Carl Blankenship
carl.blankenship@salisburypost.com

SPENCER — The town of Spencer on Tuesday received an update on a potential site for future industrial business, with the Rowan EDC asking Duke Energy to include the site off of Hackett Street in its site readiness program.

Rowan EDC Vice President Scott Shelton spoke to the board virtually and said it is important for the county to have an inventory of available sites so it can be attractive to companies. Shelton said the site has a lot of potential, and the program is a great resource

Duke Site Readiness Manager Keith Gabriel joined the meeting virtually as well to speak to the board about the program. Gabriel said the program began in 2005 to improve awareness of industrial sites in the utility’s service area. As part of the program, the site is assessed for its ability to host and ease of development.

Emily Palamara, of Charlotte firm Alliance Consulting Engineers, gave the board an overview of the 98-acre property which is dubbed the Lambe-West Site.

Palamara noted it is less than 10 minutes from downtown Salisbury and less than 50 minutes from downtown Charlotte. The property is already zoned industrial.

There is about 20 megawatts of power access, natural gas, water and rail service and internet access. Palamara said the property would require a large extension for wastewater.

Palamara said the firm looked at topography of the site for development and would not consider the property a challenge to develop. There are about 81 acres of area that could be developed, including a 68-acre parcel for most of the development.

Palamara showed a pair of conceptual sites plans for the property. One, a massive 500,000-square-foot facility, with potential for expansion. She also showed a plan outlining a pair of facilities at 220,000 and 250,000 square feet, respectively, both of which would have rail service. The smaller facilities would require water and wastewater extensions as well. The site does not fall within a flood plane.

“When you have a larger developable acre like 68 acres, you can really have a big building or multiple smaller parcels,” Palamara said.

Mayor Jonathan Williams, a civil engineer, said be appreciates the EDC promoting the site along with the town and property owner.

Shelton said it is difficult to find acreage of that size with rail frontage near I-85 and the EDC expects the site to be a hotspot with other industrial sites like Chewy nearby.