BOLIVIA – Brunswick County’s Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park is set to receive a $6.275 million grant for infrastructure and land-preparation work intended to make the northern county industrial site more attractive to prospective employers.
The award comes through the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina and goes to Brunswick Business and Industry Development. County officials said no matching county funds are required for the grant. Commissioners authorized Brunswick BID to start the identified improvements at their October 5 meeting, and the county described the award in an October 14 update.
The identified work includes clearing and grading areas of the site, construction of a rail bed and wetland mitigation credits. The county says a CSX line already runs next to the property’s northern side, with proposed additional rail connections intended to make more industrial lots accessible from the existing network.
The Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park covers about 1,100 acres. According to the county, an industrial access road is already under construction, with additional water-line and water-tank work scheduled. Those projects are separate status descriptions; the grant does not mean every listed improvement is complete.
The grant is for site readiness rather than an announcement that a particular company has committed to build a plant. It also does not establish a number of jobs, a hiring schedule or a guaranteed return to taxpayers. Those outcomes depend on later recruitment, contracts and construction decisions.
The next milestones to watch are procurement and implementation of the funded site work, along with any verified business commitments that follow.
Source(s)
- Brunswick County: Official announcement
- Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina: Original grant award announcement