By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published March 20, 2009

About $4.6 million in federal money is headed to Orangeburg County for a road project to serve the developing Global Logistics Triangle, which is expected to eventually house thousands of square feet of industrial and warehouse space.

The money was included as an earmark in the budget bill President Barack Obama signed earlier this month. The project is for improvements to the interchange at Interstate 95 and U.S. Highway 301.

The Global Logistics Triangle is the name given to the area in Orangeburg County surrounded by Interstates 95 and 26 and U.S. Highway 301. It includes the existing Orangeburg City/County Industrial Park and the rural Santee sod farm where Jafza International plans to create a massive logistics hub. Jafza, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, estimates it could create almost 4,000 jobs there by 2020. That’s no small promise for a county that has suffered from years of high unemployment and poverty rates.

But Gregg Robinson, executive director of the Orangeburg County Economic Development Commission, cautioned against expecting too much too soon.

Jafza builds space on demand, not on a speculative basis, and how or whether the current economic downturn will temper the company’s vertical plans is unclear. But what is certain, Robinson said, is that nothing can happen until the infrastructure is in place to support the new business.

“We have to be realistic,” he said. “We are in a very significant downturn from a global standpoint. But what we have to recognize is that we cannot stop the infrastructure momentum, because once it’s there it can never be taken away from this area.”

The total cost of the interchange project is estimated at $25 million, Robinson said. The county is also working to secure funds to extend U.S. Highway 301 to S.C. Highway 6, a project that could cost upward of $35 million.

About $15 million has been secured for the road improvements thus far from a variety of federal, state and local sources, Robinson said. He also plans to lobby for some of South Carolina’s share of federal stimulus funds.

For Jafza’s part, the company is shifting its entire focus to its S.C. blueprint, putting other North American expansion plans on hold for the time being. Given current economic conditions and the fact that the S.C. project is the furthest along, Jafza is focused solely on its plans here, said Tara Robertson, community and government affairs coordinator for Jafza South Carolina, which is owned by Dubai World.

In February, Jafza sent out a request for qualifications to 78 civil engineering firms throughout the Southeast; it received a response from 21 of them. The next step is to pare the applications to about six to eight companies and solicit requests for proposals, Robertson said. Jafza plans to choose a civil engineering firm by summer that will be charged with the designing and building of the project’s infrastructure.

The horizontal phase is expected to wrap up by 2011, she said, at which time Jafza hopes to have at least one building out of the ground.

“If the economy changes in the next year or so, this could drive this project full speed ahead. At this time, we just have to evaluate the options and go with what’s best for the company,” Robertson said.

Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.