Photo courtesy of St. John Properties, Inc.
With a diversified economy, growing population and available land, the Salisbury-Wicomico County area is looking like an increasingly attractive market to some commercial real estate professionals.
In October, St. John Properties broke ground on its first development in Salisbury, Westwood Commerce Park. The first phase of construction on the 16-acre site includes two flex/R&D buildings totaling more than 70,000 square feet. When it is completed, the park will include three buildings totaling about 107,000 square feet and a three-acre pad site for a gas station and/or convenience store.
“We have placed a pretty big bet on Salisbury,” said Andrew Roud, St. John’s Regional Partner for Southern Maryland.
In total, St. John Properties is eyeing five development sites in the region — three in Westwood Commerce Park and two on the city’s east side — and is “aggressively searching for additional opportunities throughout the region,” he said.
Strong fundamentals of the local economy convinced St. John to expand into the market, Roud said.
Although the City of Salisbury has only about 35,000 residents, its daytime population swells to 100,000 as people commute from other parts of the Delmarva Peninsula to work for the city and county governments, and a range of other employers.
Graphic courtesy of St. John Properties, Inc.
Headquartered in Salisbury, Perdue Farms employs 3,500 people in greater Salisbury. Other chicken-processing companies, feedstock suppliers, transportation firms and growers of corn, soybeans, wheat and vegetables add thousands more jobs to the agriculture sector.
Salisbury’s three higher education institutions — University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), Salisbury University and Wor-Wic Community College — employ more than 3,400 people.
Tidal Health, the largest healthcare system on the Delmarva, employs 3,900 people.
Piedmont Airlines, a regional carrier for American Airlines, maintains its headquarters and aircraft maintenance facility at Salisbury Airport, employing 400 people. And the region’s aviation sector is about to grow.
“They just broke ground a month ago on an extension of the airport’s runway to accommodate larger planes,” said John McClellan, Senior Advisor, SVN | Miller Commercial Real Estate in Salisbury.
The airport, he added, is about to add another carrier, providing daily flights to Florida. In addition, Piedmont, UMES and Salisbury Wicomico Economic Development (SWED) secured a $3.3 million state grant to establish an accredited aviation technician training program.
Other economic drivers in the region include Wallops Island Flight Facility which employs 1,900, the Port of Salisbury, e-commerce distribution, dozens of manufacturers and substantial new home construction. (Salisbury ranks as the 10th fastest-growing metropolitan region in the country.)
Photo courtesy of St. John Properties, Inc.
The region’s economy, combined with its historical development patterns, are now fueling demands for commercial real estate space.
Unlike other metro centers, Salisbury has a shortage of office space.
“You will see all these companies who have a headquarters in one place, but they are bifurcated in little offices all over town,” Roud said.
“A client just came to us with an office need,” McClellan said. “They are doing an SAP upgrade. It is about a three- to four-year project and they don’t have room on their campus for those people so they are looking for 7,000 to 10,000 square feet of off-campus office space. I am hard-pressed to find that amount of traditional office space.”
Consequently, the client is pursuing the possibility of converting a vacant retail space to offices.
In addition, the Salisbury-Wicomico area currently does not have modern, flex buildings “so we see this as opportunity to introduce our kind of product to that market,” Roud said.
City and county leaders, however, have expressed interest in supporting developments that attract employers and fuel further growth.
“Kudos to the government folks both in the City of Salisbury and Wicomico County,” Roud said. “They made us go through all the various requirements of the entitlement process, but it was predictable, it was quick and they made you feel welcome.”