Massive speculative building in business park will open the door to economic growth

Burke County’s speculative building project will open for bids by the end of the month, marking a key step in efforts to reverse decades of economic stagnation.

“Our top 10 taxpayers today are the same top 10 taxpayers we had decades ago,” said Burke County Manager Brian Epley. “We haven’t done a good job of reinventing ourselves and our economy and rethinking who we are following the exodus of furniture and textiles. … We haven’t had a major economic development announcement in, really, the measurable past.”

There are already 13 pre-qualified bidders. The goal is to have the speculative building ready to market “across the globe” in early 2026. The speculative, or shell, building is a preconstructed facility designed to attract companies looking to start operations quickly without building from scratch. The building is being designed so a buyer can expand it from 100,000 square feet to 180,000 square feet, Epley said.

For those questioning the need for the building, the answer lies in economics. Investments in economic development create jobs and higher wages, reduce poverty, and expand the tax base so “we can ensure that we’re able to adequately provide service to our citizens,” Epley said.

How Burke County compares to its neighbors underscores the importance of the building, which will be constructed in Burke Business Park at Kathy Road (exit 96) and Interstate 40.

Some surrounding counties have poured more than $200 million into economic development capital investments in the last three years, while Burke has invested only $29 million.

The county’s contracting economy is evident in other statistics.

In 2017, the county’s GDP (gross domestic product) was about $2.8 billion. By 2023, after years of rising prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, Burke County’s GDP had dropped to about $2.6 billion.

Epley said the total GDP should have increased during a period of rising prices. GDP represents the value of final goods and services produced in an area.

He went on to add that Burke stands alone in the four-county region (Catawba, Alexander, Caldwell, and Burke) to have fewer people today than 25 years ago. According to the U.S. Census, more than 90,000 lived in Burke in 2010 compared to about 88,000 today.

“All that to say, before one can evaluate the need or the purpose of an industrial shell building, you first have to understand the desire and the need and the criticalness of economic development investment,” Epley said. “We are in dire need.”

OTHER PROJECTS

The county is also building a new animal shelter and renovating the Burke County Courthouse, and the Human Resources building.

The shelter takes in about 2,500 strays and surrenders every year, Epley said. A building with only 16 dog kennels and fewer cat kennels doesn’t cut it when the county’s goal is to avoid euthanizing animals.

Burke County Animal Services’ new building, located near the old, 425 Kirksey Drive facility in Morganton, will be 16,000 square feet with 36 dog kennels and 44 cat kennels.

Construction is about 75% complete, Epley said, with contractors currently working on the masonry. The new building is expected to be finished in the first quarter of 2026.

The project costs about $7 million and is fully grant-funded. Donations are still being accepted. Anyone can make their mark on the new animal shelter. Donors can purchase the right to personalize anything from paving bricks to entire rooms in the facility.

Donations can be made online at www.burkecountyanimalservicesfoundation.com/shelter-store.

Three reasons the county renovated the courthouse were to add a courtroom, make space for an additional assistant district attorney, and invest in the building’s longevity, Epley said.

The grant-funded project costs about $2.8 million, Epley said. He estimates it will be complete by Christmas.

“The district attorney’s office was totally out of space,” Epley said. “With our judicial jurisdiction restructuring … we’re going to be getting an additional assistant district attorney. We had nowhere to put them.”

Epley explained that the district attorney’s offices have been relocated to a once-unused basement area, making room for the clerk’s office to grow into the space they left behind.

“A courthouse is the single most expensive piece of capital infrastructure that a county is responsible for,” Epley said. “Building a new courthouse was simply unaffordable. We think we have a good courthouse here in the city … and so our goals were, how can we take this existing footprint, and make it suitable for continued use over the next couple of decades.”

The Burke County Courthouse is at 201 S. Green St. in Morganton.

The Human Resources Center, at 700 E. Parker Road in Morganton, houses the county’s health and social services departments. Between the two, about 250 county employees work in the building, Epley said.

“They also serve a Medicaid population. It’s about 34% of our total population,” Epley said. “So, it’s a high-intensity building. It’s been in dire need of investment for some time.”

The renovation project is still in the early stages, Epley said, with phase one having started only a few weeks ago.

Milestones for this project will include completion of design, architecture, and engineering. These milestones should be reached by June 2026, Epley said, and by December 2027, he expects “substantial completion” of the project.

Mica Banks is the County Government reporter for The Paper. She can be reached at 828-445-8595 or mica@thepaper.media.