The World Trade Center concept is something the World Trade City Orangeburg LLC partnership knows well.

The men have a combined 70 years of experience in the global trade and logistics industry and see Orangeburg as fertile ground for such a venture.

During a visit to the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce Friday, the World Trade City team said that while plans in Orangeburg are fresh and preliminary, the World Trade Center concept is well tested and tried in the United States and across the globe.

It is a concept they are ready and eager to see come to fruition here.

"We are going to move forward," World Trade City Executive Director Jimmie Gianoukos said. "We are going to be here for many years."

World Trade City this past week announced its plans to develop the first phase, which will consist of 1,200 acres off Interstate 26 near Bowman, of a four-phase project.

The project, touted as an "International Standard Modern Commercial Industrial City," could eventually draw $1 billion in investment and bring 1,000 jobs over a 10- to 15-year period.

The initial $100 million investment will be used to develop a mixed-use logistics center. Plans include a foreign trade and exhibition center near the interstate, warehousing and distribution space, and manufacturing facilities.

But former Gianoukos business partner, Fred Frankel, president and chairman of the board of the North Charleston-based Trade Center Development Corp., says he too has had big plans for South Carolina.

Frankel said his plans include an industrial, research, business, recreational and residential campus. That was to be the project's first phase, encompassing about 1,200 acres.

"I targeted the Orangeburg area that would include the creation of a new city or village," Frankel said during a Thursday visit to The Times and Democrat.

With large color display boards and photos of his plans designed by Greenville architect Betsch Associates in hand, Frankel showed his vision, including a medical services facility, a school, golf course and a high-tech science park. The project would have become World Trade Center Orangeburg.

But his vision and philosophy as displayed on the maps, said Gianoukos, are the primary reason why he along with three others formerly with Frankel parted ways earlier this year.

Gianoukos said the maps significantly changed the initial vision of the TCDC partners. World Trade City Orangeburg LLC was formed earlier this year as result.

"His philosophy changed drastically," Gianoukos said, noting the vision became "unrealistic."

"We could not move in the same direction. We departed amicably," Gianoukos said, declining to comment on specifics related to the separation. He did say several times the newly proposed World Trade City project does not include a golf course as proposed by Frankel. The course would have utilized about half of the 1,200 acres.

"We don't have a golf course," Gianoukos said, or the other amenities that the county already has plenty of. "It is an expensive venture and we don't think it is needed in the beginning years. His plans had to do with us breaking apart. It was not what we talked about."

The World Trade City group, however, has not ruled out a residential component, but said it likely would be much further along in the project.

Frankel said he was "shocked" about the men's departure in early January of this year and "wishes he knew" why those who joined his company and served on TCDC's board of directors over the past two years had a change of heart. He declined discussing his thoughts on reasons for the separation.

Current World Trade City member and former director of the S.C. World Trade Center Mark Condon joined Frankel's firm in 2006.

Gianoukos and Summer Xia, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen who is founder and chairman of The Segue Group Inc., a California business management and international investment corporation, joined Frankel in August 2007.

Dean Allen was broker-in-charge of Realty Management Corp., a subsidiary of TCDC. Allen now serves as the World Trade City chief development officer.

Richard Weiser, president of Weiser Cos., which built Center Pointe in North Charleston, is also a World Trade City partner. He was not involved with Frankel's TCDC.

So it was World Trade City, not Frankel and TCDC, that successfully entered into a contract with Jim Roquemore on about 300 acres of land owned by SuperSod Inc., a company partly owned by Roquemore and on another 600 acres off Homestead Road owned by Weathers Farm Inc. in which South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers is a partner.

Weathers said the World Trade City project represents a continuation of what the Weathers family has always sought for Bowman.

"We see this as a way to bring progress to the community," Weathers said. "I am very impressed by the team members of World Trade City. Each brings a different strength."

The project is a logical fit for Orangeburg County, Weathers said. The developers say that with Interstate 95, the location can serve the Eastern Seaboard.

Roquemore said the decision to go with World Trade City rather than TCDC was made after a serious evaluation of both plans.

"I was much more impressed with the plans of Gianoukos' group than with Frankel," he said, noting that as a person with experience owning golf courses, he does not see how such a vision could be successful in Bowman.

He also noted that Frankel's plans for medical services and a school also do not seem like a realistic or proper fit for him and for World Trade City.

"I could tell the difference in the representation (of the plans)," he said.

Gianoukos' group was more aggressive with their pursuit of the project and in making a decision in a timely manner, Roquemore said.

Gianoukos said the Orangeburg project will be along other World Trade Center such as the World Trade Center Ningbo south of Shanghai and World Trade Center Boston.

The development will consist of four zones: a mixed-use zone, a zone focused on distribution and logistics, a heavy and light manufacturing and logistics zone, and a zone with "high-end" residential development.

Design plans for the project are near completion, Gianoukos said, noting that preliminary plans were presented to county development and administration officials this past week.

Gianoukos said he and Condon have been "poking around" Orangeburg for the past five years with an eye on the county's potential.

Frankel, who said he has 40 years of experience in development and building, has been involved in the World Trade Center Association since 1984.

He was hoping to bring his 20 years of experience as president of the Florida World Trade Center to the table with Gianoukos' WTC.

He is currently working on the S.C World Trade Center Building in Charleston. It is in the design phase, as is a similar project in Greenville.

Frankel said he is still open to reconciliation with his former partners in that, to the best of his knowledge from what he has read and heard, the World Trade City group's concept is not significantly different from his proposal. He said there are no hard feelings about the separation.

"I have not seen any of their drawings," Frankel said. "But they have made it clear that they are doing this on their own."

Frankel said he may pursue another project in Orangeburg County.

The North Charleston developer said he is looking at property - about 2,000 acres - 5 miles from the Santee site where Jafza International plans to locate a $600 million to $700 million logistics mega-hub. He has talked with landowners as well as Roquemore about other parcels of property but said there have been no commitments made by any landowner at this point.

Frankel said any development near Jafza would look to be complementary and not in competition with the Dubai-based firm. A greater residential component would be added.

Orangeburg County is a prime area for a development boom, particularly for WTC in that the Port of Charleston sees a broad range of product imports, Frankel said.

"There are a lot of countries represented," he said, adding that a WTC concept would be ideal here. Foreign companies can have their goods shown in the U.S. market without having to contend with the hassle of acquiring visas in the post-Sept. 11 world.

Roquemore said he has plenty of property for Frankel to develop if he has the wherewithal and desire to do so.

"I have the land to help put him in business," Roquemore said.

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski @timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551.

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