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.

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) — The Ridgeville community gathered Sunday evening to reflect on and honor the memory of Lavel "Tyler" Davis Jr., a victim of a shooting on the University of Virginia campus.

“Lavel was the type of person who wanted to reach back and bring everyone with him and it was that pay-it-forward mentality that I love the most," said Anitra Doctor, who grew up in Ridgeville with Davis.

Read More: Woodland football team to honor Lavel Davis Jr. with UVA stickers, moment of silence

Davis was known as a football star at the University of Virginia, but in his hometown he was more.

“Lavel had natural leadership ability from the time he was small, people naturally gravitated towards him and were drawn to him and that was something you didn’t see in people that age," said Calvin Lenning, a coach from Woodland High School.

Hundreds of people came out to Sunday's vigil to light a candle for Davis's love, peace, and faith.

Lavel 'Tyler' Davis Jr. remembered with candlelight vigil in Ridgeville Sunday. (WCIV)

“Lavel was a loving young man who loved everybody and I think that’s representative of everyone who came out tonight to celebrate his life, his love, his legacy, and his memory and we just want the world to know what we got to experience first hand," Doctor said.

As a football alum from Woodland High, coaches said he was an inspiration.

“The love he had for the game, the love he had for his teammates, his coaches, his community, is woven so deep in our program that these guys that were playing this year were feeding off of the love that he displayed," Lenning said.

Read More: Former Woodland High School football player Lavel Davis Jr. killed in UVA shooting

Friends also shared their favorite memory of Davis.

“I just remember having to prepare myself for practices because I remember he was going to give it his all every day, whether it was scoring touchdowns or hitting me as hard as he could, I could see that playing with him by my side was the best feeling," said Mark Parsons, whose son was best friends of Davis.

Despite the time of sadness, the town of Ridgeville came together to heal.

Read More: Police working to determine motive in UVA shooting as Virginia AG begins external review

“I think Lavel would say this is the Ridgeville that he experienced, this is the Ridgeville that he wanted the world to experience and I think that was evident today," Doctor said.

A GoFundMe has been set up in memory of Davis. As of Monday morning, it had raised more than $183,000 towards a goal of $200,000.

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - Walmart’s $220 million-dollar international distribution center in Ridgeville is now open for business.

Officials from Dorchester County and Gov. Henry McMaster spoke at the grand opening on Friday.

“This is just one more sign of our great prosperity that’s going to keep on going,” McMaster says. “This is one of the three largest such distribution centers in the world.”

So far, Walmart has hired over 900 associates and they are looking to hire a total of 1,300 full-time employees. The Walmart distribution center is expected to increase the Port of Charleston’s volume by 5 percent, bringing them more jobs as well.

Jeffrey Holzbauer, General Manager of Imports with Walmart says this center will have a huge impact on Dorchester County. Not only for the number of jobs they are bringing but the pay rate as well.

Along with the distribution center, there are 122 retail stores in the state. In total, Walmart employs over 30,000 associates in South Carolina.

This will be the 5th distribution facility in the state, and its impact will reach farther than South Carolina. The center will supply 850 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores across the southeast.

Holzbauer says over the past few years keeping shelves in stores stocked has been an issue. The distribution center’s main purpose is to limit situations like that happening by making sure the right stores have the right products at the right time.

“Trailers come in from the port, folks then unload them,” Holzbauer says. “They go to a storage rack until a store is running low on inventory. Then we send associates to pick that product, take it to the ship dock, and put it in containers that’s destined for a regional distribution center.”

The town of Ridgeville was chosen for the distribution center for a few reasons. It’s strategically located relatively close to the port of Charleston. Holzbauer says there were a lot of qualified associates in the area, and there’s access to major transportation channels to get their products to their stores as fast as possible.

South Carolina Ports Authority President and CEO Jim Newsome says this building could be the tip of the iceberg for a county focused on business.

“We own this whole industrial campus, except we granted this to Walmart, so we’re working on other projects out here,” Newsome says. “I think there’s a number of distribution projects that can come here because of the location between I-26 and I-95.”

Source: Live 5

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) — Phase two of construction of the Campus 4 in Camp Hall Commerce Park is underway.

The second phase involves the construction of a 1,123,360-sq-ft industrial facility on 110.6 acres of land.

“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made on Phase I of this project, and our team is excited to carry that momentum through to Phase II. Camp Hall is an expertly planned, best-in-class park, and we’re honored to be involved in the full development of Campus 4," said Keith Horton, senior project manager at Frampton Construction.

Read More: Clyburn: $25M in federal funding for new railway tracks to support Camp Hall Commerce Park

The Camp Hall project was designed and promoted by Santee Cooper in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Commerce, Berkeley County, Edisto and Berkeley Electric Cooperatives, the South Carolina Power Team, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, and the South Carolina Ports Authority.

“The full development of Campus 4 at Camp Hall Commerce Park gives Portman Industrial a substantial land position with state-of-the-art logistics facilities in the highly constrained Charleston market. Campus 4 provides us with the ability to target a diversity of tenants desiring smaller, single-load facilities that have been the hallmark of Charleston’s tenant demand,” says John Gaskin. “Campus 4 also fills a void in immediate supply of cross-dock logistics facilities of +/- 500,000 square feet and +1,000,000 square feet, which are in short supply in Charleston and desired by present and future port customers.”

Frampton Construction Company, LLC. is leading the construction project.

Read More: McMaster touts new Volvo Car University, electric vehicle investment in Ridgeville

Phase one of the Campus 4 construction is still underway. It includes three industrial facilities with a combined 940,000-sq-ft. That phase is over 60% leased at this time.

Last June, nearly two dozen miles of new railway track were given federal funding to the tune of $25 million.

The money was slated for the South Carolina Department of Commerce's Palmetto Railways division to construct approximately 22.7 miles of new track and related facilities. This will connect the Camp Hall Commerce Park in Ridgeville to the CSX multi-state rail network.

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – A giant prehistoric whale flipper was discovered buried under several feet of mud in Dorchester County this week.

The owner of Palmetto Fossil Excursions, Schuyler Andrulat, said it was a first for her… the first time she had found a whale flipper. The bones were found at the bottom of a pond under refurbishment in the Ridgeville area.

“We made an astounding discovery in that this is the flipper of a very large baleen whale, probably somewhere around 2.5 million years, since we are in the Waccamaw unit,” she said.

“I opened up a small area, and the first thing I came down on was at the end of the humerus and the end of the ulna bones,” explained Andrulat.

Andrulat has been searching for fossils most of her life.

“When I was two years old, I found my first shark teeth on Edisto Beach walking with my mother. And as I got older, she took me hunting at different locations along the coastal plain of South Carolina.”

She is now co-owner of Palmetto Fossil Excursions; they take people on fossil hunts at the 100-acre pit down the road in Dorchester County.

When they learned this lake was going to be deepened, they asked the property owner if they could look for any fossils and even bring some of the dirt to their property to be sifted through.

The discovery was made on Monday. They plan to donate the bones to the museum at the College of Charleston if they want them. Several other whale bones were also found in the pond.

Millions of years ago, the area where these bones were discovered would have been a shallow part of the ocean floor.

“Take a look at the top of the pine trees, that’s the way I like to describe it to people – imagine standing on the ocean floor and the surface of the ocean is all the way up there, right around where the pine trees are,” said Andrulat.

If you are interested in going on a fossil hunt, you can click here to learn more about the excursions.