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Garrison Homes is planning a 17,485-square-foot warehouse on two parcels of land in an industrial park south of South Little Creek Road. | IMAGE COURTESY OF CITY OF DOVER[/caption]
DOVER — A Sussex County home-builder company has plans to develop a small warehouse in east Dover, hoping to fill a growing need for manufacturing and distribution needs.
Garrison Homes, a custom home-builder based in Lewes, has filed plans to build a 17,485-square-foot warehouse on two parcels of land in an industrial park south of South Little Creek Road (Route 8). The parcels are on Lafferty Lane and Rosemary Road, both in the former Simpson Industrial Park.
“This is one of the last couple blocks in the industrial park, and it will be completed with the intended goal of building flex warehouse space,” Becker Morgan Group Vice President Mark Riemann, who is overseeing the project. “It could be warehouse/distribution or light manufacturing.”
“What we're seeing in the marketplace is these spaces really need to be ready to go so tenants can readily occupy it,” Riemann added.
Combined, the two parcels of land are 2.36 acres of land and were sold to Garrison Homes for $145,000 in November 2021. Proposed parking for the site would be 22 lots.
Garrison Homes was founded by a father-and-son team, Charles and Jeff Garrison, in 2000, and today Jeff serves as the president. The family has deep roots in Sussex County, with the family once running Garrison’s Olde English Donut Shop on Rehoboth Avenue.
Charles Garrison learned the trade of building from his father, a first generation carpenter that opened a cabinetry company. Both father and son have extensive experience in construction, and Garrison Homes has an extensive portfolio of custom homes in communities like The Peninsula in Millsboro, Hawkseye in Lewes and more.
The East Dover area is the last existing industrial area in Dover city limits, excluding Garrison Oak. Specifically, around Lafferty Lane, Frito-Lay announced last year it would build a small distribution center on a 22-acre parcel.Â
Matan Properties and Jack Lingo Asset Management are moving forward on the Dover Logistics Center on Lafferty Lane, which will include 297,000 square feet of floor space.There are three other parcels off Lafferty Lane that could be combined for a larger project.Â
However, Kent Economic Partnership Executive Director Linda Parkowski has stressed that there is great demand in Kent County for small and medium warehouse space for manufacturing or distribution needs, and there is not enough inventory on the table to fill it.
“The sooner we can get some of these warehouses built, the better we will be for job creation,” Parkowski told the Dover Planning Commission on Nov. 21. “ And we know that some of the other warehouses along that road are already filled. We have potential job creators just waiting for buildings.”
