The “460 Commerce Center,” a roughly 352,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility under construction in Isle of Wight County’s Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park, is on track for substantial completion by August 2025, according to Isle of Wight Economic Development Director Kristi Sutphin.

Sutphin gave an update on the project at the Economic Development Authority’s Aug. 13 meeting. The project, named for its proximity to the four-lane Route 460 that passes through Isle of Wight, is being built on a roughly 43-acre EDA-owned parcel adjacent to the existing Safco Products and Keurig Dr. Pepper manufacturing plant that’s slated to close by the end of the year.

A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for Oct. 22 at 2 p.m., Sutphin said, though construction and utility relocation has been ongoing since April 2. Concrete footings are to start this month.

Isle of Wight received five bids for the extension of William A. Gwaltney Way to connect to the 460 Commerce Center site, the lowest of which was by Phillips Construction for $1.7 million, Sutphin said. Phillips is the same contractor building the 460 Commerce Center.

Isle of Wight County supervisors voted unanimously on Aug. 15 to accept Phillips’ bid.

In 2023, Virginia’s Commonwealth Transportation Board approved an $850,000 grant to partially fund the roadway extension. The remainder of the cost, according to County Administrator Randy Keaton, is being funded with a combination of $375,000 from the EDA for a loan repayment, $300,000 from a recent sale of property in the intermodal park and prior-year capital improvement plan funds.

“This is fully funded,” Keaton said.

Construction of the building itself is being funded by W.M. Jordan, the developer that bought the land from the EDA, Keaton said. Leasing will be handled by Colliers International, a Toronto-based investment management company, according to an April 2 news release by the company.

The Economic Development Department has referred to the project as a “speculative Class A industrial development,” meaning no tenant has been found. Class A, in real estate, refers to the highest-quality construction in the most desirable locations.

The site plan calls for 80 truck-loading dock doors, 40 on each side of the building, plus 58 employee parking spaces and 75 spaces for trailer parking. The plan calls for a potential addition of 90 spaces – 30 for employees and 60 for trailers – in the future.

In May, a month prior to Isle of Wight County supervisors’ 4-1 vote to reject a multi-warehouse complex slated for the opposite side of Route 460 from where the 460 Commerce Center would be located, Chris Gullickson, director of development and transportation policy at the Port of Virginia, said “record growth” at the port was “generating interest in industrial development” along corridors that lead to it, like Route 460.