Medline Industries wants to open a 660,000 SF Distribution Center
Source: By Fran Daniel at Winston Salem Journal
Medline Industries, a Chicago-based manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies, wants to open a 660,000 SF warehouse distribution center in southeastern Forsyth County NC that could at maximum capacity employ 400 people.
“It will be essentially a healthcare supply-chain center,” said Dmitry Dukhan, the vice president of real estate for Medline Industries.
Medline will start out with 100 full-time workers, said Dukhan, but the hope is to get to 400 employees within seven to 10 years.
“It’s hard to predict,” he said. “Obviously, we have to earn the business trust of local customers, but we’re going to start with a regional distribution first.”
He said the company is hoping to grow and add value to the community.
Property owners Raeford Kirkman, Lynn Hayes and Inez Motsinger are asking the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners to rezone 92.7 acres from agricultural to limited industrial — special use for the project. The property is on the northeast corner of Wallburg and Sherlie Weavil roads, across from Union Cross Business Park.
The City-County Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the petition last month, and Forsyth County commissioners were briefed on the proposal Thursday.
The commissioners will hold a public hearing on the rezoning Jan. 24 and are expected to vote on the petition then.
So far, Medline has not asked for county incentives, but it could still do so.
The property owners’ petition includes a request for special intense development allocation, known as SIDA. As a result, future development must use stormwater controls based on Unified Development Ordinances requirements.
Currently, two single-family homes and accessory buildings are on the land, which is a combination of farmland and heavily wooded areas.
Aaron King, director of City-County Planning and Development Services, said that a land-use plan previously identified about 250 acres across from Union Cross Business Park as a potential spot for another industrial park. Dating back to 1910, Medline is a privately-held, family-owned company with about 20,000 employees throughout the world and more than 550,000 products in its portfolio. The company had sales of more than $10 billion in 2017.
The rezoning request for the Medline project is within that acreage space.
Proposed plans call for a new public road off Wallburg Road to provide an access for the site.
About Medline
Rubenstein said that it is too early to predict the exact jobs that will be created at the center, but she said “the new jobs would range from office positions to warehouse staff and other healthcare-related jobs.”
Medline does not disclose salaries, but Rubenstein said the company offers competitive wages; a complete benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision and life insurance; and a 401(k) with company match.
If approved, construction of the building is expected to start in the third quarter of 2019 and the center would probably open in mid-2021.
Dukhan estimated the company would invest more than $40 million in the community, including land, construction and equipment.
Dukhan said hiring would start as construction nears completion.
He said that the company would hold a job fair and make information available in newspaper ads and on its website at www.medline.com.
Medline’s closest operation to Winston-Salem is a 400,000 SF regional distribution center in Lincolnton NC.
Built in 2013, the facility in Lincolnton has since maxed out, Dukhan said.
He said that Medline wants to have another regional distribution center with great access to the community so it chose the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County area.
“It’s very business friendly, has, obviously, a lot of medical businesses and a lot of opportunities to grow,” Dukhan said of this area. “It’s just a great town. It’s a great community.”
Jay Luke, vice president of Freeman Commercial Real Estate, who represented Hayes and Motzinger, the owners of 87 acres of the property proposed for rezoning, said the process to get the rezoning started in July 2018.
He said a petition before the City-County Planning Board was delayed a month “while we worked through the neighborhood meetings and discussions with neighbors in trying to listen to their concerns about the project. We made changes to the site plan to reflect those concerns.”