By Rachel Pleasant
Contributing Writer

The arrival of Road King Trailers to St. George means a lot of things: new jobs, a boost to the county’s tax base and yet another success in a speculative building project Dorchester County began in 1992.

Family-owned Road King Trailers, with 90 employees in its Ocala, Fla., and Asheville, N.C., locations, manufactures boat and utility trailers.

The company recently purchased a 10,000-square-foot building—constructed on a speculative basis by the city of St. George, Dorchester County and Edisto Electric Cooperative—at New Century Industrial Park.

The ready-to-go St. George building persuaded Road King to set up shop in Dorchester county rather than James Island and Monck’s Corner, two other areas the company had considered, says Brett Gowans, operations manger. The company expects to create 30 new jobs—with starting wages ranging from $8 to $12.50 an hour—and invest nearly $600,000 in the community, including upgrades to the building and employee training.

For Jim Friar, Dorchester county’s economic development director, and other economic development officials, the Road King deal is further validation of the 13-year-old initiative. Taxes collected on the Road King property will equal millions, says Friar.

“These things have to have social value,” Friar says. “It increases the tax base and that supports local government and schools.”

“Sixty percent of your economic development deals revolve around buildings,” Friar says. “If a building is already completed, you save 10 to 12 months of construction time. There is no site work to be done. But in many communities, the private sector doesn’t build spec industrial space.”

Since 1992, in an effort to fill the void of speculative industrial space, Dorchester county has partnered with private companies to build needed facilities.

To date, the county has built five speculative buildings and has a sixth in the works.

The other four are in Eastport Industrial Park in Summerville, and are occupied by Albert Weber, an auto parts manufacturer; Lauscha Fiber, a maker of filtration fabrics; DBW Advanced Fiber Technologies, an auto components company; and Quality Marble, which makes cultured marble for residential, commercial and industrial use.

Another site in Summerville has been sold and construction should begin in two to three months. Friar would not disclose what company will move into this facility but said it would deal with “metal fabrication.” 

The speculative buildings range from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet and cost to build also varies. The Road King facility, for instance, cost $250,000, money that came from government funding, grants and bank loans.

Road King purchased the building at cost. “We just want to break even on the price,” Friar says.

Dorchester county’s speculative building efforts aren’t unique. Friar says other areas of the state, including Greenville and Spartanburg, have built speculative facilities.

But Dorchester county pursues smaller companies–not the big fishes other communities try to catch, he says.

“That way we don’t have all our eggs in one basket,” Friar says.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122