Red Rock Begins Work on SC Distribution Facility

Sandy Run Industrial Park facility. Image courtesy of Colliers

Red Rock Developments, of Columbia, S.C., has gotten site work under way for the first speculative distribution facility at the company’s Sandy Run Industrial Park, along I-26, about 20 miles southeast of Columbia. Colliers will handle marketing and leasing for the building.

The 497,952-square-foot, cross-dock, speculative Class A facility is expandable to 663,836 square feet and will feature 36-foot clear ceilings. It’s scheduled to deliver in the second quarter of 2023.

The site has direct access from I-26 and is also accessible to I-77, I-20 and I-95; Columbia Metropolitan Airport; and the Port of Charleston.

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The building is being represented by Chuck Salley, Dave Matthews, Thomas Beard and John Peebles of Colliers | South Carolina.

Red Rock is the exclusive developer for speculative and build-to-suit buildings at the park and plans to eventually complete more than 5.9 million square feet of Class A industrial space in the park. The property covers 761 acres in Calhoun and Lexington counties.

The company is privately held and has developed more than 30 million square feet of Class A industrial and office space.

Can’t build fast enough

At an overall vacancy of just 4.2 percent, the metro Columbia industrial space market is tight, with new buildings not being completed quickly enough to satisfy demand, following a 2021 that saw barely more than 300,000 square feet being delivered, according to a fourth-quarter report from Colliers.

Absorption could have been higher had there been the space to absorb, so tenants are increasingly looking at leasing space a year or more in advance of buildings being delivered, the report adds. On the other hand, Colliers is tracking a development pipeline of at least 1.8 million square feet to be built this year and next.

A year ago, Red Rock teamed up with Westport Capital Partners on the former’s first project in metro Richmond, Va., a 353,000-square-foot Class A building intended for manufacturing or logistics users. The project is in Meadowville Technology Park, which is owned by the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority.