Case Study - 260 Midway Drive
Mycoworks Mycelium Manufacturing Facility
139,939 SF Industrial Manufacturing Facility on 24 Acres
First large scale mycelium manufacturing facility in the world
First bio-tech manufacturing facility in South Carolina
Located in an existing business park in Union, South Carolina, one of the nations strongest manufacturing markets due to its access to skilled labor, business-friendly climate, proximity to I-85 corridor, and connectivity to the Port of Charleston via its Inland Port Greer
CH Realty Partners (“Sponsor / Developer”) was selected in 2022 to be the exclusive developer for the Emeryville based biomaterials company called Mycoworks. CH Realty Partners has recently completed construction on the world’s first large scale mycelium manufacturing facility located in the greater Greenville-Spartanburg area in South Carolina. The project is located on a 24-acre site in an existing business park and features Mycoworks’ newly completed manufacturing facility that consists of 109,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 26,000 square feet of office space. This facility is mission critical to Mycoworks’ business plan and will be used to accelerate their production capabilities.
The Project is 100% pre-leased to vertically-integrated biomaterials company Mycoworks whose patented technology engineers mycelium—the network of threads found in the root structure of fungi—to grow the only made-to-order, made-to-specification, natural material with the performance of the finest animal leathers. Mycoworks announced its first partnership with French design house Hermès in Spring 2021 and has contracts with a number of leading global fashion brands and users. This newly completed manufacturing facility will allow Mycoworks to produce items at a range of price points for applications beyond luxury fashion (e.g., athletic, automotive, furniture industries).
MycoWorks Shares Plant-based Leather Production Milestone© Provided by Sourcing Journal
Just over two months since opening, the new MycoWorks facility in South Carolina has harvested more than 1,000 sheets of the company’s alternative leather material, Reishi. The milestone puts MycoWorks several months ahead of schedule on shipping revenue-generating orders.
The site in Union churns out Fine Mycelium, a proprietary construction of root-like fungal threads found in mycelium. The company uses Fine Mycelium to create its made-to-order natural leather alternative, Reishi.
MycoWorks said the Fine Mycelium grown at its South Carolina facility has exceeded the quality standards of what’s produced at the company’s Bay Area pilot plant. The company, which secured a $125 million investment in 2022, credits quality and scaling lessons learned at that West Coast facility for laying the groundwork for its South Carolina plant.
MycoWorks’ 136,000-square-foot South Carolina plant is the largest mycelium production facility in the world, employing nearly 400 workers. The factory opened in late October, after the company received a $30 million allocation from the federal government’s New Markets Tax Credits program, based on its promise to bring high-quality jobs to Upstate South Carolina.
One of the key goals of the facility was to scale production of mycelium materials such as Fine Mycelium by introducing automation to the production process. Those new processes have allowed the company to cut costs and increase scale by double-harvesting sheets of Fine Mycelium and eliminating an initial tanning step at the plant. Previously, only one layer of the material could be harvested per tray.
By cutting the initial tanning step, MycoWorks can ship Fine Mycelium to tanneries in an untanned “wet” form. This offers a cost reduction along with higher quality output at tanneries that process Fine Mycelium into Reishi.
“In 2023, MycoWorks achieved multiple manufacturing milestones, most notably start of production of the world’s first commercial-scale mycelium biomaterial in South Carolina as well as the first harvests of high-quality sheets of Fine Mycelium using this facility’s new systems and process automation,” said Doug Hardesty, MycoWorks’ chief operating officer. “Our teams redesigned and scaled up our one-of-a-kind tray based process to achieve low cost and high-quality production all while delivering Fine Mycelium to the market ahead of schedule, only 17 months after breaking ground.”
MycoWorks said it has nearly two years-worth of Fine Mycelium pre-reserved by clients and partners. The demand for plant-based alternative leather products has grown significantly, with research firm MarketsandMarkets estimating the market will close in on $97 billion by 2027.
MycoWorks’ Reishi biomaterial leather alternative has been used by brands such as Hermès and Ligne Roset. Last summer, Stockholm-based Deadwood Studios launched the first ready-to-wear garments made with Reishi at Copenhagen Fashion Week.
