Mortgage Broker in Ridgeville, SC

A Charlotte-based real estate developer has revealed the next phase of a large mixed-use park in Ridgeville.

Childress Klein, the project’s developer, and Altus Equity Group Inc., a real estate sponsor, operator and investment company, said the finalization of securing an $86.5 million loan needed for construction of their industrial project located in the Camp Hall Commerce Park has been arranged with New York Life Real Estate Investors, according to an Altus Equity Group Inc news release.

This is said to be one of the largest historical spec build industrial projects within Charleston proper with the Camp Hall Commerce Park Campus 8, the next phase of the larger Camp Hall mixed-use park, equaling more than 1.4 million square feet, according to the release.

“While construction started in June of last year, we are pleased to announce the closing of our financing for this project,” said Matt Harper, partner at Childress Klein. “Despite some headwinds in the capital markets, we were able to secure attractive financing through New York Life Real Estate Investors and look forward to working with them to complete construction in the second half of this year.”

Camp Hall has been ranked by “Business Facilities Magazine’s” annual rankings as the No. 7 best industrial park in the nation in 2022 – and the only industrial park to make the list in the Southeast. Moreover, the project’s access to Interstate 26 provides convenient connection to the logistics and distribution capabilities of the Charleston market, including the Port of Charleston and Charleston International Airport, the release said.

“We are extremely excited about this project,” said Andrew Eicher, Altus Equity senior vice president. “Charleston is a strong economic center with growing industrial demand from manufacturing, logistics, and the continued growth of the Port of Charleston. There are many complications in a deal of this size, and we appreciate the attentiveness of the local and state governments to the project. In addition to our trusted local industry relationships, Camp Hall and Santee Cooper were instrumental in working through challenges as they arose during the pre-construction phases.”

Construction started in June upon purchase of the land, which was facilitated by Cushman and Wakefield’s Charleston Office. The Charleston office of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc has been selected as the leasing broker for the project by the combined management team, the release said.

Childress Klein has developed more than 51 million square feet of commercial real estate and owns assets valued at more than $3 billion.

“We continue to see opportunities in construction lending and look forward towards solidifying and expanding our relationships with top tier sponsors such as Childress Klein and Altus," said Elizabeth Roy, New York Life Real Estate Investors’ Structured Debt Team senior director.

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A “significant” data center development is coming to Ridgeville, South Carolina.

According to Dominion letters sent to the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, a company called Mallard, LLC is proposing ‘Project Dawson’; a data center development on land near Research Center Drive in Ridgeville, in South Carolina’s Dorchester County.

The site, located to the northeast of Charleson, will have its own substation. Information about the site’s planned capacity – along with timelines – has been redacted.

Dominion said Mallard was investing a “significant” amount of capital into the project, which will represent a “substantial load” for the energy firm.

As reported by the Post and Courier, the company is being offered a special "economic development rider" rate that amounts to 6 cents for every kilowatt hour of power – half of what residential customers pay.

The SC Public Service Commission has to review any such deals, but is yet to set a meeting date.

John Truluck, Dorchester County's economic development director, told the publication he has not heard of Mallard LLC.

The Post notes the data center's location is the same parcels where a company operating as Autumn Timber LLC previously proposed to invest $510 million on an unspecified development at the Pine Hill Business Campus off Highway 17A.

Autumn Timber previously used ‘Project Dawson’ on a permit application with the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control. Dorchester County Council last month approved tax breaks, a water-service agreement, and a land deal for Autumn Timber – which has previously filed plans under ‘Project Orchid’.

Dorchester County officials previously agreed to sell about 268 acres it owns at Pine Hill Business Campus to Autumn Timber for $5.84 million.

The Post linked Mallard to Google, as the manager of the shell company is one David Thomas. A Google director of corporate strategy named David Thomas has previously been named on other Google-affiliated public documents.

Google currently operates a South Carolina data center campus in Moncks Corner, around 20 miles east of Ridgeville. The company recently acquired another 140 acres in the area.

Elsewhere in South Carolina, a company hiding behind the shell company Starskey LLC is proposing ‘Project Sabal’, which is reportedly a data center development outside Augusta in Graniteville, Aiken County. County officials granted tax incentives to Starskey earlier this year. The company reportedly acquired around 573 acres in the Sage Mill Industrial Park for $19.2 million last year. It's unclear if Starskey/Sabal are linked to Google or Mallard.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the name of the deceased.

The Dorchester County Coroner has identified a woman found with her automobile in a pond near Ridgeville.

Doris T. Gallardo, 85, of Eutawville, was found in a pond near the Walmart Distribution Center in Ridgeville Friday, Nov. 17, at approximately 7:15 a.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:58 a.m. by Dorchester County Coroner Paul J. Brouthers.

An autopsy was conducted on Gallardo Saturday, Nov. 18, at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her cause of death was determined to be drowning and the manner of death is accidental.

The Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office and Dorchester County Coroner’s Office are investigating.

Multiple agencies responded to the call at 7:24 a.m. and as first responders arrived, they discovered a vehicle submerged in the retention pond. Lt. Rick Carson of the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office said it was determined at that time there was a fatality associated with the incident.

Out of 111 Girl Scout councils across the United States, the local Girl Scouts of Eastern SC were the No. 1 sellers of Girl Scout cookies this past year.

While rising costs put a pinch on wallets, Girl Scout cookies within the Eastern SC council remain $4 a box. The promotion is being billed as “Still 4 in 24,” as cookie prices are still $4 a box in 2024.

The cookie sale officially began on Jan. 13, and booth sales started on Jan. 19. Booth sales are the locations where Girl Scouts are seen selling cookies at familiar big box stores and small businesses. The cookie season runs through March 17.

To find a nearby cookie location, text “cookies” to 59618. Explore cookie flavors and varieties at bit.ly/ourcookieflavors.

To speak with a Girl Scout Troop, council official or volunteer, call or text communications director Donna Lee at 843-568-1292 to be connected with someone locally.

The Girl Scout cookie sale and entrepreneur program aims to teach five essential skills:

Follow Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina (GSESC) to keep up with booth locations and other opportunities at www.facebook.com/GirlScoutsESC.

Girl Scouts range in age from kindergarteners to seniors in high school.

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By Christmas, Redwood Materials, a producer and recycler of anode and cathode battery components for electric vehicles, expects to be operating out of its 600-acre site at Camp Hall Commerce Park in Ridgeville.

“We are very much ‘building the plane as we fly it,’ which means building smaller buildings, getting production up and going while we're building other multimillion square foot (sized) facilities so we can scale and grow into those,” said Alexis Georgeson, vice president of communications and government relations for Redwood Materials at a Feb. 15 breakfast hosted by the Berkeley County Chamber of Commerce.

In late 2022, Nevada-based Redwood Materials — founded by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel —announced its $3.5 billion investment to establish operations in Berkeley County, marking the largest economic development announcement in the history of South Carolina. The company expects to create 1,500 new jobs over the next 10 years.

“Research and development a big part of our focus and there will be a lot of that happening at the Berkeley campus. We hope to be working very closely with ReadySC on a lot of worker training,” Georgeson told a packed house at the South Carolina Aeronautical Training Center at Trident Technical College.

Redwood Materials, created in 2017, is the first company in the world that recycles used electric vehicle batteries and other types of batteries to extract crucial components that can then be sent to car manufacturers to be put into new electric vehicle batteries. Currently, those components exclusively come from Asia.

“Our business model is a little bit different than some other battery recyclers (in that) they're not going further downstream and doing the refining. Unless you're going further into the refining process, you're actually having to export the material and relying on another country to refine it for you,” Georgeson said. “We feel the pressure every single day to get up and going as quickly as possible and be able to feed (automakers) these components domestically. They don't have any plans other than to send $150 billion overseas to Asia right now to source these components.”

Redwood Materials works with auto dismantlers to source used and end-of-life electric vehicle batteries, either when a car reaches the end of its life or was crashed and no longer drivable, Georgeson said.

“Until now, (dismantlers) haven't had a downstream plan for these batteries. They've pretty much been just storing them and waiting for someone like Redwood to come along and take these batteries off their hands,” Georgeson said. “We go into the field, we send our own fleet of trucks and collect these thousand-pound batteries safely, package them and transport them.”

One of Redwood Materials’ largest customers is Panasonic, which manufactures Tesla electric vehicles at Tesla’s gigafactory. Panasonic will be sourcing both anode and cathode battery components from Redwood.

“The beauty of these (components) is that they can be infinitely recycled,” Georgeson said. “At a certain point where our population starts (swapping) an internal combustion engine for an electric vehicle — and if you believe that at some point, we will all be driving electric vehicles — we can hit a plateau where we’re recycling one vehicle to create a new vehicle and we’re no longer having to mine these materials (from the Earth). That's really a future that we firmly believe is not too far off.”

Georgeson said Redwood Materials is continuously looking to streamline operations and open up new recycling avenues and opportunities—including a direct consumer recycling program for household electronics.

“We send graphite recovered in our mining process downstream for industrial lubrication. We’ve got gypsum as part of our downstream product and we send that to drywall manufacturers,” Georgeson said. “Everything that's recovered in the process is reused or sent to another partner that needs it in their process. In terms of rail and trucking, we anticipate using rail very heavily on the (Camp Hall) site.”

Since recycling is the hallmark of the company, the Berkeley County facility will use renewable energy to power its operations and water used in its hydro operations will be continuously recycled.

“Our facility in Nevada, as well as the one in Berkeley County, will use one hundred percent renewable energy and have no wastewater,” Georgeson said. “Our Nevada facility took twelve months from breaking ground to products coming out of the facility. We move fast. The ability to get going on the Camp Hall site very quickly was a critical factor for us, as well as being located in a great central downtown where we knew we'd be able to recruit and retain talent.”

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - A cold storage solutions company plans to invest more than $70 million to establish operations in Dorchester County, the governor’s office announced Thursday.

Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics is a third-party cold chain services provider that focuses on handling, storage, distribution and value-added services for the food industry. The company works to bridge supply gaps within the cold chain industry through modern cold storage warehouse development and services.

“We are extremely excited about this project and want to express our sincere thanks to the South Carolina Ports Authority, Dorchester County, our Saxum Real Estate partners, the Governor and the Department of Commerce in the great state of South Carolina for their support,” Arcadia CEO Chris Hughes said. “We are very bullish on the Charleston market — the advantages of the Port of Charleston as a Southeast gateway out of and into the U.S. — and on our ability to provide the specialized and unique handling and storage services that will be required for retailers, frozen and refrigerated food manufacturers, and fruit and produce importers to grow their market share in the region. Most importantly, we are proud to bring new jobs to Dorchester County and the surrounding communities.”

The new operation, which will be located at the Ridgeville Industrial Campus, will support high-volume throughput handling services including a variety of value-added services, full pallet handling, case picking and transportation management. The company will utilize the Port of Charleston to support both import and export trade.

“The demand for efficient food distribution across the United States will only continue to grow, and it’s innovative companies like Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics that are answering the call and addressing supply gaps,” Gov. Henry McMaster said. “We are proud to welcome this company to Dorchester County, and look forward to the positive impact they will make in South Carolina and on the U.S. food supply chain.”

The company expects the investment will create 69 new jobs.

“We are excited to welcome Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics to Dorchester County and celebrate the 69 new jobs that the company will create,” Secretary of Commerce Harry Lightsey said. “South Carolina’s talented workforce, ideal East Coast location and efficient infrastructure network make our state the perfect location for Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics’ new operations.”

The facility is expected to be operational by early 2024. Those interested in joining the Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics team should visit the company’s careers page.

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