Leland park could become foreign trade zone

LELAND -- A group is working to breathe new life into the Leland Industrial Park.

The 600-acre park is already home to several successful businesses -- Victaulic, Bradford Products, Tritech Forensics and Coca-Cola, to name a few -- and it houses Brunswick Community College’s Business Incubator.

The park itself, however, lacks curb appeal. Driving through it, one sees broken pavement, insufficient lighting and no sense of cohesiveness and connectivity.

But the members of Leland Innovation Park Inc. are working to change that. Leland’s Economic Development Director Gary Vidmar currently serves as the group’s vice-president, and explained that the nonprofit organization was established to fund improvements to the park through private contributions and grants.

It was established in late 2018 by Gene Merritt, who at the time served as a member of the Leland Economic Development Committee. Merritt has since retired from his official duties with the committee, but Vidmar and other volunteers from around the county are committed to taking his idea and making it a reality.

The group includes representatives from Leland, Brunswick County, North Carolina’s Southeast Partnership, and business owners, employees and property owners from the park who all share the same goal -- creating a world-class business park in Brunswick County.

Plans for improvements and amenities include adding streetlights, improving stormwater drainage, adding bike and walking trails, repairing the roads, improving signage and the overall appearance of the park.

But it will take funding to make those improvements. As the group begins to seek out grant opportunities, Vidmar said its working to tackle some of the smaller items using funds contributed by group members and businesses.

“We have since gotten proposals for some of those things, such as putting a master plan together, putting a map together of the park -- that has never been done -- a proposal for signage in the park,” he said.

An engineer is already working on a map of the park, which will include the utilities, buildings and businesses, and the group is working to draft a two-year plan for the improvements. It plans to tackle signage next.

Vidmar said the group also hopes to establish the park as a foreign trade zone.

“That would provide benefits to the companies that do international trade in the park,” he said. “They can do that tax-free. They’re not obligated to pay tariffs. So, it’s a tremendous tax benefit to them.”

The innovation committee is currently working with the executive director of the N.C. Foreign Trade Council. Over time, the council will begin to bring representatives from Europe to tour Leland and the Wilmington area, while keeping a strong focus on Leland Innovation Park.

The first of those visited just last week. Vidmar said the consulate general of the Netherlands visited the Wilmington area, and toured Leland Industrial Park. Vidmar pointed out that about half of the park remains available for businesses and industries. The group hopes their efforts will help make the park more attractive and help bring businesses to the area.

“More people are seeing the value of that park and the opportunities that it presents -- its proximity to major highways, its proximity to the port and, as important as anything, the fact that it has all the utility services that anyone would ever need,” Vidmar said.

Reporter Renee Spencer can be reached at 910-343-2364 or at RSpencer@StarNewsOnline.com.

Want to know more?

For more information, visit LelandInnovationPark.com.