Improving Business in the Wilmington Region

Mapping Out Industry Along U.S. 421

Credit : WilmingtonBiz Magazine

By Emma Dill, posted Sep 23, 2025

In the early 2000s, McKinley “Ken” Dull looked out at the stretch of U.S. 421 that runs from downtown Wilmington to the New Hanover-Pender county line and saw potential.

When businesses came to Dull looking for a spot to build a new industrial facility, he’d take them to that stretch of U.S. 421 and ask them to keep an open mind. Dull is the founder of McKinley Building Corp., a Wilmington-based commercial construction management, general contracting and design-build firm.

“I just always thought that corridor was underutilized,” Dull said, “and being the civil engineer that I am, you look at a big four-lane highway that’s only six or seven minutes from downtown, and you’re trying to understand, why would this not be a great place for industrial development?”

At first, it was tough to get businesses to recognize that potential, Dull said, but the area gained momentum over the years as new roads and infrastructure were put in place. Dull said Mckinley has worked on 22 industrial projects in the corridor.

“Each step forward has been pioneering of sorts,” he said, “and over that long of a period of time, this is where it’s gotten you. You kind of see it in full bloom after 20 years.”

Today, the corridor is home to a range of businesses and manufacturers, making it an economic engine for the region. The area is poised for more growth in the future as other major projects, including an Amazon robotics fulfillment center and Wilmington Trade Center, come online.

The area has been a “primary industrial corridor” for the Wilmington area for decades, according to Wilmington Business Development CEO Scott Satterfield. Factors drawing business to the area include the corridor’s four-lane highway accessibility; sandy, compactible soils; and infrastructure upgrades installed over the years.

The completion of the final stretch of Interstate 140 loop in 2017 was a “putting the wind in the sails moment” for the corridor, Dull said, because it offered companies access to a major highway and broader transportation network.

Another “inflection point,” Dull said, was New Hanover County’s installation of water and sewer infrastructure. Up until then, businesses in the corridor operated on wells and septic tanks.

The $15.5 million project wrapped up in 2019, extending service to nearly 1,000 developable properties.
But it’s not just about water and sewer, according to Satterfield.

“Power, natural gas and fiber are also imperative,” he wrote in an email to the Business Journal. “That’s why we are constantly interfacing with our government and utility partners. Our success, in many ways, is tied to their respective investments in infrastructure to keep up with growth along this corridor and throughout the region.”

As companies saw other businesses locate and succeed in the corridor, the area began to pick up momentum, Dull said.

“I think every time the next person moved in, and people saw that they were doing well in that location,” he added, “it just gave the next guy more confidence.”

YogaSleep, a company that manufactures sound machines and other sleep products, moved into a 64,400-square-foot building along U.S. 421 in 2023. Moving into the facility allowed the company to consolidate its offices, warehousing and manufacturing under one roof, said Terry Hollingsworth, YogaSleep’s chief operations officer.

Space was tight in the company’s former 25,000-square-foot facility on Capital Drive in Wilmington. Previously, YogaSleep leased warehouse space in Leland to accommodate its operations. Now, the company has the space it needs, plus about 20,000 square feet it uses to store and ship products for other companies.

“Right now, we are comfortable,” Hollingsworth said. “We have plenty of room for growth, but at the same time, we’ve left it such that if we needed to expand, we have options available.”

In the two years he’s worked in the corridor, Hollingsworth has watched new companies move in and other development break ground.

Recent additions to the corridor include German manufacturer Kesseböhmer and Canadian rapid manufacturing company Protocase. Kesseböhmer, a company that makes retail display and kitchen storage products, recently completed a 93,000-square-foot facility in the corridor, while Protocase brought a production space online in the area earlier this year.

YogaSleep is just south of Wilmington Trade Center, a master-planned industrial park developed by Edgewater Ventures in partnership with McKinley Building.

Once complete, the park will include 13 buildings, ranging from 84,000 to 1 million square feet. The first three buildings are complete and crews broke ground on the project’s second phase earlier this year, clearing and grading around 125 acres at the back of the site.

Chris Norvell, a principal with Edgewater Ventures, was looking for land to develop an industrial park when he met with Dull and Andrew Cooke, McKinley’s business development officer, over beers at Dockside in Wrightsville Beach. There, they laid out a vision for Wilmington Trade Center’s first three buildings and the “rest is history,” Norvell said.

“Wilmington just needed Class A industrial real estate, which really had not existed in the market before five years ago,” Norvell said, “and if you’re going to build Class A industrial real estate in Wilmington, we believe the 421 corridor is the best place to do that.”

Norvell said proximity to downtown Wilmington, the port and Interstate 140 as well as the corridor’s sandy soils were all a plus for the project’s development.

At the north end of the corridor, Pender County’s 330-acre Pender Commerce Park has created a hub for economic development. Planning for the park began in the early 2000s as the county looked to create an economic driver on its largely rural western side.

Pender Commerce Park welcomed its first tenant, Acme Smoked Fish, in 2015 and since then has recruited a slate of companies, including beverage distributor Coastal Beverage Company; FedEx Freight; Polyhose Inc., an India-based industrial hose and fittings manufacturer; and Maersk, a transportation company that leases a 300,000-square-foot cold storage facility in the park.

Amazon will become the park’s final tenant. The company broke ground last fall on a robotics fulfillment center on 170 acres on the New Hanover-Pender county line. The fulfillment center will span more than 11 football fields with more than 3 million square feet in floor area across four-and-a-half floors.

According to Satterfield, the project’s announcement is “one of the largest single investments” in the region’s history and will be “transformational” for the economy. The facility, which is set to open next year, is expected to create 1,000 jobs.

A second Amazon project – a 142,000-square-foot delivery station facility – is in the works on another 54 acres inside Pender Commerce Park. The two Amazon projects fill out the park’s available land, according to Satterfield.

Once the park’s projects wrap up, Satterfield estimates there will be at least $1.5 billion in total capex investment, more than 3,500 jobs and approximately 4.5 million square feet under roof inside the park.

He said Wilmington Business Development sees more potential for more growth along the corridor’s northern stretches.

“We believe there will be continued opportunities further north on U.S. 421 as the necessary infrastructure continues to expand,” Satterfield wrote.

As the number of workers in the corridor climbs, Norvell said he sees demand for a new retail development with a gas station and fast-food restaurant. A prime spot, he said, would be at the intersection of U.S. 421 and I-140.

Convenience store chain Sheetz recently submitted site plans for a 6,800-square-foot store with fuel sales in the corridor.

Hollingsworth said he’s looking forward to seeing the area continue to grow in the coming years.

“We welcome the growth all around us,” he said. “I’m anxious to see what it looks like 10 years from now.”