An industrial facility that has already attracted Amazon, the U.S. Postal Service and Newell Brands to Gaston County has two more buildings to market in the Gateway85 industrial park.
Illinois-based Poettker Construction, which has a Charlotte office, has completed the 241,000-square-foot Building 4 and the 705,000-square-feet Building 7, which make up the second phase of the planned eight-building development.
Amazon, the U.S. Postal Service and Newell Brands have already laid claim to the first three buildings, although only Newell Brands has so far opened. Charlotte-based Vannoy Construction built the first three buildings.
The two newest buildings are still awaiting tenants, according to the Gaston County Economic Development Commission. Construction on the three remaining buildings are not yet underway.
Kansas City, Missouri-based NorthPoint Development is in charge of the 300 acres of property that will eventually have 3.6 million square feet of industrial warehouse space once fully developed. The property abuts N.C. 7 to the north and I-85 to the south and can be seen from the interstate on land between the city of Lowell and Gastonia.
Donny Hicks, the executive director of Gaston County Economic Development, had spent three decades trying to develop the swath of land before NorthPoint saw the property’s potential in late 2020.
Gaston County has seen more than 5 million square feet of industrial space developed in the past two-plus years compared to just 7 million square feet in Hicks’ first 37 years leading Gaston County’s economic development efforts. The North Carolina Economic Development Association rewarded Hicks for his recent success with its President’s Award this year.
Newell Brands and NorthPoint’s investment in Gaston County was approximately $135 million. Newell Brands opened in September 2022 and now has approximately 200 full- and part-time employees who provide warehousing and distribution for brands ranging from Rubbermaid to Mr. Coffee, Oster to Sunbeam and Calphalon.