Pender Commerce Park Builds Diversified Industrial Base Beyond Amazon

Business Summary

Pender Commerce Park, a 350-acre industrial site off U.S. Highway 421 in Pender County, is quietly assembling a diversified tenant roster that extends well beyond the area's headline-grabbing Amazon complex. India-based Polyhose Inc. has doubled its facility footprint to approximately 105,000 sq ft, with a certificate of completion received in mid-June 2025, while fruit distributor One Banana has opened a 19,800 sq ft ripening and distribution center — its first U.S. facility — in the same park. Together, these moves reinforce the 421 Corridor as a credible lower-cost industrial alternative to New Hanover County — and they raise pointed questions about infrastructure capacity, labor depth, and whether Pender can scale to match its own momentum.

Fast Facts

• Polyhose Phase 1: 40,000 sq ft warehouse on 9 acres purchased for $410,000 in 2019; operations began 2021; created 51 jobs; backed by a $7.9 million investment announced by Gov. Roy Cooper
• Polyhose Phase 2: Expansion from 52,500 sq ft to approximately 105,000 sq ft; adjacent ~8-acre lot acquired fall 2023; certificate of completion received mid-June 2025
• One Banana: Opened a 19,800 sq ft ripening and distribution center — its first U.S. facility — in Pender Commerce Park; features seven 42-pallet ripening rooms, over 580 pallet positions in cold storage, and services including drayage and cross-docking; leased space within a 144,900 sq ft building developed by Ramm Capital Partners
• Park context: Located between the Cape Fear River and Northeast Cape Fear River, approximately 3 miles from I-140 and 12 miles from the Port of Wilmington; a 126,000 sq ft spec building was completed on 15 acres in late 2020 by Taylor Development Group; a separate 145,000 sq ft building by Ramm Capital Partners sold for $23.5 million in May 2025
• Polyhose clients: Caterpillar, Boeing, Graco, Wagner SprayTech, John Deere, BMW; global workforce of approximately 3,000
• Other tenants: Amazon, The Home Depot

What Happened

Polyhose Inc., a Chennai-headquartered manufacturer of industrial hoses, fittings, and tubing, has completed a Phase 2 expansion that doubles its Pender Commerce Park facility from 52,500 sq ft to ~105,000 sq ft. The company acquired an adjacent ~8-acre parcel along the park's western edge in fall 2023 to support long-term growth, with construction managed by McKinley Building Corp. (also referenced as McKinley Building Company) and design by Becker Morgan Group. The certificate of completion was received in mid-June 2025, later than initial projections of Q1 2025. As of mid-2025, Polyhose had begun operations in the expanded space.

Separately, One Banana North America, a vertically integrated fruit distribution company with operations in the U.S., Guatemala, and the Netherlands, has opened a 19,800 sq ft ripening and distribution center inside the same park — its first U.S. facility. The facility handles bananas, avocados, mangos, pears, tomatoes, and other produce for growers, retailers, foodservice distributors, and wholesalers across the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic. It features seven 42-pallet ripening rooms with EU-style reverse airflow systems, over 580 pallet positions in cold storage, and container plug-ins. One Banana leases space within a 144,900 sq ft building developed by Ramm Capital Partners. The announcement surfaced via a WilmingtonBiz report in July 2025, and the facility's proximity to the Port of Wilmington — approximately 12 miles — supports a supply chain that brings green bananas from Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru on a 7-to-10-day journey, followed by 5-day ripening before distribution to customers including Costco and Lidl.

Why It Matters

The significance here is tenant diversification. Pender Commerce Park's industrial pipeline now includes an Indian manufacturer serving aerospace and heavy equipment OEMs, an international fruit distributor with operations in Latin America and Europe, and earlier lot sales to firms like Mobrix (which purchased land for $634,400). Other tenants include Amazon and The Home Depot. That breadth matters because it insulates the park — and the corridor — from single-tenant or single-sector risk, a vulnerability that defines many secondary industrial parks in the Southeast.

For the broader Wilmington metro, Polyhose's expansion trajectory is notable. The company went from a $410,000 land purchase and $7.9 million Phase 1 investment to doubling its footprint within roughly four years of initial operations. That kind of reinvestment velocity from an international manufacturer signals that unit economics on the 421 Corridor are working — logistics costs, labor availability, and site access are apparently competitive enough to justify scaling in place rather than relocating.

What Stands Out

• Reinvestment speed: Polyhose moved from first operations in 2021 to committing to a Phase 2 doubling by fall 2023 — a two-year turnaround that suggests strong demand pull from its OEM client base (including John Deere, Caterpillar, and BMW), not speculative capacity building
• Cost arbitrage is real: A 9-acre lot for $410,000 in 2019 positions Pender Commerce Park at a fraction of comparable land costs in New Hanover County, where entitled industrial parcels trade at materially higher per-acre prices
• One Banana's port-proximity play: The facility's location approximately 12 miles from the Port of Wilmington supports a direct import-to-ripening supply chain for produce from Central and South America, with distribution to major retailers including Costco and Lidl — a clear logistics rationale for the site selection
• Supply chain logic: Polyhose's client roster — Boeing, Caterpillar, John Deere, BMW, Graco — implies distribution needs tied to U.S. manufacturing hubs in the Midwest and Southeast, making the 421 Corridor's proximity to the Port of Wilmington and I-140 a plausible logistics advantage
• Spec development momentum: Taylor Development Group's 126,000 sq ft spec building on 15 acres (proposed 2019) was completed in late 2020 at a final size of 127,356 sq ft, representing an $8+ million investment. A separate 145,000 sq ft building by Ramm Capital Partners (completed 2023) sold for $23.5 million in May 2025 to MT96 Crosspoint LLC, fully leased to tenants including Home Depot — indicating strong absorption in the park

Market Lens

Angle: Corridor Strength

The 421 Corridor is emerging as the Wilmington metro's most active industrial growth vector outside of downtown's office and mixed-use plays. What makes the Pender Commerce Park story analytically interesting is that it is building critical mass independent of Amazon — the massive fulfillment complex that dominates public discussion of Pender industrial activity. Polyhose's 105,000 sq ft facility and One Banana's 19,800 sq ft ripening center represent organic demand from international operators choosing this corridor on cost and logistics merits, not on the back of a single anchor tenant's gravity.

The park — described in some sources as encompassing up to 450 acres — sits approximately 3 miles from I-140 and 12 miles from the Port of Wilmington, positioning it as a natural distribution node for both import-dependent supply chains (One Banana) and domestic industrial distribution (Polyhose).

If absorption continues at this pace, the corridor's next constraint will not be demand — it will be infrastructure: water, sewer, road capacity on U.S. 421, and workforce housing within a reasonable commute radius. Pender County's ability to fund or attract infrastructure investment ahead of demand will determine whether the park scales from a collection of tenants to a regionally competitive industrial node.

Risks & Watch-Outs

• Infrastructure lag: Industrial development between two rivers creates real constraints on utility capacity and road access; U.S. 421 widening and interchange improvements are not guaranteed on the timeline tenants may need
• Labor pool depth: Polyhose's 51 jobs in Phase 1 were absorbable, but cumulative tenant growth across the park will test a county labor market that is materially smaller than New Hanover's; wage competition with Amazon's fulfillment operation is a standing headwind
• Park acreage discrepancy: Original research cites the park at 350 acres, while verification sources describe it as a 450-acre industrial hub — the precise figure may depend on how boundaries are drawn or whether adjacent parcels are included
• Spec building status: The Taylor Development Group's 126,000 sq ft spec project was completed in late 2020 at 127,356 sq ft; however, current leasing status for that specific building is not confirmed in public records
• Macro exposure: Industrial hose demand tracks capital goods cycles; a slowdown in U.S. manufacturing or aerospace procurement would directly affect Polyhose's growth trajectory and, by extension, its Pender footprint

Takeaway for decision-makers: Pender Commerce Park's tenant diversification is real and accelerating, but the corridor's upside is now gated by infrastructure and labor — not by demand. Investors and developers evaluating the 421 Corridor should focus less on whether tenants will come and more on whether the county can deliver the roads, utilities, and workforce to support them at scale.