Onetime Charlotte-Area Cigarette Plant Site Attracting Multiple Users

The Carolinas are littered with abandoned cigarette manufacturing plants. One of those sites, a former Philip Morris plant outside Charlotte, has received plenty of attention from other users looking for large industrial spaces.

Nicolock Paving Stones LLC is the latest to consider an investment at a site. The New York-based manufacturer of paving stones, retaining walls and outdoor-living products could bring a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to 3010 New Town Way SW. The company is hoping the local government, The City of Concord and Cabarrus County, will come up with just over $500,000 in grants to help pay for some of the infrastructure requirements. In exchange, the company says it will invest $22 million at the site.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. broke ground on its $1 billion campus there last year. Earlier this year, Concord City Council approved a project from Old Dominion Freight Line at The Grounds. Carvana and GoldenHome International have brought projects to the more than 2,000-acre industrial park as well.