Business

Commercial and industrial jobs boost county construction

A Gastonia company is building Ballantyne Commons, a 360-unit apartment complex on U.S. East.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 12, 2012

Tom Cooper says you wouldn't know it from the news headlines, or from the still sluggish pace of single-family residential construction.

But in the past few months major projects in commercial, industrial and multi-family construction have boosted the work for contractors in the Hendersonville area and transformed the interior space of factories.
"It's just really picked up," said Cooper, who along with his brother Mike is a third generation owner of the construction company. "Everybody keeps asking, how's business, how's business? It's nice to tell them it's picking up."
How much is business picking up? Not just for Cooper Construction but also for other big builders in Henderson County and beyond, the work is coming in sizable chunks — in multifamily complexes like the Oak Haven elderly housing project or the huge 360-unit Ballantyne Commons on a ridge behind the Ingles supermarket on U.S. 64 East, the prized Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Mills River or scarcely noticed factory expansions and upfits like those at General Electric in East Flat Rock and Legacy Paddlesports and Blue Ridge Metals in Fletcher.
Among the major projects completed or under way:
• Two car dealerships are moving new multi-million showrooms as automakers demand newer and more visible stores and common branding. The Hunter Automotive Group expects to complete its new $4 million Nissan showroom by this fall and Boyd Automotive, which won the Chevrolet dealership for Hendersonville, will invest $6 million in its GM dealership in the Spartan Heights area on Spartanburg Highway.
• An untold story amid headlines about the painfully slow economic recovery is the robust health of factories in Hendersonville and Fletcher. Sparked by a new energy-saving technology that has greatly boosted its outdoor lighting sales, GE has expanded its plant in East Flat Rock. Blue Ridge Metals has also expanded. Other factories have expanded or are expected to announce major upfits and new jobs in the coming months.
• Public and institutional work is helping boost the construction industry, too. In Fletcher, work has begun on the $32 million health campus to be shared by Pardee Hospital and Mission Health. Cooper Construction won the contract to build the new Fletcher Town Hall, which including roadwork will cost $9 million. Cooper also has just completed a $6 million visitors center at Gorges State Park in Sapphire Valley, and the Hendersonville company is working on the new dining room and kitchen at Carolina Village.
• Sierra Nevada, which announced last month that it is accelerating its deadline to begin making beer here, has already let contracts and begun work in Mills River on roads, water and sewer lines, a maintenance barn, the brewery building and a warehouse. It will let a contract soon for a railroad depot to receive hops and barley and other beer ingredients. Cooper has won that work, too.
• Developers Jeff Justus of Southern Commercial and Randy Pulliam of Asheville have been working on a proposed new shopping center between Seventh Avenue and U.S. 64 on property that contains the closed Four Seasons Cinema and the old Ryan's steakhouse. The project would include a supermarket, drug store and at least one restaurant, although the city council member who has been monitoring the proposal says it will probably contain more.

'In a really good spot right now'

"I get a monthly report that shows tracking of industrial activity," said Andrew Tate, the CEO of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development. "I think the numbers are there to back up that we're in the start of what should be a prolonged increase. I think we're in a really good spot right now. There's a ton of activity in expansion, a ton of new construction, and there's a handful that are going to pull permits (for expansions) in the next month or two."
One aspect of the industrial expansion that has added jobs is that the factory floor changes are unseen from the outside. Drive by Legacy Paddlesports in Fletcher and you'd never know that the company is a big driver of economic recovery here.
"They've hired more people in six months timeframe than any company in Henderson County ever has," Tate said.
Pass General Electric in East Flat Rock and you're unaware the company has not only added machinery but has revolutionized the way it manufactures and ships streetlights. Companies have expanded in substantial ways and have often sought no publicity.
"I think overall what we've been seeing in the last six months and what we think we'll see for the next six months is consistent and incremental growth of the county's existing industry," Tate said. "We're going to see some industries invest a couple hundred thousand and some $15 to $20 million. Sometimes it's as simple as machinery and equipment but also it's in actually expanding the footprint of the facility."
Among the most visible is the Sierra Nevada brewery, one of the biggest plums Henderson County has landed in decades. The Chico, Calif.,-based craft brewery is committed to investing $107 million, including $30 million in property and buildings and $77 million in machinery and equipment.
"That's the taxable investment amount; their net investment is going to be much greater than that," Tate says.
Industrial buildings of old have been reborn into new factories or warehouses, Tate points out, whether it's Steelcase or Taylor Instruments.
"If you look at the concentration of existing buildings that can be used for industry, I would say the majority of them are in Fletcher," he said.

More work on the way

Cooper has been with the family construction business since 1974.
"We've never wanted for work until two to three years ago," he said. The company has 125 employees, 14 of them at headquarters. "We kept on building in tough times. We did a few things to keep them employed because we didn't want to lose them."
Now, the work is rolling in steadily, more of it in private investment than public dollars. The next big industrial project that contractors and economic development recruiters are talking about is expected to come to light later this month.
"There's a 300,000-square-foot expansion we're in the running for right now," Cooper said.