Pa. firm plans huge warehouse

April 14, 1998|By JULIE E. GREENE

A Reading, Pa., development firm plans to build an 840,000-square-foot distribution warehouse for a nationally known company that expects to provide 308 full-time jobs, officials said.

The warehouse, which will be the size of 19 football fields, is one of several projects Tiger Development Inc. has planned for about 800 acres near Hopewell Road, said principal partners John Herman and Jeffery Camp.

They said the development firm has bought some of the property and has options on the rest.

They would not say what company will use the proposed warehouse to be built next to the Staples Distribution Center.

The Washington County Commissioners will hold a public hearing next Tuesday on a plan to use $1.5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to be used by the unidentified firm to buy the land for the warehouse from Tiger Development, said Commissioner James R. Wade.

The county will apply for the funds from the state, which distributes the federal grants.

The warehouse will be built on about 70 acres west of the Staples Distribution Center with access from a road to be built off Hopewell Road, Camp said.

Camp and Herman said the prospective buyer wants to open the warehouse by Jan. 1. Construction would begin as soon as the financing package and planning are approved.

The site for the proposed warehouse is in an enterprise zone, which makes the unnamed firm eligible for tax credits, said County Commissioner R. Lee Downey.

The total cost of the project was not available, but the 835,000-square-foot Staples Distribution Center was a $43 million project.

The planned $13.7 million upgrade of the Interstate 81/Halfway Boulevard interchange is helping to attract interested companies, Camp said.

Tiger Development is competing with places like Martinsburg, W.Va., and Harrisburg, Pa., to land those companies, he said.

Tiger Development officials also are talking with firms interested in a 500,000-square-foot warehouse and a 200,000-square-foot warehouse, Camp said.

The partners are developing two commercial and industrial parks near Hopewell Road.

The 840,000-square-foot warehouse would be part of the roughly 675-acre Hunters Green Business Center near Hopewell Road, U.S. 40, Md. 63 and Interstate 70, Camp said. The area is zoned for commercial and industrial uses, he said.

The other area is about 125 acres between Hopewell Road and Interstate 81, he said. That area, Crossroads Corporate Center, is zoned for manufacturing and distribution, Camp said.

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