FedEx Freight, a less-than-truckload carrier and a unit of FedEx Corp., has selected a 12.5-acre parcel at Pender Commerce Park for a new service center, according to an announcement Friday by the Pender County Board of Commissioners and Wilmington Business Development.

The company is looking to build 15,000-20,000 square feet of office and warehouse space on the property, Scott Satterfield, CEO of Wilmington Business Development (WBD), said Friday.

Satterfield said construction on the new facility would begin soon, with completion sometime in 2018. He said there will be 25 people employed at that facility in the beginning.

"The choice of Pender Commerce Park by the world's leading name in logistics is a huge vote of confidence for this fast-rising economic development asset," Satterfield said in the release.

The company's move into Pender Commerce Park will mark the third tenant at the 450-acre park, which is on U.S. 421 in Currie near the Pender-New Hanover county line.

New York-based Acme Smoked Fish and Empire Distributors, a beverage distribution company, established operations in Pender Commerce Park in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
 
Coastal Beverage Company Inc. has also shown interest in Pender Commerce Park. The North Carolina beverage distributor has offered to purchase more than 20 acres of property at the park, an item up for consideration by Pender County commissioners on Feb. 5, through a resolution.
 
The industrial park was completed in 2011 as part of a partnership between Pender County and WBD, a private, nonprofit organization that oversees business recruitment and industrial retention for the city of Wilmington and New Hanover and Pender counties, officials said.
 
"Pender Commerce Park is well on its way to being the modern business destination county leaders envisioned in 2006 when we began developing it,” Pender County Commissioner David Williams said in the release. “It is an asset that will further our push for greater economic diversification."