A New Jersey-based logistics firm plans to establish operations in Pender County, bringing more than two dozen jobs to the area and business to the Port of Wilmington, officials announced.

BlueArrow Warehousing & Logistics LLC signed a lease this month for a 100,000-square-foot space at the Cape Fear Industrial Complex in Rocky Point, according to a joint news release Thursday from economic development groups North Carolina's Southeast Regional Economic Development Partnership and Wilmington Business Development (WBD).

The company will take up part of the space once used by cosmetics company Coty Inc., which shut down in 2011. Before its closure, Coty, which occupied all of the nearly 449,000 square feet of building space at the Cape Fear Industrial Complex, was the county's largest private employer.

BlueArrow Warehousing & Logistics will initially employ 20 to 25 workers, officials said. Based in Monroe Township, New Jersey, the privately held company provides warehousing, distribution, transportation, pick-and-pack and logistics services for big box retailers and e-commerce companies. 

“We look forward to growing in the region,” said Zachary Mosseri, manager of BlueArrow Warehousing & Logistics, in the release. “Wilmington has a strong port and ready workforce, and we were able to find the right building to suit our needs.”

The Cape Fear Industrial Complex is a multiple-building manufacturing and industrial site at 1830 Carver Drive in Rocky Point, according to WBD's website.

“We’re looking forward to having BlueArrow here,” said David Barnes, co-owner and manager of Rocky Point Ventures LLC, which owns Cape Fear Industrial Complex. “We hope their business expands and they find their future here."

BlueArrow will be the largest single tenant at the property, officials said in the release.

In addition to its direct job creation, BlueArrow’s expansion into the region will increase traffic at the Port of Wilmington, which is about 20 miles away from the Cape Fear Industrial Complex, officials said.

“North Carolina Ports is excited to welcome a proven warehouse and logistics provider to the Cape Fear Region,” said Cliff Pyron, account executive for economic development at N.C. Ports, in the release. “From pick-and-pack to inventory management services, BlueArrow’s presence in the region will greatly benefit our current customers and assist in additional business recruitment.”

BlueArrow Warehousing & Logistics' selection of Cape Fear Industrial Complex resulted from a collaborative effort by the local and regional economic development groups and N.C. Ports, officials said in the release.

“We came in contact with this growing company earlier this year on a recruitment mission to New Jersey,” Steve Yost, president and CEO of North Carolina's Southeast Regional Economic Development Partnership, said in the release. “The more we learned about BlueArrow and their strategic goals, the more we realized how well they would fit into our regional distribution cluster.”

North Carolina's Southeast Regional Economic Development Partnership and WBD have been working with the port in recent years to "attract distribution-related operations pursuant to a strategy similar to that of Savannah and other major container-port regions," officials said in the release.

The announcement of BlueArrow Warehousing & Logistics marks the third company announcement by WBD for the Pender County area this year.

Earlier this year, WBD announced that locally-based Coastal Beverage Co. Inc. and FedEx Freight, a less-than-truckload carrier unit of Memphis-based FedEx Corp., selected the Pender Commerce Park to establish operations.

The two companies have since submitted site plans for their facilities in the industrial park located off of U.S. 421 in Pender County, which is also home to Empire Distributors and ACME Smoked Fish. 

“The arrival of this growing third-party logistics provider to Greater Wilmington further fuels our region’s emergence as the ideal backdrop for mid-Atlantic distribution and trade-related operations,” Scott Satterfield, CEO of WBD, said in the release. “BlueArrow is the latest national logistics name to take advantage of our exceptional multi-modal transportation assets, workforce and ready-to-go industrial product in pursuing an exciting expansion strategy.”