ANDERSON, S.C. — Anderson County Council is scheduled to cast final votes Tuesday on tax incentives for a 400,000-square-foot speculative industrial building planned by Kansas City-based Jones Development, part of a slate of economic development items that also includes a $70.1 million industrial land project and the first look at an unnamed company pledging at least $100 million in investment, according to the Anderson Observer.
The Jones Development project, previously known by the code name Project St. Nick, is being carried out through an entity called JD Anderson SC LLC and carries $26 million in capital investment, the Observer reported. Three ordinances up for third reading and public hearings would authorize payments in lieu of property taxes with special source credits, add the project to the joint industrial and business park Anderson and Greenville counties created in 2010, and approve a development agreement between the county and the company. The county would also partner with the developer to install a sewer line near the site at 300 Masters Blvd., an arrangement intended to lower costs that would open roughly 60 more acres north of the property to development, according to the newspaper. Jones Development describes itself on its website as a second-generation industrial developer focused on ground-up spec buildings and value-add investments.
Council is also set to hold two public hearings and final votes on Project Elrod, a proposed $70.1 million investment in land for industrial sites near the new Oak Hill Elementary School. That package includes a fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement with special source credits for SC Anderson Elrod LLC and would place the project in the same two-county industrial park, the Observer reported. The county vetted the site with the local school board, law enforcement and fire officials. In addition, council will take a first vote on incentives for Project Patriot, a company promising a minimum $100 million investment in the county; few details about that project have been released.
The votes follow council’s Oct. 20 final approval of incentives for a Class-A, 408,000-square-foot speculative industrial facility at 1810 Easley Highway by a division of Gray, a $34 million project the Observer said is projected to generate $113,000 in new taxes in its first year. At that meeting, economic development director Burriss Nelson said the building is likely to bring new industrial jobs and higher tax revenue.
County Administrator Rusty Burns told the Observer in a separate interview that he expects multiple economic development announcements before year’s end and that the county has not seen a slowdown in companies interested in locating there. He pointed to Tri-County Technical College’s customized training, a temporary “soft landing” space where new companies can operate while their permanent buildings are under construction, and sewer investments as tools supporting industrial growth. Nelson, the county’s longtime economic development director, plans to retire before the end of the year, the newspaper reported.
For commercial real estate professionals, the back-to-back approvals put roughly 800,000 square feet of new speculative industrial space in Anderson County’s pipeline, along with a county-backed sewer extension that could unlock additional acreage. Spec product of that scale gives site selectors move-in-ready options in the I-85 corridor, while Project Elrod and Project Patriot signal continued demand for industrial land as the county heads into what its administrator expects to be a busy close to 2026.
Sources: The Anderson Observer, The Anderson Observer, The Anderson Observer, Jones Development
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