Dubai-based Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza) International revealed its master plan for a North American ‘gateway’ to be located in Orangeburg, South Carolina, one of the state’s poorest counties, but one also blessed by its proximity to two major interstates and its equidistance to Charleston and Columbia.

Nearly 600 turned out for the announcement in a former cinema not far from the city’s still challenged downtown – a downtown better known as the site of a 1968 race riot that left three dead and 27 injured than as a fulcrum of economic development or international trade.

Among those attending were vendors, construction contractors, real estate agents, maritime and logistics professionals, and members of the business and economic development community from throughout the state.

The $600 million (Dh2,204bn), 1,300-acre project – Jafza’s first in the Western Hemisphere – will be built in five phases, with the ground-breaking for the first phase in the third or fourth quarter of 2009, said Steven Eames, Vice-President of operations for Jafza Americas.

Total built-out on the project, on the site of a former sod farm is to be completed by 2032. Although he acknowledged the ongoing financial crisis, Eames expressed confidence that the company would meet is timeline for development.

“The current economic climate has made all our clients restrict their spending,” he said. “However, we are long-term investors. We remain confident that this is an opportunity to position South Carolina and ourselves for the upturn.”

Jafza, is part of Economic Zones World, which is currently building logistics and R&D-driven industrial parks in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

In India, it has partnered with Tata Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, to build a chain of business and logistics parks throughout the country, Eames said.

In North America, the first – $140m phase – of its South Carolina project will comprise about 135 acres of mixed-use development, with an emphasis on light manufacturing and light industrial.

Phase two, covering an additional 93.5 acres and expected to be completed by 2016, will include warehouse and distribution space as well as 63 acres of intermodal yard development.

Phase three of the build-out will add another 130 acres of warehousing, distribution and light manufacturing space.

By the time that phase of the development will be complete in 2020, Eames said Jafza believes about 3,000 people will be employed at the site, with another 2,500 jobs anticipated statewide at companies doing business with its clients.

By then, Eames said, about 660,000 containers will come through the site with about 350,000 leaving the site on an annual basis. He said by the time the third phase of the project is completed, activity at the site will generate 50,000 daily truck trips on South Carolina’s highways and interstates.

Eames did not elaborate on the fourth and fifth phases of the project, explaining the company will continue to weigh its assumptions about the site and market demands as it moves forward. However, he did suggest there will likely be a technological component developed in partnership with Techno Park, one of its sister companies under the Economic Zones World banner.

Another of its sister companies, UK-based Gazeley, which Economic Zones World bought from Asda Wal-Mart last June for a reported $450m, will also play a significant role in developing the site.

Gazeley, which bills itself as a provider of “sustainable logistics space” is one of the biggest industrial developers in the UK. The company also has operations throughout European as well as in India, Mexico and China.

Eames described Gazeley as a “leading developer of sustainable warehousing”, which will bring “unmatched efficiencies” to the project. Among the green initiatives its brought to other projects are the use of solar panels and wind turbines for energy production, and innovative approaches to stormwater collection. “This project will be sustainable, in terms of its impact on the surrounding communities… it will be green, and will be a model for us going forward,” Eames said.

The Jafza unveiling took place at an economic development conference hosted by Orangeburg County last week, which, in addition to people in the global supply chain industry, also attracted business and government officials from the state and region. In fact, Jafza’s announcement proved such a draw at the event 200 people had to be turned away due to a lack of space.

One of the reasons the project is getting such attention in South Carolina is that it’s being done in a county that had the state’s sixth-highest unemployment rate in September at 12.5 per cent. That rate was up from 9.5 per cent a year earlier. Among those describing the Jafza project as a “game changer,” was US Representative Jim Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, who represents the area.

During remarks that preceded the unveiling of the master plan, Clyburn cited statistics and told several anecdotes highlighting the area’s poverty and its poor job outlook.

“Because of these facts, they’ve called this area, and its neighboring counties along the Interstate-95 corridor in South Carolina, the ‘Corridor of Shame’,” he said. “The way to turn around these statistics is to invest in infrastructure,” Clyburn said.

In fact, the need for new infrastructure linking the site both to the Port of Charleston and to distribution hubs throughout the country was a significant topic of conversation among attendees at the conference.

Former South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges, who is serving as an advisor to Jafza, said improvements in freight rail connectivity and service is one of the biggest needs associated with Jafza project and the growing port. “Come 2014, about the time both the new terminal and the first phase of Jafza’s project are done, a newly enlarged Panama Canal will be open and containers will also be surging into the port through the Suez Canal,” he said (source: business24-7.ae).

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