Union County

[SpiritOf76]

Any plan for apartments in downtown Monroe? 

[KJHburg]

40 minutes ago, SpiritOf76 said:

Any plan for apartments in downtown Monroe? 

Not sure I thought I remember seeing some last time I walked around but I was driving by today.  I will check.  Downtown Monroe is immediately adjacent to a historic district with homes priced 50% less or more than comparable intown neighborhoods of Charlotte.  And these homes are really nice. 

[rancenc]

Jobs and investment coming to Monroe!

Dymax to invest $46.7M, create 227 jobs at new Monroe manufacturing facility

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/11944302/dsc0284*304xx3000-2000-4-0.jpg

MONROE-UNION COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Monroe CIty Council approved the sale of the 109,000-square-foot Monroe Speculative Building IV to Dymax Corp. last month.

The city of Monroe has landed a new manufacturer that is promising to create hundreds of jobs with wages well above the Union County average.

Dymax Corp. announced today it would invest $46.7 million and create 227 jobs at a new manufacturing facility in Monroe. State documents show the chemical and plastics manufacturer will occupy a 109,000-square-foot building at Monroe Corporate Center that is expandable to 150,000 square feet. The proposed investment is expected to be made by the end of 2024, with the jobs created over a three-year period from 2024 to 2026.

On May 10, Monroe City Council approved the sale of the 109,000-square-foot Monroe Speculative Building IV to Dymax for $5 million, documents show. The project was formally announced after the state approved an incentives package worth $1.7 million this morning. Documents show Union County is expected to offer incentives worth nearly $1.9 million for the project.

The minimum average wage for the jobs created by Dymax is $66,343, which is much higher than the county average of $49,129.

“Dymax is experiencing steady and significant growth, and our expansion from our Northeast roots into North Carolina opens doors to outstanding labor, technical and logistic resources,” said Aaron Mambrino, president of Dymax North America. “The combination of available resources and solid support from state and local officials made North Carolina a great choice.”

State documents show that Dymax's home state of Connecticut was the main competition for the project. The project is described as a relocation in state documents, as Dymax had been located in Connecticut for over 20 years.

[KJHburg]

Was ALL over Union County this morning.  First down 601 south of Monroe then over to Mineral Springs then to the big town of Waxhaw then back roads again to Wesley Chapel and then driving through Indian Trail and Stallings back to 485.  

South of Monroe and south of NC Hwy 75 is what I would call pure country.  Beautiful wheat and barley and corn fields.  Went on multiple roads with Short Cut in their names! Then to Mineral Springs short walk on a greenway there then over to big town of Waxhaw.  Then back roads again to Wesley Chapel whose entire commercial tax base is 3 very busy shopping centers.  Then through multiple traffic circles back to Indian Trail and Stallings back into Meck.  

Love these all brick new apartments on the edge of downtown Waxhaw and their new Wendy's is a great design. 

Last photo was in Wesley Chapel and I did see someone jump out of that van with a kilt on heading into a sub shop  LOL. 

Union County has so many incorporated towns it is crazy.  And remember no farms no food and that means no beer too. 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by KJHburg

[rancenc]

Improvements coming to downtown Waxhaw.

https://www.thecharlotteweekly.com/ucweekly/construction-for-downtown-waxhaw-improvements-starts-this-fall/article_0297d22a-edd8-11ec-a800-f336f4deeca7.html

[DCMetroRaleigh]

On 6/6/2022 at 2:11 PM, KJHburg said:

Was ALL over Union County this morning.  First down 601 south of Monroe then over to Mineral Springs then to the big town of Waxhaw then back roads again to Wesley Chapel and then driving through Indian Trail and Stallings back to 485.  

South of Monroe and south of NC Hwy 75 is what I would call pure country.  Beautiful wheat and barley and corn fields.  Went on multiple roads with Short Cut in their names! Then to Mineral Springs short walk on a greenway there then over to big town of Waxhaw.  Then back roads again to Wesley Chapel whose entire commercial tax base is 3 very busy shopping centers.  Then through multiple traffic circles back to Indian Trail and Stallings back into Meck.  

Love these all brick new apartments on the edge of downtown Waxhaw and their new Wendy's is a great design. 

Last photo was in Wesley Chapel and I did see someone jump out of that van with a kilt on heading into a sub shop  LOL. 

Union County has so many incorporated towns it is crazy.  And remember no farms no food and that means no beer too. 

 

 

Nice pics. I would like to see some pics from eastern Union, including Marshville over towards Peachland in Anson.

[rancenc]

How the food and agribusiness industries are modernizing in Union County.

North Carolina's Union County modernizing food and agribusiness with solid collaboration strategies

Sponsored Content Jun 27, 2022

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/12291187/613thebarn-1*304xx1003-670-142-0.png

 

The BARN will ultimately anchor a food-focused industrial park near the campus of Wingate University,

With its dynamic suburbs and modern business landscape, Union County might not be the place you’d expect to find North Carolina’s third-largest agricultural economy. But the county’s fertile soils support 957 farms and an eclectic array of agribusiness and consumer foods enterprises.

Agriculture, in fact, is Union County’s second-largest industry, employing just under 20 percent of its workforce, according to Andrew Baucom, Union County extension director. The county leads North Carolina in the production of wheat and soybeans, for example, and ranks among the top 10 Tarheel counties in raising turkeys, broiler chickens, grain crops, nursery plants and cattle. Fresh fruits and vegetables also grow abundantly here. Farmlands constitute about some 46 percent of Union County’s landmass.

“The interesting thing about our county’s Ag economy is that continues to grow and continues to diversify even in the midst of the growth and expansion of the urbanized areas of the county,” says Baucom, a Union County native who has led the Extension Office for the past several years. “Small farm operations are a really up-and-coming aspect of our Ag industry,” he says. “You can succeed here on a small scale without having 1,000 acres and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment.”

Baucom is among the local leaders working to leverage Union County’s expansive agricultural resources to create livable jobs, support sustainable businesses, link producers with consumers, and address food insecurity concerns in more distressed corners of the county. His office is collaborating with Monroe-Union County Economic Development Commission and others on a strategy known as the BARN (Building Agricultural Resources and Nutrition). With support from local educators, the BARN pulls together a multi-faceted vision that includes a shared commercial food kitchen, aggregated product shipments and access to the latest food processing equipment. The BARN will ultimately anchor a food-focused industrial park near the campus of Wingate University, another key partner in the county’s consumer food strategy.

The goal is to empower small and mid-sized farms to engage in more than simply harvesting crops, thus keeping the more lucrative points on the agribusiness value-chain inside Union County.

“We’ve done a lot of research to identify what our community needs,” explains Rachael Holzman, new projects manager and marketing coordinator at Monroe-Union County Economic Development Commission. The focus is currently on internal outreach, education and awareness-building. Efforts will soon shift to external marketing. “We’ve gone to a few trade shows, and our future goal is to start recruiting food and agribusiness operations just like we do other industry sectors,” she explains.

Like Baucom, Holzman exemplifies a young cadre of Union County residents committed to local agriculture. As a student at Cuthbertson High School in Waxhaw, she got involved in the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and began thinking about related career options. “I fell in love with it,” she recalls. From there, it was majors in Sustainable Agriculture and Ag Business at N.C. State University and an internship under Baucom at the Union County Extension that kept the momentum going. A research project led Holzman to the economic development office and a broader consideration of how to maximize the economic potential of modern agribusiness. Holzman launched her economic development career here after graduating from N.C. State last year. “Agriculture touches each and every one of us every day,” Holzman says. Taking out-of-county processing, packaging and distribution players out from between consumers and local producers will spark job creation, wage growth and capital investment in Union County. “Ag is increasingly high-tech,” continues Holzman. “We think of farmers as manufacturers. They produce wheat, similar to a company making aircraft components.”

Cooperative Extension, 4-H and FFA are all assets in the county’s value-added agribusiness strategy. So too, are Union County public schools, which offers an agricultural curriculum that boosts awareness of lucrative career paths in food, nutrition and agribusiness. Wingate University, a private liberal arts campus operating in Union County since its 1896 founding, also is providing leadership through a new food systems concentration as part of its B.S. degree in biology.

“We’re one of the largest majors on campus,” says Erika Niland, associate professor and chair of Wingate’s biology department. The new concentration grew from the university’s goal of engaging more visibility in the community and local economy, which began after the arrival in 2015 of Rhett Brown, Ph.D., as the university’s 10th president. Under Brown’s guidance, Wingate has considered its larger role in Union County.

Among the recent changes has been an articulation agreement with South Piedmont Community College that eases the transfer of students into Wingate’s four-year degree programs. The university’s Wayfind program even offers scholarships for transferring Union County residents, thus further cutting the costs of attaining a bachelor’s degree.

Wingate will enroll its initial class of students in the new food systems major this fall. “Our goal is to have 20-30 students enrolled in the major in the next two years,” she says. Wingate leaders listened to local experts as they designed the new curriculum, which aims also to address local food insecurity issues, in addition to expanding Union County’s Ag economy.

 

 

 

 

 

[videtur quam contuor]

We benefit from the NC Extension Service everyday. For over 100 years it has diffused information about science, technology, best practices and equipment to increase food production and make farmers become more profitable and increase the yield of our farms throughout the state. This includes non food products as well. NCSU as the spear which drove this improvement. US Agriculture assisted with other states as well. My household historian recalls going to the Mecklenburg Extension cannery with her mother and grandmother with fruits and vegetables to use the cannery machinery to preserve summer bounty. An internet search shows that such locations persist in other places even now. Her memory is that the place was as hot as anyone could stand. Summer heat, boiling water, steam bath, just what a 9 year old dreams of. 

https://historicalstate.lib.ncsu.edu/timelines/cooperative-extension-service

This is what the Mecklenburg office is involved with:

https://mecklenburg.ces.ncsu.edu/

[KJHburg]

Was down in southern Union County then drove up US 601 North of Monroe through beautiful farm land. 

Some quick 2019 facts for state rankings for Union County: (from a recent Biz Journal special section on Union County)   Many may only know of Union County has large homes on large lots, small towns etc but north of the toll road and eastern and southern Union County is pure country (and I love it)

#1 Horse population in the state!

1st in Wheat and Soybean production in the state!

3rd in Turkeys and 4th in Chickens\

3rd overall in grain crops

#4 highest dollar of Ag receipts in the state 

10th in cattle production and remember NC has 100 counties!  

No farms no food.  The best sustainable food sources for the city folk in Charlotte is our surrounding counties. 

from my photos you can see the state of the row crops like corn and soybeans looks great.  

oh yeah and Simpson Eggs also in Union County has 1.375 million HENS  and they get 1.1 MILLION EGGS a day from them.    That is 5.5 hens per person living in Union County. If Simpson Eggs hens were people it would be larger in population that Mecklenburg and Union combined!

 

[KJHburg]

Oh yeah is the new Atrium Union West hospital in Stallings 

[RANYC]

51 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Was down in southern Union County then drove up US 601 North of Monroe through beautiful farm land. 

Some quick 2019 facts for state rankings for Union County: (from a recent Biz Journal special section on Union County)   Many may only know of Union County has large homes on large lots, small towns etc but north of the toll road and eastern and southern Union County is pure country (and I love it)

#1 Horse population in the state!

1st in Wheat and Soybean production in the state!

3rd in Turkeys and 4th in Chickens\

3rd overall in grain crops

#4 highest dollar of Ag receipts in the state 

10th in cattle production and remember NC has 100 counties!  

No farms no food.  The best sustainable food sources for the city folk in Charlotte is our surrounding counties. 

from my photos you can see the state of the row crops like corn and soybeans looks great.  

oh yeah and Simpson Eggs also in Union County has 1.375 million HENS  and they get 1.1 MILLION EGGS a day from them.    That is 5.5 hens per person living in Union County. If Simpson Eggs hens were people it would be larger in population that Mecklenburg and Union combined!

 

Does Simpson eggs do tours?  Are they free range?

[KJHburg]

34 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Does Simpson eggs do tours?  Are they free range?

Not sure about tours and not free range pretty sure.  

[rancenc]

New residential development could be in the works in Monroe.

Santee Land Group entity seeks rezoning for single-family residential project in Monroe

Jul 6, 2022, 6:31am EDT

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/10414750/gettyimages-home-build-homebuilder*304xx5035-3376-965-0.jpg

GETTY IMAGES

The rezoning request is being made to accommodate 99 detached, single-family homes at the site in Monroe.

At its meeting tonight, the Monroe Planning Board will consider a rezoning request from a group proposing the development of nearly 100 homes.

An entity affiliated with Charlotte-based Santee Land Group requested the rezoning of a 30-acre site just northwest of Monroe, city documents state. The request is being made to accommodate the building of 99 detached, single-family homes at the site. The site is at Old Charlotte Highway and Roland Drive, just off Highway 74.

The city's planning staff has recommended approval of the request, according to a staff report. The applicant is seeking a conditional zoning district for the project. Documents indicate the project is named Regent Pines.

Last year, the same applicant applied to rezone the same 30-acre site for a different plan, which was also named Regent Pines. That request called for 173 attached townhomes, a much higher density than what is now being proposed. The proposal being considered tonight calls for 3.3 residential units per acre, as opposed to the nearly 5.8 units per acre from the townhome plan proposed in late 2021.

The conditional zoning district being sought under the most recent request would be called "Regent Pines - 2022," documents show.

Monroe's planning board makes recommendations on zoning requests to the city council, which has final authority on zoning matters. It is unclear when the new Regent Pines proposal could advance to city council.

[rancenc]

Waxhaw's new town hall building taking one step closure to the start of construction.

https://www.thecharlotteweekly.com/ucweekly/waxhaw-selects-general-contractor-for-town-campus-development/article_fed3f4b6-fdef-11ec-bac4-a3be584d21d6.html

[rancenc]

New brewery coming to downtown Monroe!

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/whats-in-store/article263516828.html

[KJHburg]

Union County is largest currently aerospace cluster in the state however I do think they will be passed by Guilford County once Boom Supersonic is up and running.  However that plant should help Union County suppliers too

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/06/27/headline-aerospace-industry-in-union-county-nort.html

""“We not only have North Carolina’s most geographically concentrated aerospace cluster, but it’s one of the most diversified clusters you’ll find anywhere in the aerospace industry,” says Chris Platé, executive director for Monroe-Union County Economic Development. “We look to attract companies here, not just from different segments of the industry, but companies with diversified product lines.”  Last summer, Collins Aerospace launched plans for a $30 million expansion to its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations in Monroe. Now a unit of Raytheon Technologies Corp., the company first arrived in Union County in 2004. Collins’ Monroe facility repairs commercial and military aircraft systems, including cargo, rescue hoists, potable water, lighting and other systems. The company’s most recent expansion added 25 percent more square footage to its Monroe footprint — including new offices, shop floor space and loading docks.  “Our Monroe site is one of Collins’ largest MRO facilities in the world, and the repairs we provide are essential to keeping our airline and military customers’ aircraft in service,” Mary DeStaffan, general manager for Collins Aerospace’s Monroe site said upon the facility’s grand opening in mid-June. “We’re proud to call Monroe home, to continue to invest and grow in the community here, and to support the region’s growing aerospace cluster.” It’s been more than four decades since Hunter Dalton, current chairman of the local EDC Board of Advisors, arrived in Union County to take an engineering position at what was then the Allvac Company. Now known as ATI, the global specialty materials provider to the aerospace and other industries, today operates four major sites in Monroe. Dalton’s career at the company included overseeing operations, sales and marketing before ultimately serving as its president. “I love the aerospace business,” says Dalton, who retired from ATI in 2016. “In my time there, the company undertook six major expansions in Monroe,” in addition to millions of dollars spent routinely on the installation of new equipment, he recalls.""

 

[KJHburg]

Union County #1 in soybeans in NC,  #1 in wheat, #1 in cucumbers, #5 in corn   source NC AgState Book   

Union County has  243,000 people and 52,000,000 CHICKENS, 

135,000 acres of farmland in the county.  

Union County is really 2 counties western Union towards Meck is suburban, horse farms, large homes, small towns,  northern and eastern Union is pure country with large farms etc.

Here are some soybean fields which look good and some cotton fields which I saw quite a few of and I was along major roads. 

South of Monroe is large farms along with those in the north of town and east of Monroe.  

remember no farms no food no people.  It is amazing such prime agricultural land is so close to Charlotte and Meck county was full of cotton fields too when my mom grew up in the 1940s. 

Last photo is the awesome Millbridge pool in Waxhaw in the developed part of the county. 

[rancenc]

Coming to the Town of Weddington

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/09/20/2519621/0/en/Toll-Brothers-Announces-New-Luxury-Home-Community-Enclave-at-Baxley-Coming-Soon-to-Charlotte-Market.html

[rancenc]

New residential development coming to Indian Trail

https://www.connectcre.com/stories/tower-capital-arranges-39m-for-build-to-rent-development-in-indian-trail/

[tozmervo]

3 minutes ago, rancenc said:

New residential development coming to Indian Trail

https://www.connectcre.com/stories/tower-capital-arranges-39m-for-build-to-rent-development-in-indian-trail/

[go_vertical]

2 hours ago, tozmervo said:

 

[DMann]

Yikes!

[Hidden Valley memory]

13 hours ago, tozmervo said:

The "bushes" lost me. This looks absolutely horrible. Bless their hearts. 

[rancenc]

Proposed residential development causing controversy in Monroe.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/neighbors-push-back-against-monroe-development/XAZJHVOCDNEQJJXAQGU6R2T2BE/

[InSouthPark]

2 hours ago, rancenc said:

Proposed residential development causing controversy in Monroe.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/neighbors-push-back-against-monroe-development/XAZJHVOCDNEQJJXAQGU6R2T2BE/

They could have re-titled the article:    Union county residents that destroyed farmland, don't want neighbors, because they got there first.