Money initially given to Burke County to buy approximately 1,300 acres for a business park may be borrowed to develop the existing business park on Kathy Road.
A bill that was approved by the North Carolina House and Senate would allow $20 million that was earmarked for the 1,300-acre Burke County megasite to instead be used to build a shell building at the existing Burke County Business Park. The money made from selling the shell building would be put toward the megasite project as a form of repayment.
Unix Packaging poured concrete in August at Burke Business Park off Kathy Road in Morganton. It is the first business to build at the business park, and now Burke Development can spend money it has for the Great Meadows Park, a megasite, on building a shell business at the Kathy Road site.
In 2023, the state gave $35.8 million to Burke Development for the purchase and development of a Great Meadows Megasite on 1,343.44 acres. The site is off Interstate 40 near exit 94. The agreed price to purchase the land is about $33 million, said Burke County Manager Brian Epley.
Burke Development has the option to buy the land from Great Meadows LLC for nine more years.
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Senate Bill 382, if signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper, would allow $20 million of the $35.8 million to be used at the county’s Kathy Road business park before it is used to buy the 1,300-acre site. If Cooper vetoes the bill, the senate may vote to overturn the veto.
A poster shows the design for the Unix Packaging Distribution Center that is being built in the Burke Business Park off Kathy Road. The business park drawing was displayed during the groundbreaking of Unix in January 2023.
The $20 million could be used for site development, pre-construction and construction activities at the already-existing Burke Business Park.
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, Epley said. A shell building is a commercial building that is left unfinished inside so a business can finish the building to its needs.
Once the shell building is sold to a business, the profit would be used to replenish the $20 million borrowed from the megasite money.
If the $20 million is not used by the end of 2027, it would go back into the megasite fund and Burke Development would then have until 2030 to buy and develop the 1,300 acres, according to the bill. If the megasite isn’t developed by that time, the money goes back to the state, the bill says.
Alan Wood, Burke Development president and CEO, said there is no time set for a start date on a shell building at the business park.
Epley said the Burke County Board of Commissioners would have to approve the timing and decide what size building to construct and where in the 83-acre business park. Unix Packaging started pouring concrete in August at the park and will take up around 31.8 acres of the 83 acres.
The remaining property in the business park consists of four buildable areas that will hold a total of about 400,000 to 500,000 square feet of building space, Wood said previously.
Burke Business Park was a joint purchase in 2005 between Burke County, the city of Morganton and the towns of Valdese, Drexel and Rutherford College, with the goal of supporting economic development in the county. For years, it lacked infrastructure to support businesses at the park but now has roads, sewer and a water tank. Unix is the first tenant.
More money for Burke
The bill also includes $120,000 for the School for the Deaf in Morganton for administrative and legal fees and nonrecurring funds for Joiner Hall and other buildings on the campus of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Morganton.
In addition, the $3.25 million grant Burke County received in the state’s 2021-22 budget for a regional substance abuse treatment facility at the former Burke-Catawba District Confinement Facility in Morganton will be granted to Partners Health Management, a local management entity. The money to Partners Health is for the construction, planning and operation of a substance abuse facility in Burke County, the bill says.
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