Delphine Enterprise Management, a real-estate holding company operated by Allied Logistics, announced on Wednesday plans that will breathe new life into a key Waynesboro industrial site, bolstering a push to lure more skilled and high-tech manufacturing jobs to Central Virginia.
Delphine Enterprise Management is partnering with Legacy Group Holding Corporation, another local real-estate developer, to rehabilitate the 464,000-square-foot office, warehousing and manufacturing facility on South Delphine Avenue with convenient access to I-64 and I-81, railroads and international and regional airports. The facility will be renovated to accommodate users of all sizes.
For more than 50 years, the 22-acre site, now renamed Delphine Enterprise Center, was home to carpet manufacturers Wayn-Tex LLC and later Mohawk Industries, which closed in 2010. At their height, the companies employed hundreds of area residents.
Gov. Bob McDonnell commented on the deal from Richmond:
“Delphine Enterprise Center is a perfect example of a private company seizing an opportunity that revives industry and holds the potential for more and better work in Waynesboro,” said McDonnell. “My administration will continue to encourage private sector investment in Waynesboro and communities like it throughout Virginia.”
Allied Logistics, which operates Delphine Enterprise Center, has a long history of revitalizing industrial sites that once served as the economic backbone for communities. Since purchasing the former General Electric and Genicom facility in Waynesboro nearly a decade ago, Allied Logistics rebranded the 340,000-square-foot building into an office, manufacturing and distribution complex known as Solutions Place. Today, Solutions Place is a thriving commercial hub for nearly fifteen new and established companies.
Gov. McDonnell and Virginia Secretary of Commerce Jim Cheng last year welcomed a $1.15 million expansion by PPI/Time-Zero at Solutions Place, bringing 65 new high-tech manufacturing jobs to Waynesboro.
“We want to emulate the success we’ve created at Solutions Place and continue attracting high-tech manufacturing jobs in industries like defense or bioscience,” said Allied Logistics President Rebecca Polan, who manages Solutions Place and now Delphine Enterprise Center. “Right off the bat we will use Delphine Enterprise Center for warehousing, and, after some rehabilitation, we believe it will be an attractive site for a variety of businesses.”
Mathers Construction Team will be the property’s first tenant and will oversee the rehabilitation.
“It’s great news for Waynesboro and our company, because I look at Delphine Enterprise Center and see a sleeping giant,” said David Gauldin II, Executive Vice President of Mathers Construction Team. “My father helped build this facility back in Waynesboro’s manufacturing heyday, and now I’ll get to help bring it back to life, which is a unique experience.”
The purchase will add an additional 500,000 square feet to the existing 2.5 million square feet of commercial, manufacturing and distribution buildings for Allied Logistics, which owns and manages properties in downtown Huntington, Kenova, Nitro and Parkersburg, W.Va.; Paris, Ky.; and Waynesboro and Harrisonburg, Va.
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