Trevey site among those awaiting development

By Shelley Smith

ssmith@salisburypost.com

An 80-acre tract just off Interstate 85 in Spencer, called the Trevey Site, is a 2010 target of Duke Energy’s Site Readiness Program.

Located off Willow Creek and Long Ferry roads, it’s one of the best sites in Rowan County for light industrial, service, commercial or mixed-use development, according to Robert Van Geons, executive director of RowanWorks, the county’s economic development commission.

Owners of the tract are Jim and Hazel Epting of Salisbury and former Salisbury residents Jerry and Linda Trevey of Big Island, Va.

Duke Energy developed the Site Readiness Program, a collaborative effort by design firms, local economic development commissions and site consultants. The program identifies and promotes sites that have potential for industrial growth.

“One of the things we do at the EDC is identify sites that have opportunity to expand our employment and increase our tax base,” Van Geons said.

“Duke Energy is a big partner in economic development and industrial growth. They’re looking to grow their load and looking to create jobs.”

The readiness report for the Trevey Site will be revealed Thursday, Aug. 5, during a presentation by RowanWorks and international consulting firm McCallum Sweeney Consulting. It will be part of RowanWorks’ “The State of Our Real Estate” session.

McCallum Sweeney Consulting’s role is to determine what the best business is for a site. The firm visits the site, and by the end of its evaluation, will discover everything positive and negative that could interest or deter a business looking at the site, including demographics, financing opportunities, leadership and political climate, incentives, labor markets and transportation infrastructure.

RowanWorks helps McCallum Sweeney by gathering information on preliminary engineering plans, environmental aspects of the site, system capacity of available utilities and a comprehensive demographic profile of Rowan County.

Van Geons said the Trevey Site is one of the best sites in Rowan County for a distribution user.

“It’s one large parcel on right on the interstate, and a great parcel in the northern end of the county,” he said.

Van Geons also said the site adds diversity to Rowan County’s available products. Lots in the Summit Corporate Center and other sites are smaller or medium sized.

“And this (Trevey site) gives us a single tract,” he said. “While it’s important to have product, you have to have diversity of a product.”

Van Geons said the Site Readiness Program allows a lot to be “lined up” for the North Carolina Certified Sites Program. Rowan County

currently has two certified sites — Summit Corporate Center on Julian Road and Performance Technology Park on Peach Orchard Road, already home to a Toyota Racing Development facility.

“The work we’re doing on the Trevey Site would make (it) much easier should we go to have it certified,” Van Geons said.

The Trevey Site was chosen after RowanWorks submitted it to Duke Energy in February. The site was accepted in March.

RowanWorks lists the asking price for the land at $42,500 an acre, which would come to $3.4 million if all 80 acres were sold at that price.

The site is under lease month to month as Piedmont Gas and Duke Energy work on an expansion of the Buck Steam Plant, according to Jim Epting. It’s used for storage and a headquarters for contractors and other people coming to work on the expansion.

Before that, Blythe Construction leased the property for its control center and concrete batch mixing during widening of I-85, he said.

• • •

The second part of RowanWorks’ “The State of Our Real Estate” presentation will be a market analysis of Rowan’s available sites and buildings.

“We will be discussing Rowan County’s inventory of sites and buildings and how they compare to our competition in North Carolina and beyond,” Van Geons said. “And also how our inventory compares with what clients are asking for.”

The Aug. 5 presentation is open to the public, and those who would like to attend are asked to contact RowanWorks at 704-637-5526. The presentations begin in the Food Lion Board Room of the Gateway Building at 9:30 a.m. and last until noon.

Contact Shelley Smith at 704-797-4246.