Growth Spurt, City continues to create prosperous course

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 — When traveling west on N.C. 24-27 during the last few years, one may have noticed a familiar thing: construction barrels. These barrels have been stationed along the road from Locust to Albemarle since March 15, 2004 when the construction to widen the road began.But now if one keeps travelling west to Locust, they may notice something different. The barrels are gone.They were removed Nov. 13, 2007 with the completion of the road construction in Locust, but with the completion comes even bigger expansion and growth for the city.Town CentreWhen asked if the expansion in Locust would have taken place without road expansion, Locust Mayor Harold Greene said he did not believe it would have.“Locust eventually would have grown, but it was hastened with the road construction,” Greene said.When the decision to expand N.C. 24-27 was made in 2004, several businesses along the highway as well as city government buildings had to relocate. They were simply in the way, officials said.As a result, Locust lost its downtown central business district. They lost their soul.But determined government officials, planners and residents were not about to see the city shrink out of existence.A plan was developed to create a new town center that would rival others. The result was Town Centre.Town Centre will have a main street with a series of avenues and boulevards, allowing easy access to Merchants Square, residential areas and civic center.Main Street Properties, LLC, which consists of Stanly County natives Terry Whitley and Bob Barbee and Charlotte resident Andreas Bechtler, along with Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) and Company are responsible for the planning and development of Town Centre.“Two buildings in Town Centre have been completed,” Greene said.“The third is expected to be completed early in 2008.”These new buildings in Town Centre provide room for new businesses such as retail or they could provide space for 15 to 20 offices.The civic square is where city offices, police department and new library will be located. Ace Hardware, West Stanly Animal Clinic. Home Savings Bank, Bank of Stanly, Subway, Medical Pharmacy and Lakeside Clinic are some of the businesses already located in Town Centre.“Businesses in this town draw from a wide radius of 10 miles plus,” said Greene, “but I want to see our residents stay in town to work and not have to travel to other counties.“As with anywhere, businesses are market driven and right now, the market is here.” But Town Centre does not only bring growth potential for businesses. There is also the plan to build housing developments and recreational facilities.“They (the builders) intend to break ground early in the year for the apartment buildings,” Greene said.The apartments will be beside West Stanly Animal Clinic.“They have not broken ground as of yet,” said City Administrator James Inman in an interview Jan. 22.“They just recently received their bank approvals, so we anticipate receiving plans in about 30 to 60 days.”When all is said and done, the hope is there will be a mix of residential and business units close to Merchants Square, small houses on small lots, multi-family units, larger homes and estate lots.For more information, visit www.locusttowncenter.com.Villages at Red Bridge Town Centre is not the only area for residential growth potential.The Villages at Red Bridge Golf and Country Club is a new development on the edge of Locust where Stanly County shares the city with Cabarrus County.When completed, Red Bridge will be the newest gated golf club community in the Charlotte area. It will consist of 10 villages and an active adult village.There will be single-family homes, townhomes, condos, villas and estate homes as well as a retail village that will be available to the public.A 24,000-square-foot club house with spa and fitness center, a pro shop, an 18-hole championship golf course and a catering/dining/meeting facility are other features that will be available.A covered red bridge, after which the community was named, will be at the heart of the community.The sales center and the first of the 10 villages, Glenwood, opened in November. The Glenwood village is the first phase of the community and it will consist of 116 lots, 45 of which are currently available for sale.All homes will be brick and/or stone exteriors.Construction for the community was approved in 2003, but it was halted by Cabarrus County due to a misunderstanding in planning procedures. Gerald Friedman, builder and developer for the Red Bridge community, was able to obtain building permits Dec. 11, 2007. Construction for the first five model homes were then able to begin.“Construction is underway for the basement of the first model home in the Glenwood Village phase,” said Tom Cloos, general manager and primary broker for the community, in an interview Jan. 21.“The rest of the homes will begin shortly.”For more information, visit www.redbridgenc.com.Demolition of Western Hills Mobile Home Park New residential facilities will also be built in what used to be Western Hills Mobile Home Park.Demolition of the park began in November and is more than two-thirds completed.A new subdivision, Charleston Place, will be built in its stead.Clay-Mar Development Group, which consists of Clay Hucks and Mike Martin, is the developer for the project.“We hope to have most of the rest of the debris gone within two weeks,” Hucks said.Hucks and Martin are originally from Union County, but they recently moved to Locust.“We hope it speaks volumes that we are willing to add to a community in which we live,” Hucks said.The homes in the subdivision will be Charleston-style patio homes that will feature half stone columns, pebble stone sidewalks and older-style Charleston street lights.“We are geared to an older crowd ranging from 45 years and up, so we believe the older style atmosphere would be inviting,” Hucks said.There will also be approximately a four-acre park with walking trails, clubhouse, picnic areas, boccie courts and horseshoe pits.Inside the clubhouse will be a fitness area and possible a meeting area.Another feature of the subdivision is that it is planned, though not approved, to be a golf cart community, which will eventually have a street connected to Town Centre.Hucks said he is excited about the possibility that potential buyers could ride golf carts into Town Centre to obtain all the necessary amenities.The intent of replacing the mobile park with a subdivision was to increase the property value of Western Hills properties.The properties are currently zoned for Town Centre zoning, which means they would become part of Town Centre when completed.“We believe this community will gel perfectly with the design for Town Centre because it also has an older-style feel to it,” Hucks said.Chicago Tube & Iron Mayor Greene is not only concerned about the retail or residential aspects of growth.“We’re not pushing the retail and residential growth because we know it will come,” he said.“What we are trying to do is build our business park.”Greene believes the real growth potential for Locust lies with the business park because it could bring hundreds of new jobs to the city, and a city that can provide local jobs can grow without a lot of work.“Our goal is to broaden the tax base, provide jobs and have residents work in town rather than go away,” Greene said.With the growth of the business park comes the relocation of a business from Oakboro. Chicago Tube & Iron is located at 164 American Dr., Oakboro, but the corporate office is in Chicago, Ill.The Oakboro branch opened in 2000 with the purchase of American Boiler Company. It began with 25 employees, making an annual profit of $2 million.But with the growth of profis to $19 million annually and the number of employees increasing to 76, the company became constrained in Oakboro.Approximately two years ago, Chicago Tube & Iron executives began taking the steps in initiating a move.At that time, Robert Van Geons was the executive director of the Stanly County Economic Development Commission, and he worked closely with Chicago Tube & Iron as they considered a possible expansion to Locust.“It is always exciting to work with a company while they look to expand,” said Van Geons, “but they (Chicago Tube & Iron) still have a long way to go.”At the Locust City Council meeting Dec. 6, councilmembers voted to allow a conditional use permit for Chicago Tube & Iron, which would allow the company to expand to a 120,000-square-foot facility in Locust.The new facility would represent an investment of more than $10 million for the county.The company would bring approximately 118 manufacturing and professional jobs to the area by 2011 as well as 42 new employment opportunities.Locust City Council met with the county board of commissioners Jan. 7 to discuss endorsing an inducement grant for five years, provided Chicago Tube & Iron met employment and investment targets.If the criteria are met, the company would be eligible for up to $351,000 over the life of the project.But if the criteria are not met, the grants to the company would be reduced.Chicago Tube & Iron also requested assistance from the state of North Carolina and representatives are working closely with officials from the North Carolina Department of Commerce.Company officials hope to make a final decision regarding this potential project in the first quarter of this year.“We’d like to move on this pretty soon,” said Michael DiNanno, vice president of finance and chief financial officer for Chicago Tube & Iron.“We’d like to be moved in and ready to go in the first opening months of 2009.”Locust city officials met Jan. 21 to pass three resolutions that would allow the city to apply for a Community Development Block Grant for Economic Development.The grant would be used to recoup the costs from the expansion project.For more information about the company, visit www.chicagotube.com.Wal-Mart But Chicago Tube & Iron may not be the only larger company coming to Locust.After nearly a year, Wal-Mart’s plans to open a new supercenter in Locust may be moving forward.On March 8, 2007, Locust city council approved the building of a Wal-Mart supercenter on the western edge of the city.The potential site would place the new shopping center between Stanly Regional West Campus and the Villages at Red Bridge.With the proposed plans, the supercenter would share the same boulevard as The Villages at Red Bridge.The Wal-Mart Supercenter would be the anchor tenant for a large retail project that was proposed by WRS Reality in Aiken S.C.On Jan. 3, those plans were believed to have come to a halt as officials learned the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) would implement a modified super street design at the intersection of N.C. 24-27 and Red Bridge Boulevard.Since the new design would not allow vehicles to turn left from Red Bridge Boulevard, instead having them to turn right and do a u-turn, Wal-Mart decided to halt the building process until the plans were further explained.By Jan. 8, WRS Real Estate Investments had decided to move ahead with the development of the Wal-Mart Supercenter site, though.“The developers picked up the building permits on (Jan. 15) and they will be moving forward with the construction,” Greene said.This announcement came after NCDOT officials appeared they would not budge on the super street design. City officials still have concerns with it and suggested a full movement intersection with a traffic light, which would allow traffic to move all directions.