Bloomingdale land will be used for warehouse, light industrial space

By Christian Livermore

Savannahnow.com

DTI News Service

An international development company is surfing the wave of warehouse and industrial development spurred in part by the Port of Savannah.

AMB Property Corp. has closed on the purchase of 252 acres in Bloomingdale that are set to be turned into 2 million square feet of warehouse and light industrial space.

The development eventually could create up to 2,700 direct jobs and 1,500 spin-off jobs.

AMB, whose North American headquarters are in San Francisco, paid $42,000 an acre to the Morgan family for the land, which lies near Pooler south of U.S. 80.

Bloomingdale annexed a portion of the land last summer in a land-swap agreement with Pooler.

AMB plans to put four buildings on the property: one building of 1.4 million square feet, one of 1.3 million square feet and two of 320,000 square feet each.

AMB is marketing the site but has not signed any tenants.

Whether AMB or the end user will build the structures will depend on the contracts, said Jay R. Cornforth, senior vice president and managing director, East region, of North America for AMB.

"We're just exploring all our options here to capitalize on a really, really vibrant market," he said. "It's not easy to find land in Savannah, so we feel really fortunate that we found this piece and got a piece that lays out some very large bulk distribution buildings where we think there's a lot of demand."

AMB specializes in port city developments and was drawn to the Savannah market by the strong growth of the port.

"We view ourselves as a facilitator to global trade, and Savannah obviously with the growth in the last few years is a key seaport market," said Steve Kros, director of development, East region, for AMB.

The company has begun clearing and grading the land, as well as installing a spine road.

Building construction could begin this summer. Buildout of the project will depend on demand, Cornforth said, but the company hopes to finish the project in three to five years.