(Tesla is locating a logistics center at Fox Hill Business Park. Image provided.)

Tesla will open a regional distribution center in Fountain Inn in Greenville County, S.C. in early 2024, another promising development in support of the booming automotive and EV economy of the Upstate and South Carolina.

The center is believed to mark Tesla’s first major investment in operations in South Carolina.

The inaugural Tesla facility in the Palmetto State will be located in Fox Hill Business Park -- the Class A business and industrial park which came online in 2020 as the first major business park developed in Greenville County in well over a decade.

Fox Hill Business Park, located on 172 acres in the City of Fountain Inn, is being developed by  The Sudler Companies, a family- and veteran-owned and operated development firm based in Chatham, New Jersey. 

The Tesla facility in Greenville County will mark the second such venture between Tesla and The Sudler Companies in 2023, the duo having announced a similar project near Tampa, Florida, in 2023.

“Tesla’s commitment to Fox Hill Business Park in Greenville County is a testament to the continued strength of our company’s partnership with Tesla and to the indisputable drivers that make the park and the Upstate a force in the logistics world,” said Brian Sudler, principal with The Sudler Companies.

Tesla’s work in Greenville County will focus strictly on distribution of vehicle parts regionally and won’t include manufacturing, officials said.

Tesla will absorb all of Fox Hill’s Building 3, comprised of 251,100 square feet. Depending on final development strategies, the Fox Hill Business Park campus can accommodate up to 2.5 million square feet of manufacturing, distribution, and warehousing activity across multiple buildings.

Total investment and planned job additions by Tesla haven’t been made public.

Late in 2023, Tesla posted a hiring notice for a training leader to support and train employees at the new facility in Greenville County.

A company focused on accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy, Tesla is committed to building a world powered by solar energy, running on batteries, and transported by electric vehicles that charge with clean energy.

Tesla operates six vertically integrated factories across three continents and employs over 100,000 employees who design, build, sell and service Tesla products in-house.

The Tesla announcement is the latest major announcement for Fox Hill, which also saw the recent addition of Sage Parts Plus, a global leader in replacement parts for aviation ground support equipment.

Sage Parts opened new distribution operations in Fox Hill Business Park in mid-2023, leasing a 103,049-square-foot building to accommodate distribution operations along with its new global headquarters that houses its leadership team, purchasing, finance, customer service, HR, product management, and other support departments.

Fox Hill Business Park has immediate access to Interstate 385, I-85, the Inland Port in Greer, South Carolina, and Greenville Spartanburg International Airport.

The Sudler Companies are a vertically integrated development firm that includes construction and property management departments and owns and manages over 12 million square feet of commercial real estate across America.

“The addition of the Tesla brand to Greenville’s business ecosystem is another example of the important role that speculative development plays in today’s competitive environment, and exactly why Greenville County was so supportive of The Sudler Companies and Fox Hill Business Park,” said Kevin Landmesser, interim CEO of the Greenville Area Development Corporation.

“We are excited that Tesla has chosen to call Fountain Inn home for their first facility in South Carolina,” said City of Fountain Inn Mayor GP McLeer. “This facility will not only create local jobs that will support families, but it also helps many of our region's existing suppliers get their products to one of the nation's most innovative automotive companies more efficiently.

McLeer added, "We continue to be proud of our community's expanding role in the automotive industry and are excited to see Tesla begin operations.”

Since its founding in mid-2001, the GADC team’s efforts have resulted in the announcement of more than 34,600 new jobs and more than $6.6 billion in capital investment in Greenville County.