COLUMBIA, S.C. — Miller-Valentine Group has broken ground for the newest building within Columbia's Lexington County Industrial Park. The company will develop a new build-to-suit distribution facility for Republic National Distributing Co. (RNDC), the nation's second largest wine and spirits distributor.
The distribution facility will total 206,500 square feet.Ę In addition to warehouse space, it will contain 20,000 square feet of office, conference and training space. The building will serve as the distributor's new South Carolina headquarters, replacing a smaller facility it currently occupies less than a mile away. It is expected to be operational by September.
For Miller-Valentine Group, the announcement of this build-to-suit represents the third big tenant to come to Lexington County Industrial Park in the past year.
What we're seeing is a return on our investment in the park, says Derek Mathis, a developer with Miller-Valentine.
Five years ago, Miller-Valentine invested in the struggling industrial park with the intention of turning it into a Class A property. It partnered with the park's owners and became the preferred developer, which has allowed Miller-Valentine develop the park to its specifications and control the quality of new projects within it.
And companies have taken notice. Husqvarna occupies a majority of Midway Logistics I, a 176,000-square-foot building that Miller-Valentine developed on spec. Shortly after, The Home Depot chose the park for its new rapid deployment center. Miller Valentine is currently in the planning stages for another 200,000-square-foot, speculative building named Midway Logistic II. While construction will begin on it once a tenant goal is met, the companies that currently occupy Lexington County Industrial Park will make that goal easier to obtain.
Having these folks, with names like Home Depot and Husqvarna, in your park really gives it a lot of credibility in the marketplace as a premier distribution location on the East Coast, Mathis says.
Ń Coleman Wood