By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published Aug. 19, 2009

Lowcountry economic development officials are in hot pursuit of a business deal dubbed Project Neptune that, if nabbed, would serve as the anchor tenant for a planned distribution park in Jedburg.

The unnamed company would immediately become the S.C. State Ports Authority’s fourth-largest business customer, said State Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau. “It’s a significant amount of volume” that would be imported through Charleston, he said.

“We really need that anchor tenant locating,” Grooms said. “Once that is signed, you build the rest. It’s kind of like a mall.”

The business is eyeing a site in Jedburg owned jointly by The Rockefeller Group out of New York and Virginia-based MeadWestvaco. The company is also looking at sites in Savannah, Ga., and Norfolk, Va., said Ken Seeger, who is president of MeadWestvaco’s Community Development and Land Management Group, which is based out of Summerville.

Ed Guiltinan, vice president and regional director of Rockefeller’s Jedburg project, said he is bound by confidentially agreements from discussing any potential transactions.

“We’re actively pursuing every deal in the market,” Guiltinan said.

MeadWestvaco and Rockefeller Group plan to eventually build 2.7 million square feet of warehousing and light industrial space on a 400-acre plot.

Dallas-based Hillwood Development Co. and Trammell Crow Co. also are planning commerce parks in Jedburg, in addition to the facilities already operating there that are owned or have been sold off by Spartanburg-based Johnson Development Associates.

In total, the area — considered a prime location because of its proximity to the Port of Charleston and Interstates 26 and 95 — is expected to eventually house a combined 17 million square feet of industrial space.

All of the developers had planned to have buildings out of the ground by now, though the recession has slowed movement and scrapped plans for speculative building.

Neptune is the god of the sea in Roman mythology.

Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.