Pender County Commissioners are remaining tight-lipped over the potential sale of 10 acres in the Pender Commerce Park to an unnamed transportation company.
 
“I’m not at liberty to discuss this, at this point in the process,” said Pender County Commissioner Jackie Newton when reached by phone Friday afternoon.  
 
She referred all questions to Scott Satterfield of Wilmington Business Development (WBD). Pender County has a contract with WBD for economic development services, which helped create and now supports the development of the 430-acre industrial park.
 
A resolution to approve a bid for the 10.5 acres, at $38,500 per useable acre, was included in the Dec. 5 agenda for the Pender County Board of Commissioners.
 
The agenda stated that “Commissioner [David] Williams and WBD were able to negotiate a price of $38,500.00 per acre with no incentives from the County.”
 
Newton confirmed that commissioners voted on the resolution, before referring all questions to Satterfield.
 
Williams did not immediately return calls for comment Friday afternoon. In an email Friday, Satterfield said he could not comment "any further at this point."
 
Fischer, a commercial real estate company based in Dallas, is handling the transaction, according to county documents.
 
A spokesperson for Fischer said on Friday that they could not disclose the name of the company interested in the 10-acre property.

The commerce park is located on U.S. 421 in Pender County, close to the New Hanover County line. In 2013, Acme Smoked Fish Corp. announced that it was opening a seafood processing facility in the park and hit its five-year commitment of 120 jobs ahead of schedule.

Empire Distributors of North Carolina Inc., a wine and beer distribution company, also received a final certificate of occupancy this week for the company’s 155,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Pender Commerce Park, Pender County Planning Director Kyle Breuer said.

Empire Distributors bought 15 acres at the park last year with plans to invest $10 million in the new facilities.

- Reporter Cece Nunn contributed to this report.