Laura Baverman: Loading Dock Raleigh to help consumer product companies learn, pack, ship and grow

The permits are in and plans are set. Loading Dock Raleigh will more than double in size in coming months, opening 15 additional office suites, more conference rooms, a classroom and a mini “commerce hub” for growing consumer product and e-commerce companies.

“We have a cool community of people who know packaging, know Amazon and who are working with the same retailers,” says community manager Carter Ellis. “We’re already sharing a lot of resources.”

Loading Dock always planned to expand into a larger space in the old Winn-Dixie distribution facility on East Whitaker Mill and Atlantic Avenue. But an outside investor is helping make it happen this year. According to an SEC filing back in May, $836,000 came in from a Florida group. Ellis declined to share details of the investor, only revealing that it shares the vision of Loading Dock as a place open to everyone and specifically for social impact and product companies to grow.

It will be “the financial engine moving forward”, he added.

Loading Dock Raleigh was envisioned as a workspace for makers back in 2015, when owner Phillip Freeman announced plans to build a community around his all natural insect repellent company, Murphy’s Naturals. Murphy’s now works alongside Good Dirt, an all-natural soil conditioner, and Mister Pompadour, a men’s hair product company. The North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild also operates in the space, serving makers in the craft beer industry.

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