Golden shovels in hand, six men ceremonially broke ground Wednesday morning at the site of Morganton Heights, a Walmart Supercenter-anchored shopping center.
Despite a failed attempt four years ago to develop the project on N.C. 181, WRS Inc. selected a new site at the former Henredon furniture plant off West Fleming Drive and stayed with it. Morganton Heights is scheduled for completion in summer 2013.
With an expected 250 construction jobs coming soon and another 950 to 1,000 retail jobs to follow, Morganton Mayor Mel Cohen said, “This will be a shot in the arm for Morganton and Burke County.”
Burke County Board of Commissioners Chair Wayne Abele echoed the sentiment, agreeing that the project would inject revenue into the city and county.
The city government will work with developers to ensure that local workers are considered for construction jobs, Cohen said. And if temporary construction workers from outside the area are employed, he pointed out, they will be spending money on lodging and food while in town.
“This center and those workers will mean more than $60 million in the tax base to the county of Burke and the city of Morganton,” Cohen said.
Using today’s city property tax rate of 46 cents per $100, the city would collect $250,000 in annual property taxes from the shopping center, Cohen said.
“Once the center is fully developed, the commercial enterprises located here are expected to generate, conservatively, $125 million in annual sales,” Cohen said. “That will bring sales (tax) revenues of over $250,000 to the city of Morganton and $1.2 million to Burke County.”
WRS Chief Finance Officer Art Kepes said that despite a slow economy, lenders and interested tenants are helping bring the project to fruition.
“We’ve got a number of tenants who aren’t in this community — who don’t really service this community —who are going to be here,” Kepes said. “…I think they are attracted to the stability of Morganton.”
Although WRS’s website names a few retailers on the maps of Morganton Heights, WRS chief operating officer Steve Howe said WRS would not announce any potential occupants, allowing the stores to finalize deals and follow with their own announcements.
The project will go forward in two phases, Kepes said, although both may occur simultaneously.
“Again, there aren’t many people starting new projects today,” he said, so we have a lot of interest because when dirt starts being moved out here, people will understand that this is really happening.”
N.C. State Rep. Hugh Blackwell said the project was almost like a proclamation that things are happening in Morganton and Burke County.
“(Walmart and WRS) decided that they can come here and prosper,” Blackwell said, “and that’s a message we can share with a lot of other business and development.”
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