Berkeley Means Business

SC Ports, Berkeley County, and Town of Summerville officials help celebrate CALI as they cut the ribbon on their first custom-built distribution center at 454 Tradeport Dr., Summerville, SC in the Berkeley Charleston Tradeport Industrial Center. CALI’s $3M investment will create 50 new jobs in Berkeley County.

The new center will serve CALI customers along the eastern seaboard, enabling faster deliveries and more reliable service of high-quality flooring, composite decking, and other home design collections. The SC distribution center is the first of 4 new centers the company is planning across the nation. 

“I am excited about what this DC will add to the customer experience,” says CALI COO, Eugene Garcia. “The 250,000 square feet facility supports a multishift operation with product sampling, customer service, and a logistics team. Our goal is to provide a world-class service experience.” 

When fully staffed, the center will employ about 50 new CALI team members, primarily recruited from the local community. The company’s acclaimed employee culture will be extended to the Summerville team, along with competitive salaries and benefits.  

“We are thrilled to launch this distribution center along with a new relationship with the community of Summerville,” says CALI president, Doug Jackson. “CALI has found success by prioritizing the well-being of not just our customers and partners, but our employees as well. We look forward to supporting our new South Carolina team so that we may all grow and accomplish great things together.” 


 CALI is one of the fastest-growing flooring leaders with some of the best, most innovative, high-quality, and eco-conscious flooring and building products in the industry. They have been recognized on INC 5000 and San Diego Business Journals’ fastest-growing companies and name a top place to work.  CALI recently won the GreenStep Sustainability Award too – for their eco-conscious/friendly flooring options. https://www.calibamboo.com/blog/cali-wins-greenstep-sustainability-award/

ABOUT CALI
CALI empowers stunning home transformations with durable, high-value products that are easy to buy, install, and maintain. Guided by a coastal aesthetic and attitude, the omni-channel home improvement platform enables customers to design responsibly with eco-minded options.

Based in San Diego, California, CALI’s ever-expanding flooring collections include bamboo, European oak, eucalyptus, cork, luxury vinyl, and engineered planks, in addition to composite decking, rugs, fencing, and plywood — all while delivering the industry’s best customer experience.   

Founded in 2004 and recognized as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for 13 consecutive years, CALI models how individuals, businesses, and communities can implement modern designs with structural strength and authentic coastal style. CaliFloors.com 

On Wednesday, August 3, 2022, Berkeley County and State leaders gathered to celebrate a special groundbreaking ceremony for RL Cold, a company that will bring much-needed cold storage and warehousing to the region to address critical needs in the domestic food supply chain.

This $90-million capital investment for the County will create 100-plus jobs, help provide a good tax revenue for the County, and help us increase our services for our citizens.

Thank you to the State, South Carolina Ports Authority and Santee Cooper for supporting this project, located in Camp Hall – Campus 5 in Ridgeville. Camp Hall was designed for growth in mind, putting the infrastructure and entitlements in place to attract world class businesses.

Thank you to County Councilman Phillip Obie II for speaking on behalf of the County and County Council. Obie currently serves as Berkeley County’s Ambassador to the Port.

We are grateful for your investment in Berkeley County, RL Cold & Maersk!

#OneBerkeley#BerkeleyCounty

DuPont’s new biopharma tubing manufacturing site in Cooper River South Carolina
DuPont’s new biopharma tubing manufacturing site , located in Cooper River, South Carolina. [Image courtesy of DuPont]

Expansion of biopharma processing tubing manufacturing capabilities with state-of-the-art infrastructure will support customer growth

WILMINGTON, Del., May 31, 2022 – DuPont (NYSE:DD) today announced the opening of its new DuPont Liveo Healthcare manufacturing site in Cooper River, South Carolina, to help better serve customers worldwide.

The site, located in Berkeley County, will be operated using the same quality standards as DuPont’s Healthcare Industries Materials Site, the company’s longstanding biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Hemlock, Michigan. The Cooper River site will bring additional extrusion capacity online over the next two years to serve strategic customers in the short term and expand its Liveo Healthcare customer base with additional supply in the medium term.

“The biopharma processing manufacturing investment at Cooper River is a key milestone in our growth strategy; it supports our customers’ expansion and contributes to business continuity,” said DuPont Healthcare & Specialty Lubricants Global Business Director Eugenio Toccalino. “We’re committed to investing in our healthcare business, and our recent expansions help us offer a highly reliable and sustainable product supply.”

DuPont™ Liveo Healthcare is also expanding its manufacturing footprint regionally to support customers locally, which will help alleviate supply pressure and allow customers to grow in their respective markets. In the second half of 2022, the company expects to add biopharma silicone tubing capacity in China to serve the fast-growing customers in the region.

“Through a strong, close collaboration between our DuPont team and our contractor partners, construction of the new Cooper River site was completed in 18 months, without a single safety incident”, said Bill Alexander, Cooper River site and unit leader for the DuPont™ Liveo™, and MOLYKOTE® plants. “The site has enabled the creation of 25 positions at start-up, with an additional 25 positions expected to be created as we ramp up operations over the next two years”, added Alexander.

“For more than fourteen years, DuPont Cooper River has continued to diversify and reinvest in new products ensuring the viability of this Berkeley County facility. Life sciences and biotechnology innovation is a growing sector with an $11 billion annual economic impact and over 40,000 jobs in the State of South Carolina. We thank DuPont for their commitment to this community and for creating more high-paying jobs for the local workforce,” said Kristen O. Lanier, Berkeley County Economic Development Director.

In 2021, the DuPont Cooper River site expanded to include manufacturing of DuPont™ MOLYKOTE® Specialty Lubricants.

As a trusted partner in the healthcare processing industry, DuPont has developed a leadership position within the industry by building upon more than seven decades of foundational capabilities that serve the highly regulated biopharmaceutical market. With these recent investments, DuPont is committed to serving the healthcare market and its customers more than ever, offering high-quality, high-performance solutions; application and material science expertise; and strong regulatory support to address healthcare customers’ specific needs and challenges.

About DuPont Liveo Healthcare Solutions

DuPont Liveo is a globally recognized leader in technology for a broad range of innovations in medical devices, biopharmaceutical processing and pharmaceutical solutions. DuPont high-performance materials help create safer healthcare environments and protect the health of patients and healthcare providers worldwide. We help enable smarter healthcare and positive patient outcomes. More information can be found at liveo.dupont.com.

About DuPont Electronics & Industrial

DuPont Electronics & Industrial is a global supplier of new technologies and performance materials serving the semiconductor, circuit board, display, digital and flexographic printing, healthcare, aerospace, industrial, and transportation industries. From advanced technology centers worldwide, teams of talented research scientists and application experts work closely with customers, providing solutions, products and technical service to enable next-generation technologies. 

About DuPont

DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, construction, water, healthcare and worker safety. More information about the company, its businesses and solutions can be found at www.dupont.com. Investors can access information included on the Investor Relations section of the website at investors.dupont.com

Do you own a business in Berkeley County or are interested in starting one? We want to hear from YOU!  Our Berkeley County Economic Development teams wants to know what you like about living, working, and doing business in Berkeley County.

Please consider taking our survey so we can learn more about how your business is doing—and what WE can do—to help make EVERY business a success in our County.

On Thursday, April 21, Berkeley County Economic Development hosted its inaugural Industry Luncheon at the Lowcountry Conference Center in Nexton. Nearly two dozen industry partners gathered to learn more about what the County, and municipalities within the County, are doing to draw in new business and support existing ones.

“Industrial development in Berkeley County helps keep our taxes the lowest of any County government in the State. More than that, it has provided many job and career opportunities for our residents. The average hourly wage on new investment in 2021 was over $27 per hour, compared to the $21 (per hour) average County wage. Everyone focuses on ‘unemployment,’ but we realize many of our hard-working residents are ‘underemployed’ and these job opportunities are life-changing.” -Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb

Supervisor Johnny Cribb, Berkeley County

“I hope the word that you have heard over and over from every leader…is the word ‘together.’ We’ve heard ‘One Berkeley’—that’s the theme—and it’s something that we truly do so well. …We need to become a team together. …Your (industry’s) people are our residents; we care about our residents. They are your employees; they’re the people shopping in the towns that we’re…all trying so hard to make so amazing.” –City of Hanahan Mayor Christie Rainwater

Mayor Christie Rainwater, City of Hanahan

“If you’re thinking about putting your business here (or) you’re growing your business, you want to have a quality of life for the people who work for you; and that’s what we work very hard at. …We want to create as many opportunities for people to come together as possible. …We put people and jobs and education and retail and recreation in the same place.” –City of Goose Creek – Municipal Government Mayor Greg Habib

Mayor Greg Habib, City of Goose Creek

“We, Moncks Corner, are going to focus more on commercial and retail because we see development as a broadband approach; it is our responsibility to create the communities that those industries want to come into. …The things Moncks Corner is doing is a three-pronged approach: recruiting new businesses, providing infrastructure for significant development, and business assistance because we can’t forget the businesses that we already have.” –Town of Moncks Corner Administrator Jeff Lord.

Administrator Jeff Lord, Town of Moncks Corner

This event was a direct reflection of the #OneBerkeley mindset that helps create positive partnerships, fuel the County’s ongoing economic success, and sustain our communities’ exceptional quality of life.

#BerkeleyCountyBerkeley County School District

$80 million investment creating 117 new jobs

Sagebrook Home, a global home décor brand, today announced plans to establish operations in Berkeley County. The company’s $80 million investment will create 117 new jobs.

Founded in 2015, Sagebrook Home’s portfolio includes over 10,000 products including furniture, accessories, wall art, garden décor, lighting and more. The company is a leader in delivery, fulfillment and drop shipping to customers worldwide.

Located at 574 Trade Center Parkway in Summerville, Sagebrook Home’s Berkeley County facility will serve as a 500,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art distribution center for the company’s home décor and wholesale operations.

Operations are expected to be online in May 2022. Individuals interested in joining the Sagebrook Home team should visit the company’s contact page.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has awarded a $100,000 Set-Aside grant to Berkeley County to assist with the costs of site preparation and building construction.

QUOTES

“As Sagebrook Home continues to grow, the decision to distribute from both the East and West Coasts seemed a natural evolution. With the rising cost of shipping, there was no better time to add bicoastal distribution. This new distribution center gives us the opportunity to implement the latest in technology and keep Sagebrook Home a force in the HOME category.” -Sagebrook Home Co-CEO Justin Kachan

“With its proximity to Interstate 26, Interstate 95 and the Port of Charleston, Berkeley County is the ideal place for a business to get their product to marketplaces all over the world. Today’s announcement by Sagebrook Home is a testament to our strong logistics network that helps make South Carolina the ideal destination for businesses.” -Gov. Henry McMaster

“Sagebrook Home’s decision to locate a new distribution facility in Berkeley County is reason to celebrate. This announcement speaks volumes to our state’s logistics advantages, infrastructure and business-friendly environment.” -Secretary of Commerce Harry M. Lightsey III

“SC Ports is thrilled to handle goods for Sagebrook’s first East Coast distribution center. This impressive home décor company will benefit from SC Ports’ creative supply chain solutions and expansive port infrastructure. Sagebrook’s new furniture distribution center builds on Charleston’s centrality to the furniture and home goods segment.” -SC Ports CEO Jim Newsome

“Berkeley County is proud to welcome Sagebrook Home to our community. Sagebrook Home’s $80 million investment will help provide more jobs and quality workforce opportunities for the hardworking people in our county. This industry commitment is proof that Berkeley County continues to shine as a bright beacon for industry growth.” -Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb

FIVE FAST FACTS

·    Sagebrook Home is establishing operations in Berkeley County.

·    $80 million investment will create 117 new jobs.

·    Sagebrook Home’s portfolio includes over 10,000 products including furniture, accessories, wall art, garden décor, lighting and more.

·    Located at 574 Trade Center Parkway in Summerville, S.C.

·    Individuals interested in joining the Sagebrook Home team should visit the company’s contact page.

(April 18, 2022 – via Post and Courier)

Adam Seger credits a family holiday visit during the COVID-19 lockdown with the idea to build one of the largest speculative warehouse projects in the Charleston region.

“My wife’s mother lives in West Ashley and we were visiting around Christmas in 2020 and my mother-in-law could tell I was bored,” Seger, an executive with Indianapolis-based Pure Development, said during a groundbreaking event April 13 at the construction site off Interstate 26 near Summerville.

“My mother-in-law was like, ‘Get your butt out of the house,’” Seger said. “So, I went out and just got super enthused about everything that’s going on at the port and the harbor deepening — it seemed like a macro wave that it would be smart to get in front of.”

Seger reported his findings back to the home office in the Hoosier State and was told to start making offers on available land. Pure Development ultimately teamed up with Citimark Realty, paying $8.75 million a year ago for the 131-acre site at the Jedburg exit.

The 1.1 million-square-foot Coastal Crossroads project is expected to attract a retail distributor that will move cargo from the Port of Charleston to an inland network of stores.

It’s one of just three speculative deals — meaning no tenants have been secured at the time construction starts — topping the 1 million-square-foot mark in the region. A surge in retail imports and the growing Southeast consumer market means there likely will be more in the near future.

“The interest of companies wanting to locate in Charleston and South Carolina is only expanding,” said Micah Mallace, senior vice president of marketing and sales for the S.C. State Ports Authority. Mallace said the port operator is fielding inquiries from some of the nation’s largest retailers looking for storage and distribution space.

“The pandemic really solidified the place of the giant retailers — the Walmarts, Targets and Amazons — it’s really accelerated their pace of growth,” he said. “It’s a story of the ‘bigs’ getting bigger.”

And the big retailers need big buildings.

“The market is still vibrant — we’re definitely seeing larger buildings than we’ve ever seen,” said Bob Barrineau, senior vice president with the Charleston office of CBRE, the commercial real estate firm in charge of  marketing the Coastal Crossroads property.

Barrineau said he’s seeing a mix of retail and manufacturing customers looking for space in the region, with the Volvo Cars plant in Ridgeville attracting attention from electric-vehicle suppliers like battery manufacturers. And they are wanting space quickly, with lead times of typically months instead of a year or two.

“We’re getting to the point where we can find out just how vibrant our market is with the big-box buildings,” Barrineau said, adding he expects a 1.5 million-square-foot warehouse eventually will test the local market’s strength.

A report by Daniel Island-based Charleston Industrial shows that 5.1 million square feet of speculative warehouse construction is in the pipeline for 2022, and 85 percent of that space is expected to find a tenant before work wraps up.

The report predates the start of construction of Coastal Crossroads and the announcement by Dallas-based Dalfen Industrial of a 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse — the area’s biggest to date — planned for Palmetto Commerce Park in North Charleston.

Interest in the Dalfen project “has been a lot more than we were hoping for and expecting, which is great,” said Kevin Caille, the Texas developer’s Southeast market manager. A single e-commerce retailer is expected to fill that space, he said. 

All of that new construction is in addition to 1.9 million square feet of space that was leased during the first quarter of this year.

“Shockingly, there is no existing ‘Class A’ space over 40,000 square feet available to be leased and occupied today anywhere in Charleston,” said Mike White, broker in charge for Charleston Industrial. “Warehouse users will have to commit now but wait until (at least) the third quarter of 2022 to occupy their new warehouse space.”

Imported consumer goods continue to break records at the port, which moved 263,344 20-foot-long containers through its terminals in March — the most in a single month and topping the previous high hit in November. Mallace, the maritime agency’s marketing chief, said the flood of imports means more warehouse space is needed.

“We have to be able to continue to develop more,” he said. “If we don’t want to run out of toilet paper and we want to continue buying gym equipment for the home — which we’ve learned we’re not going to use — we have to have available buildings to do so.”

Berkeley County is proud to announce Nucor Steel has been named the “Coolest Thing Made in SC.” The inaugural competition was put on by the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance to highlight the state’s manufacturing industry.

In all, 175 products were nominated. After two months and more than 100,000 votes, Governor Henry Mcmaster announced Nucor Steel as the winner on March 30.

Other Berkeley County industries that took part: Horizon ScientificIFAThorne HealthTechW InternationalFreeman BoatworksCurtiss-Wright Steam & Air SolutionsVolvo Cars USA, and Nexans High Voltage USA Inc.

Nucor Steel has been making steel—one of the world’s most important engineering and construction materials—in the Palmetto State since 1969. Nucor opened its local plant in 1996.

Berkeley County is honored to have world-class companies like Nucor as part of our business community. We look forward to future opportunities to attract more business investments and continue to grow our local economy.

For more about Nucor Steel, visit https://www.nucor.com/.

Read More

Nexans High Voltage USA, Inc. and Berkeley County Government recently celebrated the long-awaited unveiling of Nexans’ new, state-of-the-art offshore wind power vessel, the CLV Nexans Aurora. This milestone moment took place at a special event March 26 at Nexans, located on Bushy Park Road in the County’s unincorporated part of Goose Creek.

The event served as a priceless part of history for Nexans, the County, and the global offshore wind power market. In addition to a number of guest speakers—who were local-elected leaders and Nexans’ officials—the event offered site tours, kids’ activities, an informational tent featuring various community partners, and much more.

It was a celebratory day that served as a prominent example of the ongoing success of economic development across Berkeley County and the Palmetto State, as well as a positive outlook for the future of the nation’s rapidly expanding offshore wind market.

Nexans officially opened its transformed high voltage subsea cable plant in Berkeley County in November. It is the only facility in North America with such capability. Nexans is planning to transport the first subsea high voltage export cable, via the CLV Nexans Aurora, to an offshore windfarm in the UK later this month.

“Nexans’ state-of-the-art operation in Berkeley County shows the world that South Carolina is on the cutting edge of industries of all types. We congratulate Nexans on today’s milestone and look forward to the exciting work they’re doing to connect infrastructure in South Carolina and around the world.” – Secretary of Commerce Harry M. Lightsey III

“We are excited to welcome this next step for the future of Nexans and the global offshore wind power market. The arrival of the CLV Nexans Aurora is an unprecedented milestone for Nexans and the County’s industrial sector. Nexans is one of a number of incredibly valuable industries to call Berkeley County home; and we are proud to say that we’re continuing to attract similarly successful, quality industries to our area.” – Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb

For more information on Nexans, visit www.nexans.com.

GET INVOLVED

June 20 – 30, 2022

Tricounty STEMersion 2022 is a two-week, unique hands-on institute for middle and high school instructors in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester Counties in South Carolina. During the institute, educators visit one or two sites per day and will be introduced to local companies’ work environments including the practical use of formulas, theories and/or concepts necessary for a successful work process. Educators will also participate in real-world workplace (hands-on) learning opportunities and lesson writing activities that reinforce why math, science and soft skills are so important for the region’s workforce and economic growth.

EDUCATOR REGISTRATION

FOR BUSINESSES

BECOME AN INDUSTRY PARTNER

Industry partnerships are the driving force behind Tri-County STEMersion. Local companies looking to make a direct investment in our region’s talent pipeline can support STEMersion in the following ways:

  • Host a site visit for educators and counselors
  • Become a STEMersion corporate sponsor
  • Provide a lunch for educators and counselors
BECOME AN INDUSTRY PARTNER

STEMersion Celebrates 5 Years

Tri-County STEMersion 2022 will celebrate five years of empowering educators to prepare our region’s future workforce during this summer’s professional development institute, to be held June 20-30.

STEMersion gives middle and high school instructors and counselors a firsthand look at emerging industry technology. Through hands-on activities and panel discussions with industry leaders, educators form connections between STEM education concepts and workforce preparation. Local STEM-focused companies including Bosch, Boeing and NIWC Atlantic shared insights and trends in workforce development with the 2021 cohort. Participants then applied these insights to develop industry-inspired lessons for use in the classroom. “STEMersion put the ‘why’ in what we teach students. We want our students to be great producers, and with this gained knowledge we can put ideas in our students’ minds,” said 2021 participant Angela LeVan-Woosley, a business education and computer science teacher at Westview Middle School.

Quotes
“An eye-opening experience, Tri-County STEMersion connects the classroom to key competencies and technologies required in today’s work world. The institute builds career awareness, allows local educators to ‘touch’ their curriculum at a local industry site and catapults them to create standards-based, industry-inspired projects for their students to ‘solve by design!'” – S.C. Department of Commerce Regional Workforce Advisor Dr. Patricia Ferguson

In addition to STEM-related topics, STEMersion sessions highlight writing and soft skills as a means of strengthening the region’s talent pipeline. Numerous presenters expressed the importance of investing in human capital to drive innovation and problem-solving capacity within the workforce. Using feedback from these industry leaders, participants explored ways to cultivate students’ ability to communicate, and to think innovatively, to ensure workforce readiness.

Applications for the 2022 cohort are now available at tricountystemersion.com. Twenty-two educators and counselors from Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester Counties took part in the fourth annual session, which concluded June 30, 2021. The experience culminated in a capstone project competition, in which participants were divided into groups to apply STEM concepts such as proof of concept, prototypes, and design review into their final product. The winning project, created by four Berkeley County educators, applied the design and manufacturing processes to address the issue of bullying in schools. The project was then featured as a Day of Caring STEM design challenge in local schools in the region in November 2021.

Despite shifting to a virtual platform, STEMersion’s planning committee piloted several additions in 2021. School counselors joined this year’s cohort for the first time in the program’s history. The newly-launched STEMersion app served as a complement to the virtual sessions. Also, previous STEMersion participants were invited back to the institute as ambassadors. “I was so excited to serve as an Ambassador for STEMersion this year and look forward to being able to be back on-site next year. STEMersion helps teachers make connections between curriculum and careers. This helps teachers truly help students connect skills learned in the classrooms to skills used in the workforce and potential careers,” said Deborah (D.D.) Otap, a makerspace teacher and facilitator at the West Ashley Center for Advanced Studies.

STEMersion is hosted by the S.C. Department of Commerce and Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester County’s economic development offices. For more information, or to apply, visit tricountystemersion.com.