Journal of Commerce: Rising Charleston import volumes help land new Walmart distribution center
Associate Editor Teri Errico Griffis interviewed Frampton Construction’s Alex Seglem for his take on the “speculative building boom” in the Charleston area:
Commercial real estate services firm JLL Charleston reported 4.3 million square feet net absorption in Charleston’s industrial space last year, with an 8.2 percent vacancy rate at the end of the 2021 first quarter, declining to 4.3 percent by Dec. 31. The area’s current vacancy rate is 3.4 percent.
Previously a build-to-suit market, the Charleston region is undergoing a speculative building boom with an absorption of 1.4 million square feet to date in 2022, according to Alex Seglem, senior project manager with Frampton Construction Co.
“It’s crazy how much the demand is for distribution space,” said Seglem. “COVID and the move towards how consumers procure their goods these days was a major driver of that, but the port making investments five years ago and before that preparing for imports with a lot of the manufacturers which we’ve attracted to the state of South Carolina kind of put them in the perfect position to take on this surge of volume in the retail space as well.”
Link to the JOC here to read the full article
