Last year, Burke County heard from 40 companies interested in moving to or starting a large-scale business in Burke County, but the county did not have any buildings the 40 companies needed. Burke County leaders say the county has no marketable industrial buildings left for companies to move in to. Amid signs of economic struggle for the county, leaders hope to spur development with shell buildings to bring in more businesses and create new jobs.
The economic need was discussed at the Burke County Board of Commissioners budget retreat in Â鶹´«Ã½ on March 6-7. The budget retreat is a time for commissioners to set county priorities for the upcoming year’s fiscal budget that goes into effect July 1.
Burke County Manager Brian Epley said bringing new business to the county has a large impact. A company making a $100 million investment moving to the county would, at the current tax rate, pay $560,000 a year in property taxes. That is the equivalent of about 400 homes at a value of $250,000 each being built in the county, he said.
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Unix Packaging poured concrete in August at Burke Business Park off Kathy Road in Â鶹´«Ã½. It is the first business to build at the business park. Burke Development plans to build a shell business at the Kathy Road site to recruit more businesses.
Economic trouble
Some warning signs show Burke County citizens are struggling.
Epley said the county has seen the number of people on Medicaid increase each year, which is an indicator that more people are living below 150% of the federal poverty line, and there is a decrease in community wealth.
The county has also seen an increase in food insecurities. A map from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners ranks the state’s 100 counties on food insecurity. Burke County ranked 90th in 2023, with more people facing food insecurity. Alan Wood, president and CEO of Burke Development Inc., said economic development efforts are focused on one effort, which is to increase capital investment to increase jobs and wealth in the community.
“That’s our mission statement at BDI (Burke Development Inc.), and that is what we present to our board every month,†Wood said.
Making Burke marketable
Crystal Morphis, founder and CEO of Creative Economic Development Consulting, said Burke Development received 40 requests for information from the state economic development agency in 2024 that Burke County could not respond to.
She said Burke Development could not respond because the county doesn’t have an inventory of buildings or sites those customers were interested in.
Morphis said about 40% of company prospects are interested in a pad-ready site ready to be built on. Burke County has an industrial park off Kathy Road with pad-ready sites, but more companies are interested in something different.
Companies look for existing buildings because it saves time and reduces risk, Morphis said. Morphis said having an inventory of buildings opens up a number of prospects when Burke Development has to pitch the county to businesses.
To move toward that, Burke County plans to build shell buildings, commercial buildings left unfinished inside so a business can finish the building for its needs.
Recently, the state allocated $20 million to Burke Development Inc. to build shell buildings. The $20 million is part of state funds for the planned Great Meadows Megasite, a large business park in western Burke County. Profit from sales of the shell buildings will be returned to the megasite fund.
Burke Development would have until December 2027 to use the $20 million to create a shell building, or multiple, at the Kathy Road Burke Business Park.
Wood, with Burke Development, said he expects to break ground on a shell building at the Burke Business Park this summer.
Morphis’ company conducted a supply and demand analysis, looking at what companies want verses what is available in the region. It examined building square footage and ceiling height, as well, she said.
From that, she said the ideal building size is about 100,000 square feet, with the ability to add to it, and a ceiling height of 30 to 32 feet. Morphis said machinery has gotten taller over the years.
Wood said while there are old manufacturing buildings in the county, none are what today’s manufacturers are looking for.
There is opportunity
Wood said of the jobs in Burke County, 25% are still in manufacturing, which is about three times the national average and twice the state average.
“Our people still know how to make things,†Wood said. “That is something that’s lost in a lot of this country.â€
Wood said Burke Development has been very involved in the redevelopment of the old Drexel Furniture site in downtown Drexel. He said the property was recently graded and could hold up to a total of 1 million square feet on the 100-acre site. However, there are limitations to transportation in and out of the site, so Burke Development is careful about the type of industry they can recruit for it. The site is served by rail.
“I can tell you right now that there are probably less than a handful of 100-acre rail service sites in North Carolina,†Wood said.
“There are multiple companies looking at that site,†he said. “You never know what they will take, but we have taken it from a site that is blighted to a site that we will soon have a Brownfield letter saying that the site is clean and is ready to develop.â€
A “brownfields site†is an abandoned, idled or underused property where the threat of environmental contamination has hindered its redevelopment. The Brownfields Program is the state’s effort to break this barrier to the redevelopment of these sites, according to information from the state.
Wood said it can take three to five years to land a company for a site. He gave the example of the Amazon distribution center in Garner, which he said was a blighted site as well. He said it took officials in Garner 10 years to get the site cleaned up and five years to land the project.
Wood said Burke Development is working with site consultants to bring awareness to opportunities in Burke County.
