Two firms have purchased land in Pender Commerce Park and will soon add to a growing list of businesses within the county-owned industrial park.

Separate, planned developments – a more than $8 million class A industrial spec building and the U.S. headquarters site for Polyhose Inc. – have been given the green light by Pender County commissioners, who also gave the go-ahead for the land purchases to proceed last year.

Pender Commerce Park Partners 1 LLC closed Monday on lot 2 of the industrial park, according to Wilmington Business Development (WBD), the economic development agency that oversees business recruitment and industrial retention efforts for the city of Wilmington, New Hanover and Pender counties.

Pender Commerce Park Partners was formed to develop a modern class A industrial space that would be for lease on the property, Chris Ramm, managing partner of the group, recently said. The development group also includes Winston-Salem based Taylor Development Group.

"After noticing a scarcity of available industrial space with modern specifications, Ramm began working with Cape Fear Commercial on opportunities to build high-quality spec space," officials stated in a news release.

The group spent a year researching the market and looked at sites all over the region, but kept going back to Pender Commerce Park, Ramm said in the release.

Pender County Commissioners approved a $634,400 purchase price for 12 developable acres within the industrial park for the project. The entire property is 15 acres. 

Developers plan to break ground on the site in late February and finish construction later this year, the release stated.

The plans call for a more than 126,300-square-foot building with 32-foot ceilings, customizable dock placements and large truck courts, according to the release.

The facility will offer warehouse and distribution space for companies seeking access to Southeast markets, stated the release.

Cape Fear Commercial is partnering with Ramm to market and manage the property.

"Class-A industrial product of this scale is essential in our recruitment efforts," WBD CEO Scott Satterfield said in the release. "What Chris Ramm and Cape Fear Commercial are doing is shifting the park into an even higher gear with the kind of state-of-the-art space that attracts national attention from high-octane companies that want a world-class environment -- and are ready to move now.”

The move by Pender Commerce Park Partners 1 comes not long after Polyhose Inc. closed on lot 3 at the industrial site in December, according to county deeds.

"Right now we’re going through the permitting process with Pender County. All is going according to plan. We still hope to start moving dirt [at] the beginning of March," Jonathan Pressler, senior vice president of Polyhose, said in an email.

The India-based company plans to create 51 new jobs and invest nearly $8 million at the Pender County site. Polyhose, an industrial hose manufacturer, is slated to build a 40,000-square-foot facility (rendering pictured right) that will include assembly and distribution. It also has its sights set on further expansion on the property and add manufacturing there in the future. 

Pender commissioners agreed in August to sell 9 acres of park land to Polyhose for $410,000.

Polyhose and the development by Ramm and his team will add to four other firms in Pender Commerce Park: Acme Smoked Fish, Empire Distributors, FedEx Freight and Coastal Beverage Co.