DP World planning for future of Santee park

DP World Americas plans to develop parcels at its 1,322-acre “South Carolina Gateway” Industrial Park in Santee for the placement of speculative buildings.

Orangeburg County Council agreed Monday to provide DP World with financial incentives to develop parcels for future buildings.

Council gave unanimous first reading to an ordinance placing the parcels into a multi-county industrial/business park with Dorchester County.

The multi-county park is an incentive mechanism designed to encourage economic development.

Orangeburg County attorney Jerrod Anderson said the company wants the multicounty industrial park designation “to woo lessors to the county to lease and do business in the county.”

Two pads have been built at the site to house future speculative buildings.

One pad is on a 22-acre site and will house a 250,000-square-foot speculative building.

The other pad is on a 20-acre site and will house a 125,000-square-foot speculative building, according to the project’s website.

The 125,000-square-foot building will be an expandable Class A structure with tilt walls that can be subdivided for smaller users.

The park’s master plan projects upwards of 6.5 million square feet of building space.

About 350 acres are currently available for sale or built-to-suit development at DP World Americas. According to an OCDC flyer, about 806 acres of the site can be developed.

Project officials say the park can handle industrial, warehousing, manufacturing and ancillary services.

DP World America’s plans are just the latest movement at the park.

Georgia-based shelling company Premium Peanut announced that it plans to invest $64 million in the park and to bring 130 new jobs to the area over the next five years.

The investment will include $27.5 million in buildings and $36.8 million in equipment. The company will occupy about 42 acres.

The DP World Americas site has power through Tri-County Electric Cooperative, natural gas from Dominion, water from the Lake Marion Regional Water System, sewer service from Orangeburg County/Santee, telecommunications through Verizon and Frontier and fire protection from the Santee Fire Service and Orangeburg County Fire Service.

The site also has access to CSX rail.

The property is also certified by the S.C. Department of Commerce, meaning that substantial wetlands, environmental, geotechnical and archaeological studies have been performed.