tapped Bob Barrineau and Brendan Redeyoff of CBRE, along with Drew Chaplin of Palmetto Commercial Real Estate, to spearhead leasing at 95 Inland Port Logistics Center, which is designed to accommodate either a single tenant or multiple users. BPG Development Co. LP, Equus’ development division, is overseeing construction of the project as general contractor.

Turning point

The Inland Port Dillon, developed at a cost of $50 million to accommodate increasing intermodal rail cargo volumes, is sparking significant change in Dillon County. “This is an area that was hit hard by the now-absence of textile and tobacco industries. This is an area where development has not been very prevalent, so this project is a unique opportunity for us as a company to be part of creating opportunity in an area where there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity over the past 10 years or so,” said DiLella. The 95 Inland Port Logistics Center site has no remaining space for additional development; however, Equus is looking at other land in the area for future projects.  

No prelease required

Equus has no qualms about developing industrial facilities without a lease commitment in place—under the right circumstances. The developer and private equity real estate fund manager has other speculative projects in the works, including a 350,000-square-foot building in Winchester, Va., roughly 75 miles west of Washington, D.C., and a 1.1 million-square-foot facility in the Central Pennsylvania town of Shippensburg. “The Mid-Atlantic population centers really are the driver for these two projects,” DiLella added. 95 Inland Port Logistics Center is on track to reach completion in October 2020.