Kalmar executives break ground with civic leaders and representatives of developer Landmark Enterprises.

Kalmar has broken ground on an industrial site in North Charleston, South Carolina, which will house a new Customer Experience Center (CEC).

The facility will serve as a showroom, training venue, demonstration area and customer service centre for Kalmar's North American mobile equipment business, including counterbalance and container handling products.

"The Kalmar sales team is eager to open this facility in the critical Charleston market," says Steve Cianci, vice president, mobile equipment solution sales. "Once complete, we will have equipment staged for quick delivery, (and) room to showcase new equipment and demonstrate our products for our dealers and end users alike. We'll also have the ability to offer safety, operator and technical training on all our products as our training facilities will double in size.

"Additionally, this facility allows us to offer service and support for certain Kalmar products in the Charleston area."

"This new development will provide a unique opportunity for our North American customers to experience and train on our products," adds Chris Booth, Kalmar's vice president, market area North America.

The new building will be in Cross County Commerce Park, between Cross County Road and Cross Park Drive in North Charleston. The 15,000 sqft. (roughly 1,390 sqm) building will be a pre-engineered metal warehouse clad with a combination of engineered stucco and masonry. It will include over 2,000 sqft. (186 sqm) of office build-out and a 70,000 sqft. (6,500 sqm) concrete yard where customers will be able to test drive and train on Kalmar equipment.

The new facility is scheduled to open in early 2019.