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cWork continues for the city of Albemarle towards the completion of a new industrial area situated in the southern part of the city.

The Albemarle Business Center will soon have one site completed to show to prospective businesses looking to build.

According to Albemarle Economic Development Director Lindsey Almond, the new business park will have parcels from five acres to 121 acres which could accommodate facilities from 25,000 square feet to 1 million.

“That really opens us up to a wide variety of manufacturing facilities, food and beverage manufacturing,” Almond said. “This is going to be the crux of the focus of my position, expanding exposure to the park.”

A Golden LEAF Foundation grant of $763,100 awarded in Dec. 2022 to the city has allowed the project to move forward with the grading and other work to create a business-ready site.

The main entryway for the park will be on South U.S. Highway 52 Business, but the park can also be reached from Hinson Street off the N.C. Highway 24-27/N.C. Highway 73 Bypass.

Almond said one of the best selling points of the park is utility availability with 10 megawatts of power and 1.1 million gallons per day of water and wastewater for the property. Parks in competing counties, she added, do not have access to that much water, sewer and electricity at their parks.

“It is a city-owned park with city-owned utilities,” Almond said. “We have so much site control that it will put the competitiveness of the park on a different level.”

Having the infrastructure ready to go for the park will “bring it to the market much faster,” Almond said.

She added the state’s Department of Transportation are likely to add two turning lanes for the park.

City of Albemarle Communications Director David Fath said initiatives like the park were among the top priorities citizens voted for in a 2020 survey; around 80% rated the park as a very important project.

The deadline to complete the first business-ready site for the project is March.