On January 19, 2018 the Transylvania Economic Alliance and leadership from Transylvania County, City of Brevard and statewide delegates convened for an official groundbreaking on a planned, 60,750 square foot light industrial building. Once completed fifty percent of the building will be leased by SylvanSport a local manufacturer. The remaining 30,000 square feet will be available for lease by other expanding businesses or new companies interested in joining the Transylvania County community. As this project moves forward feel free to check back in on our website for updates. The Alliance is truly thankful for the community’s involvement and support of this project. This project has involved numerous stakeholders:
- City of Brevard: the land which the building is being constructed was conveyed to the Alliance by the City of Brevard. Historically this site was used in the late 90’s by the previous owner of the Ecusta Paper Mill. Over the years the site served as an auxiliary parking lot to the former plant, a driver training center and a training area for our local emergency management personnel. This project takes an under-utilized site and transforms the property to a job creation property
- Transylvania County: Our county government partner is contributing the needed funding to implement the construction project as well as construction management.
- Golden Leaf Foundation: North Carolina’s tobacco settlement trust fund has made significant grant to the project of $1,000,000 which helps reduce the overall local financial contribution to the project.
- North Carolina Department of Commerce: During the FY17-18 budget year our local statewide elected delegation seized an opportunity to expand the scope of the project by dedicating an additional $200,000 towards the project, again, helping offset the overall local financial contribution to the project.
- SylvanSport: a local manufacturer in need of additional space SylvanSport will expand to the new facility. The expansion will allow the local industry to add 20 new jobs to their workforce
- Alliance: Our organization is served as an ombudsman to the project. Working with local leadership to rezone the property, perform some environmental remediation and design services and will ultimately serve as owner of the project. A unique element of the project is the progressive nature and use of revenues generated by future lease payments. A portion of revenues generated by the project will be set aside for the purpose of creating an ongoing income stream to be used for future sites/buildings initiatives.
