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Chinese, American group plans ‘international city’
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Three black vehicles were parked outside a warehouse off a factory-lined street in North Charleston. Through an unmarked door and up the stairs waited Summer Xia.
The clandestine rendezvous, reminiscent of a scene from the movie “Chinatown,” was the location for a most unusual economic development announcement.
An investment group with ties to both the People’s Republic of China and to the Lowcountry has plans to create an “international city” of commerce and industry on 4,500 acres in Orangeburg County.
The World Trade City Orangeburg LLC currently has about 1,200 acres fronting Interstate 26 in Orangeburg under contract and holds letters of intent to purchase the remaining 3,300 acres, according to Xia, president of the investment group and of the World Trade Center Ningbo.
Development of the first 1,200 acres into a $100 million mixed-used logistics center combining office and exhibition space with warehousing and distribution facilities is expected to begin in the next six months and, depending on the needs of potential tenants, could begin earlier.
The first of four phases of development is expected to create about 1,000 jobs, Xia said. At full buildout, which is expected to take 10 to 15 years, the development should bring about $1 billion of investment to the state.
Local founding partners in the investment group include Jimmie Gianoukos, president and CEO of ATS Logistics who also is CEO of the new limited liability company, Mark Condon, former executive director of the S.C. World Trade Center and now chief operating officer of World Trade City Orangeburg LLC, and Dean Allen, a longtime commercial and industrial real estate broker who is broker in charge of World Trade Realty LLC and chief development officer of the group.
Richard Weiser, president and CEO of the Weiser Cos., the company behind the Centre Pointe development in North Charleston, has since signed on as a partner.
“What we want to do is turn ‘Made in China’ back into ‘Made in America’ by inviting Chinese manufacturers to establish facilities in Orangeburg,” said Xia, who spent a decade working for various trade-related government agencies in China before moving to the United States and becoming a U.S. citizen.
“But we won’t only serve Chinese companies — India, Japan and even tiny Singapore are all looking for ways to get into, and better serve, the U.S. market, and we’re also reaching out to European companies as well.”
About 600 of the initial 1,200 acres the group wants to develop are owned by Weathers Farms Inc., a company co-owned by S.C. Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers. An additional 300 acres is owned by Jim Roquemore, president of Super Sod Inc., while the remainder of the land belongs to Orangeburg County.
‘A good thing’
As envisioned by the investment group, the 4,500-acre development will consist of four zones: the initial mixed-use phase, a second zone more squarely focused on distribution and logistics, a third zone dedicated specifically to manufacturing and assembly and a fourth zone dedicated to what the group described as “high-end” residential development.
The development in Orangeburg, Xia said, could alleviate long-held fears that America’s huge trade imbalance with China has resulted in jobs going overseas.
“We’ll be creating jobs in South Carolina and creating goods here, taking a bite out of the trade imbalance,” he said. “That will make the American government happy and give the Chinese government a better face here. China’s investment in America is a good thing.”
The project is being entirely funded by private investment, Gianoukos said. Some sovereign funds might ultimately come from the Chinese government but only through its ownership of companies that choose to locate in Orangeburg.
“We didn’t want to complicate matters by having the Chinese government invest in the project at this time,” Xia said. “Getting governments involved sometimes only serves to complicate things.”
In a separate interview, Richard Weiser agreed.
“I don’t see any involvement by the Chinese government other than their steering Chinese companies to our project,” he said.
The group’s goal, he said, was to “seize the tremendous economic opportunities that abound right now in China, other parts of Asia and the Pacific Rim.”
A land of potential
Weiser, who was briefly involved in CaroLinks’ now-abandoned plans to build a logistics facility in the heart of Orangeburg’s Global Logistics Triangle — land that now belongs to Dubai-based Jafza International — said his experience with that project convinced him that Orangeburg County’s economic promise is for real.
“I mean, I believe in Orangeburg, and after Jafza got involved, I could see that it’s an area that’s absolutely going to be exploding within the next five years,” he said. “It’s a county where there’s a lot of opportunity and a lot of room.”
The plan put forward by the World Trade City Orangeburg LLC calls for the creation of a hub that would be anchored by one or more buildings with office, exhibition and showcase space for international companies.
The plan is similar to the long-planned S.C. World Trade Center building that was to be constructed next to the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston. That venture remains on hold.
The foreign trade showcase concept is one that’s proved successful in other countries, Condon said. He said it would allow companies to exhibit their products in Orangeburg to buyers from across the United States.
“At the same time, we want to go beyond simply supplying them with exhibit space. We want to create a living support system for the companies we serve,” Xia said. “You know, many international companies come to the United States without a firm grounding in the American legal system. We’d like to help them learn it.”
Other businesses and investors, particularly from China, will come to this country without a firm grasp of English. The World Trade City will support them as they start to do business in the United States, Xia said.
“We’re going to be about social support as well as business support,” he said.
The plan is not to create an isolated island of international companies and their workers. It is to create an industrial center that blends with the rest of South Carolina, Condon said.
As development of the Orangeburg site continues, the group will apply for designation of the site as a foreign trade zone, he said.
In marketing its site, the partnership is emphasizing Orangeburg County’s location, which it describes as midway between Miami and New York City, or “within a day’s drive of all the major metropolitan areas in the eastern United States.”
Xia produced several lists of companies he said the group is targeting as potential tenants. One list included the names of 551 electronics and appliances firms. Another contained the names of hundreds of automotive parts manufacturers.
Fruitful area
“Given the state’s strength in the automotive sector, we think this will be a particularly fruitful area for us,” he said.
Weiser said the group will look to tax increment financing and other funding and grants to help move construction forward. Beyond that, he said the plan is to create the infrastructure for the entire site, to subdivide it into lots and then to either build custom facilities for specific companies or to sell the companies a space on which they can build their own facilities.
“It’s pretty obvious we are going to have to build a certain amount of infrastructure. You have to spend money to make money,” Weiser said.
Gregg Robinson, executive director of the Orangeburg County Development Commission, declined to comment on the project, other than to say, “It’s nice to be under consideration for exciting opportunities. However, we have a long way to go and a lot of work ahead. It should be a great ride.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@scbiznews.com
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