Turning the Page: New Industrial Developments in Surry County, NC

Surry County Economic Development Partnership

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 northwestern North Carolina county has successfully adapted old buildings for new industries. However, with that old warehouse inventory officially having reached maximum capacity, the county is shifting its strategy toward a bold era of new industrial development in Surry County, NC.

“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.”

The Shovel-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 focusing heavily on constructing modern business parks because its historic industrial buildings have already been renovated and repurposed to the absolute maximum extent possible.

For instance, in Pilot Mountain, the sprawling facility, left vacant when textile giant Armatex closed nearly 30 years ago, is now home to Rubberlogix, a sustainable manufacturing firm that turns recycled commercial tires into eco-friendly rubber flooring products.

Preservation Meets Progress: We’ll Be Ready

Moyer notes that several other historic buildings in downtown Mount Airy have been successfully preserved and converted into modern residential apartments, upscale condominiums, a boutique hotel and even a community convention center.

At The Balladeer Hotel – set inside the historic 1892 Spencer’s Mill building – guests can still walk across the original, beautifully refinished hardwood floors preserved from the building’s historic days as a bustling tobacco and textile facility.

“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.”