Global Packaging breaks ground on new warehouse facility

HAMLET — At the entrance to the Marks Creek Industrial Park off Cheraw Road in Hamlet, there once stood a dilapidated, rusted down structure for Tartan Yachts. Now, the old structure has been torn down and the 10-acre site is being re-developed into a new warehouse for Global Packaging.

On Thursday, the Richmond County Economic Development group held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new warehouse, the first major economic development announcement in the county in 2021.

“It was a blighted property,” said county manager Bryan Land. “The taxes hadn’t been collected on it in over a decade. So being able to build a new facility, bring some growth to the area and put a property on the tax books that would probably be in excess of $2 million. It’s a huge deal.”

Rep. Ben Moss, who served as a county commissioner before being elected to the state House of Representatives in November, echoed the sentiment from Land and thanked Global Packaging for investing in the local community.

“As a child, I always rode by the site and thought, man, they need to do something with that,” Moss said. “It was in such bad shape that most people wouldn’t even steal anything from it.”

The county obtained a $75,000 rural demolition grant through the state’s Rural Infrastructure Authority within the Department of Commerce in order to finance the demolition and removal of the previous Tartan Yachts structure. The program provides grants to local governments to support the demolition of publicly-owned, vacant and unused structures to encourage site rehabilitation for economic development purposes.

Had the county obtained the property and old structure right away and foreclosed, it would have been liable for any cleanup costs or environmental damages that were done, according to county management analyst and economic developer Martie Butler. In order to prevent that liability, Butler said the county applied for a brownfield assessment grant through the Environmental Protection Agency so that the EPA could study and test the site to make sure it was feasible for industrial construction and use.

After discussions with the other businesses surrounding the property, Butler said Global Packaging expressed an interest the site, and from there they moved forward with securing the RIA grant to demolish the original structure and clean up the site.

“We are thrilled that Global Packaging has chosen to expand their footprint in Richmond County, and equally elated that the state of North Carolina approved the grant request,” said chairman of the Richmond County Board of Commissioners Jeff Smart in a release. “It speaks volumes when a long-standing member of the community chooses to continue to grow in the area, and that the state recognizes our continued efforts for industrial growth. We’re very excited that industry is continuing to grow in Richmond County.”

The new Global Packaging warehouse will be the company’s second facility in Richmond County. The new location will accompany the current Global Packaging facility that sits just a few hundred yards away in the Marks Creek Industrial Park. The new warehouse will house over 100,000 square feet of space, will be completed over multiple phases by Myrick Construction and is part of a $5 million investment by the company into the community.

Global Packaging CEO Tony Maginnis said the company first came to Richmond County in 2011 after it acquired their original facility from Georgia Pacific. Since 2015, Global Packaging has created nearly 40 jobs for Richmond county, and with their new facility will have invested approximately $18 million in Richmond County over the past decade, according to a release.