CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — The big payoff for Concord’s efforts to find a replacement for the Philip Morris cigarette plant and its thousands of jobs came when the strategy changed from trying to replace the Philip Morris cigarette plant.
With the launch of The Grounds at Concord in 2018, the potential of the 2,100-acre site was unlocked — establishing a unique industrial asset that has quickly landed two major manufacturing projects totaling nearly 700 jobs.
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It’s a long way from the economic disaster that unfolded when Philip Morris in 2009 closed its mammoth complex on U.S. Highway 29 that was once the world’s largest cigarette producer. The chase for the next big thing to fill one of those vacant hulking buildings landed Alevo USA, which then abandoned its plans for a large-scale battery plant that was supposed to eventually employ 2,000 workers.
Alevo’s collapse shifted the focus for good.
The new plan for the site tries to reap the short-term rewards of a subdivided industrial park while also playing the long game for one large user at a megasite.
Read more here about how Cabarrus County leaders found a better way forward with the site.
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