By Dan McCue

Jafza International has completed its acquisition of 1,322 acres it plans to develop into a $600 million to $700 million logistics center in Orangeburg.

Company officials said Tuesday afternoon that they’ve taken sole title to the land, and are now embarking on the initial planning process for what they promise will be “a world-class logistics and business park on the site.”

“I am very happy we have acquired land in Orangeburg and South Carolina and to have received such wide-ranging support from the community and its elected representatives,” said Chuck Heath, managing director of Jafza International. “In particular I believe everyone should thank the leadership and staff of the Orangeburg County Development Commission for their far-reaching vision and exemplary focus.”

Company officials expect the facility to create 8,000 to 10,000 jobs in the area surrounding the intersection of Interstate 95 and Interstate 26.

In a written statement, Lucy Duncan Scheman, president and CEO of CaroLinks, Inc., which had planned to develop its own logistics center on the land, said “We believe the purchase confirms our initial projections that the Santee corridor along I-95 would become a major transportation center for the southeast.”

Duncan-Scheman said CaroLinks  will now pursue other unrelated projects. in logistics and security”

“We wish JAFZA International success and good fortune in pursuing its vision of a logistics and distribution park at the site,” she continued, calling the Dubai-based company’s commitment, “an investment that surely will bring much-needed jobs and economic growth to the area.”

Jim Roquemore, president of SuperSod Inc. in Orangeburg, which had owned a vast amount of the land acquired by Jafza International yesterday said in an e-mail to the Charleston Regional Business Journal that he was pleased by the outcome of his negotiations with the company.

“It’s a done deal. We have received our funds,” he wrote. “We are excited to have someone with vision and resources come to Santee and Orangeburg County. These folks have improved everywhere they have made a footprint. The hope of new and better jobs in a poverty area is exciting.”

Now that the land deal is done, Jafza International representatives are continuing to engage public officials and are negotiating a set of mutual commitments between the company and county, state and federal bodies.

Once these and other preliminary hurdles are passed, Jafza engineers will work with local consultants to produce the project's definitive budget, timeline and a business plan.

Gregg Robinson, executive director of the Orangeburg County Development Commission, likened the process to come to someone who’s bought the land for a house, but now has to work out all the myriad details that make a house a home.

At the same time, however, Robinson said, “this is a great opportunity for Orangeburg and we are really looking forward to it. It’s a project that will change the entire state and really open up the Port of Charleston and the other ports in the region to great new opportunities in global trade.”

In the next few weeks, a Jafza International team plans to come to the state to meet with public officials and key stakeholders “to understand their goals and concerns” during this initial planning phase.

“We think Orangeburg has the potential to become a major logistical hub in the United States,” Heath said.

No financial figures for the multiple land deals completed to secure the entire site were available.

Jafza officials said they are now focusing on planning the development.