EAST SPENCER — On Thursday morning, members of East Spencer’s Board of Aldermen, mayor, a resident and a member of Centralina Council of Governments accompanied Town Manager Michael Douglas on a tour of several of the new developments in town.

Included in the tour were the new Tectonic warehouse buildings, the site of the new Sheetz that is coming, the site of the beginning of Phase I and location of Phase II of Kerns Ridge development, the McCanless Village development and a street site view of the coming East Spencer apartments.

“We’ve talked about all of these a number of times, but sometimes people need to get out and actually see the true scale of the things that are happening,” said Douglas, clearly proud of what the small town of East Spencer has begun to accomplish.

The two buildings owned by Tectonic on Andrews Street represent the new Rusher Farms Commerce Center, named after the family who owned the 80 acres of land. Just over 60 were buildable, and so two large structures, buildings A and B, have been built “to spec” which means without input from any tenants as yet, because there is currently one tenant thus far.

One tenant coming in to building B, CMC or Commercial Metals Company. CMC is headquartered in Irving, Texas, and is a producer of rebar and related products for the construction industry.

“We have made some modifications for them, per their request,” said Jeff Poland, project manager for Tectonic said to the tour group. “They will still have things to add, like we know they are adding a huge overhead crane and there will be several large vats for melting metals, but they will put those in themselves.” He said the company will likely take possession of the unit in May, but he expected it would be several more months before they were fully up and running.

Building B is the smaller of the two structures at 165,000 square feet. Building A is 450,000 square feet, and although talks are continuing, Poland said he is aware of at least one interested client who would take the entire A building.

Poland and Mayor Barbara Mallett and Alderman Deloris High spent a few moments remembering Robert James Rusher Sr., who up until his death in December of 2023 was excited about and involved in watching the progress.

“This property was all in the county at one time,” said Mallett. “But Mr. Rusher said he would let it be developed if East Spencer annexed it. Look at what he gave us. He loved East Spencer, and we loved him.”

High nodded, along with Alderman Shawn Rush, both commenting on how Rusher had helped get the ball rolling on development in East Spencer.

Poland said he has plans to install a memorial plaque on the site honoring Rusher and his father for their contributions to the community.

Right next door is the site where a new Sheetz will be going in. Site manager Evan Ross explained that regular gas pumps and diesel pumps for truckers will be separated, and there will be a separate payment building and auxiliary parking lot for trucks that should get those tractor-trailer trucks that currently park overnight along exit 79 off the highway.

He said the footing is expected to be poured next week, so the store should be open for business by August or September. He added that the shop will tie into existing sewer lines in the town, and Douglas said Salisbury-Rowan Utilities (SRU) had provided capacity information to Sheetz and the new connections will not exceed them.

The tour then moved on to check out the new Kerns Ridge development, a two-phase development on either side of Bringle Ferry Road, is expected to have 126 single-family homes in phase I and a combination of 233 townhomes and single family homes in phase II. Next the group travelled to the anticipated Sage at East Spencer which will have 164 townhomes on a road that will be upgraded by the NC DOT, followed by the beginning of McCanless Village off Bringle Ferry Road, which will have 60 single-family homes. Finally the group drove by the site of the anticipated East Spencer apartments, which will house 50 units.

The current owner of the property where the apartments will go is trying to find a way to connect to the SRU lines the way the company wants. The utility company does not want the owner to hook up on the boundary, but the cost of connecting to the main location is prohibitive right now. Douglas said he has been working with the owner to find a less costly option for making the connection happen the way SRU prefers.

Douglas explained that the town has received inquiries about the availability of a 35-acre site that has only 16 acres of buildable land. The town has the property for sale for $1.2 million, but Douglas said the property will benefit tremendously if the interchange the town is hoping for comes to fruition. Most interested parties are waiting to see if the town gets the funding for the Interstate 85 interchange.

Kelly Watson, who serves Centralina in government affairs and member engagements, said she had been involved in the facilitation of the town’s recent annual workshop, and she was excited to see the things board members had talked about.

High asked if Centralina still provides grants, and Watson said yes, but with some reservation.

“We do, and we still work to help communities apply, but we are also aware of the current state of grant funds, with some frozen and some in limbo, so we are reigning in expectations just in case there is significantly less money to work with.”

When the group returned to the town hall for lunch, Douglas reminded them of one last essential item.

“I know the tax increase I asked for last time was a big bite,” he said. “But now you can see first hand the growth coming. And before it gets here, we need to increase infrastructure, including emergency responders, so when the growth in both residential and commercial populations comes and more services are in demand, we are already prepared. But remember, the growth that is coming in our commercial tax base will also help ease some of the initial tax burden on our residents.”