Developers are planning a new warehouse along U.S. 421 to tap into continued demand in the growing industrial corridor.

Project plans for a warehouse building that’s master planned for up to 69,000 square feet of space are set to go before New Hanover County leaders next month for technical review. The building, slated for nearly five acres at 4601 U.S. 421, aims to target businesses that might occupy a smaller square footage, said Andrew Cooke, business development officer at McKinley Building Corp. 

Property records show Seamist Properties-Fayetteville LLC purchased the site in 2021 for $1.22 million. The limited liability company is registered to McKinley “Ken” Dull, president of McKinley Building Corp.

Cooke said the plans aim to build on demand the industrial corridor has seen in recent years. Specifically, developers want to tap into the momentum of the Wilmington Trade Center, a master-planned industrial park located just south of the proposed warehouse site.

Once complete, the Wilmington Trade Center will have 13 buildings, ranging from 84,000 to 1 million square feet and encompassing a combined area of more than 3.2 million square feet. The proposed structures will be shell buildings that can be leased or sold to business users.

The industrial park secured $3.3 million in incentives from New Hanover County leaders earlier this year, and crews broke ground on its third building this summer. Plans for two other buildings – each with 152,880 square feet of warehousing and manufacturing space – underwent technical review in July.

The newly planned warehouse building just north on U.S. 421 could serve as “incubator space” for businesses, Cooke said, allowing them to establish a footprint before moving into a larger spot at the nearby Wilmington Trade Center.

Site plans show the 69,000-square-foot warehouse would be 40 feet tall and include four loading docks, along with 121 total parking spaces.

The developers don’t have a set timeline for the building’s construction but want to have approvals in place to allow construction to move forward when they see demand for the warehouse, Cooke said. It’s also up in the air whether they’ll build the warehouse speculatively or wait to secure a tenant first.

Plans for the new warehouse are scheduled to go before New Hanover County’s Technical Review Committee on Aug. 21.