Distinctive Naturescapes to put in cast stone, brick paversBy Emily Ford
Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS ó When visitors and employees enter the Core Lab this summer, they will walk across cast stone and brick pavers installed by a Salisbury business.
Distinctive Naturescapes recently won a coveted contract to install cast stone on the front steps and pavers on the entryways and balconies of the Core Lab, the centerpiece of the N.C. Research Campus expected to open in July.
Cast stone is a concrete building material manufactured to look like natural cut stone. It’s mostly used as a decorative exterior veneer, similar in detail to natural limestone.
“We are very proud to have been chosen for this work,” President Dave Collins said. “The visibility of this project is huge.”
General contractor Turner Construction chose Distinctive Naturescapes after a two-year bid process.
“It was particularly long,” Collins said. “It was a long process, but a good process. We are really looking forward to working with Turner and Castle & Cooke.”
Real estate giant Castle & Cooke is developing the biotechnology park created by David H. Murdock. The California billionaire and health fanatic has a home near Kannapolis and owns most of downtown, as well as Dole Food Co. and Castle & Cooke.
Although he declined to give the dollar amount, Collins said the agreement with Turner is a good-sized contract for his firm, co-owned by Jeff Matthews.
But the prestige of working on the Core Lab makes this deal especially valuable, he said. And it could lead to more work at the $1.5 billion, 350-acre campus, which will be under construction for a decade.
Distinctive Naturescapes is one of three contractors chosen to bid on cast stone work in buildings throughout the entire campus, Collins said. He and Matthews also will bid on retaining walls, landscaping and irrigation work on campus as well as at the Club at Irish Creek, Murdock’s new luxury golf community under construction at the former Kannapolis Country Club.
Their company’s reputation served them well during the bid process, Collins said.
“We are pretty well thought of in our commitment to quality,” Collins said. “We always try to do our work well, whether it’s for David Murdock or property owners locally who have us doing landscaping and mowing.”
A 10-year-old company located on South Main Street with 28 employees, Distinctive Naturescapes has 15 workers cleared to be on campus. Installation should begin in February.
“The entrances will be high-profile examples of their work,” Collins said.
The pavers are being manufactured by Yankee Hill Brick, also owned by Murdock, Collins said.
Many architectural features at the Core Lab will be cast stone, including window sills and column details.
With a diabetic son and heart disease himself, Collins said he has a personal interest in the medical research that universities will conduct in Kannapolis.
“We’re excited about our construction work but also about the potential benefit of what they’re doing down there,” he said.
Contact Emily Ford at eford@salisburypost.com.