By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Powerhouse Recycling is considering a move from Salisbury to Harrisburg.
Co-owner Mike Kennedy has purchased 4.57 acres on the south side of Hudspeth Dairy Road and may build an 80,000-square-foot facility there.
Powerhouse, an electronics recycling operation, currently leases a 50,000-square-foot building off Peeler Road. The company employs 19 people and would hire about 10 more workers after a move to Harrisburg, Kennedy said.
Harrisburg Town Council on Monday approved Kennedy’s request to rezone his property to light industrial.
Kennedy said his business has outgrown the Salisbury facility, which has no room to expand. The company has hired four workers since January, and revenue went from $600,000 in 2009 to $2.2 million last year.
But the company may relocate in Salisbury rather than move to Harrisburg.
“The whole plan might not go through,” Kennedy said.
He bought the Harrisburg property, which is vacant, because he got a good deal, Kennedy said.
“But we love Salisbury, and we love where we’re at,” he said. “Rowan County has been great to us.”
Kennedy said he will continue to look for property in Rowan County and plans to keep his options open.
Founded in 2008, Powerhouse started in a 2,300-square-foot facility in Kannapolis with three employees. The facility now recycles more than 100,000 tons of material per month, thanks in part to a state law banning electronics in landfills.
Powerhouse travels across the Southeast to pick up electronics from businesses and hospitals. People who want to recycle household electronics can drop them off for free during business hours at 175 Lane Parkway, just off Peeler Road near Interstate-85.
Kennedy earned some time in the spotlight in 2009 when he refused to sell his rental house in Kannapolis to the Cabarrus Health Alliance, which wanted to build a public health department across from the N.C. Research Campus.
The Health Alliance planned to use the power of eminent domain to seize the property, and other homeowners agreed to sell. At one point, Kennedy’s home was the last structure on the block as grading began for the new health department.
Kennedy later convinced the Kannapolis City Council to rezone the property from residential to commercial so he would get a better price if the health department seized his land.
He eventually sold the property for more than double what he paid.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.