Turning the Page: Surry County Must Keep Pushing Forward To Develop and Grow
The way Blake Moyer sees it, Surry County is about to try to walk a very fine line.
“The challenge for a rural community is to grow but still be able to recognize itself as a place where neighbors really are neighbors, where they know one another,” says Moyer, president and CEO of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership (EDP).
Once known for its textile and tobacco production, the northwest North Carolina county has had success adapting old buildings for new industries. But with that inventory having reached its capacity, Surry County is going all-in on new construction.
“All the old buildings that were emptied out are full now,” Moyer says. “We have to start looking for more, and we’ve got three industrial park sites just about ready.”
BIG BUILDS
Those three sites are in Dobson, the county seat, Mount Airy and Elkin. The publicly owned sites will be able to accommodate industrial buildings of up to 300,000 square feet, Moyer says, and pretty much represent Surry County and EDP pushing their chips to the center of the table.
“In larger markets, the private sector handles this in nine of 10 cases,” he says. “Smaller, more rural communities have to handle it on their own, but the upside there is that if you own the land, you can control who you sell to.”
Surry County is looking to build industrial parks because its old, historic buildings have been renovated and repurposed to just about the greatest possible extent. Moyer says that in Pilot Mountain, the building left vacant when textile maker Armatex closed nearly 30 years ago is now home to Rubberlogix, which turns recycled tires into environmentally friendly rubber products.
‘WE’LL BE READY’
Moyer says several other historic buildings in downtown Mount Airy have been turned into apartments and condominiums, a hotel and even a convention center. At the Balladeer Hotel, he says, one can still walk the original floor, preserved from the building’s days as a textile maker.
“Thankfully, those old buildings are still being utilized,” he says. “That doesn’t happen everywhere – we’ve all been to small towns with vacant buildings in the middle of downtown.
“We’ve got to keep pushing forward,” Moyer says. “If we want to grow, we have to get new product out there. As soon as someone’s ready to build, we’ll be ready.”
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