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Other properties that abut the Burke Business Park off Kathy Road is up for sale.

Drexel Business Park

The former site ofÌýDrexel Heritage Furniture will be cleared and leveled soon.

Alan Wood, president and CEO of Burke Development Inc., said his organization is marketing the nearly 100-acre site at 101 N. Main St. in Drexel for potential industries.Ìý

Wood said Drexel Business Park could be developed for a single site or single company, or it could be developed for multiple companies. The Drexel Heritage Furniture location closed down in 2001.

“It really just depends on who your end user is and what they need,â€� Wood said.Ìý

Wood told Burke County commissioners in March that Burke Development has been involved in the redevelopment, along with the town of Drexel, of the site in downtown Drexel. He said the property could hold up to 1 million square feet of building on the 100-acre site.

Drexel Town Manager Bill Carroll said equipment is on site for the grading and demolition to start. He said the front portion of the property on North Main Street will receive demolition and a full grading. The concrete footprint of the former Drexel Furniture building currently remains.Ìý

Portions of some walls, footings and foundations remain.Ìý

Carroll said a lot of the debris and concrete from the demolition will ultimately be buried on the property.Ìý

According to a real estate listing for the property, Phase I environmental, geotechnical, wetlands identification, threatened and endangered species, and archeological studies have been conducted. Potential site plans and development cost estimates have been modeled for potential developers.

Carroll said some of the walls on the property will remain to hold up the state road, but the walls will be hidden from sight.Ìý

The back portion the property will have about a 450,000-square-foot graded pad, Carroll said.Ìý

“There’s room for bigger but that’s what we’re starting with,â€� Carroll said.Ìý

The demolition and grading is expected to be done by January 2026, he said. The town contracted Clary Hood Inc. based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to do the work for $4.9 million, Carroll said. Ìý

“Getting some dirt moving, getting it cleaned up, is going to be a big change,â€� Carroll said. “So we're really looking forward to it.â€�Ìý

About 80.3 acres of the site listed for sale. Of that, one lot with 62.5 acres is listed at $1.6 million and another 17.80 acres is listed at $356,00, with the price per acre being $20,000. Wood said the town of Drexel, which is an ElectriCities member, serves the 62.5 acres, while the remainder of the property is served by Duke Energy.

Wood said there has been some interest in the property.Ìý

“It is a rail, at least the back portion, is a rail-served site, which makes it, we think, extremely valuable,� Wood said.

While the property is along a railroad and would be valuable for companies needing rail access, the 2 miles of two-lane road leading from Instate 40 into town poses a challenge, Wood said.Ìý

“You don't want to see something bringing 100 trucks a day in there. That just doesn't make sense,� Wood said. “And we know that. So when we're talking with companies, we're trying to be selective to play that site to our best advantage.�

He said there is interest in rail-served sites. If companies choose to locate in the U.S. due to tariffs, that number could go up, he said.Ìý

Wood praised the town of Drexel and its partners for seeing it to the development stage. The town has owned the site since 2017 and has received grants and other funding to clean and develop it into an industrial site.Ìý

Carroll said the town has received just shy of $5 million in grant funding to clean up the site. Those grants are:

• $500,000 from the North Carolina Railroad Company
  
• $500,000 Community Development Block Grant from North Carolina Commerce
  
• $647,000 from the North Carolina Commerce for utilities
  
• $300,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission
• $500,000 Golden LEAF grant
• $500,000 EPA Brownfield grant
  
• $2 million Skiff grant from the North Carolina General Assembly

Carroll said with costs increasing, the town will continue looking for additional funding for the project.Ìý

Kathy Road business park

Properties on either side of the access road into Burke Business Park off Kathy Road are up for sale.

One property, which is listed with Collett real estate, at 3949 Kathy Road is 10 acres and sits on the left side of the entrance road to the business park. It is valued at $144,450, according to county land records. Another property, 0 Kathy Road, is 0.93 acres and is to the right of the access road. It is valued at $13,950, county records show. Both properties are owned by Table Rock Capital LLC.

Wood said he has talked to the property owner but there hasn't been any intense discussions other than being aware of the sale and looking at it as flexibility for future clients at the business park.

“It depends on who they are and what they need,� Wood said.

He said, “It's valuable and we're aware of it, and if the right opportunity occurred, then we would be willing to take a look at it. But we are not in any active discussion.�

Burke Business Park sits on 83 acres and has industrial pads ranging from 4 to 15.5 acres, according to Burke Development.

Beverage company Unix Packaging was the first industry to break ground in the business park in 2024 with a 500,000 square foot facility on 31.8 acres, according to Burke Development and a previous News Herald story.

Burke Development and Burke County plan to build a shell building at the park to spur interest from other companies.

The property that became Burke Business Park was first purchased in 2005 in a collaboration between Burke County, the city of Â鶹´«Ã½ and the towns of Valdese, Drexel and Rutherford College with the goal of supporting economic development in the county.