ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County’s sixth shell building is waiting for a company to host.
County Manager Bryan Land, who has kept the Richmond County Board of Commissioners updated on the project, said last week that construction is now complete on the 40,000 square foot pre-engineered metal building.
The building is located next to Laticrete in the Richmond County Industrial Park, just outside Hamlet on the U.S. 74 Bypass.
Crews broke ground on the project in April 2024 and it was initially expected to be finished by mid-November.
“It gives us something to market,” Land told commissioners. “It’s hard to sell from an empty wagon … It’s great to have this building at our disposal in our industrial inventory.”
Richmond County Economic Development was given a $2 million loan from Pee Dee Electric in 2022 to help cover the costs, financing “a majority” of the project, according to Land. That loan was at 0% interest for a five-year term, with no payments due for two years.
Land said RCED also received a $300,000 low-interest loan from N.C. Southeast Development Partnership.
Economic Developer Martie Butler told commissioners in 2022 when plans were announced that a building is one of the main things businesses are looking for when scouting locations.
The first four shell buildings are occupied by General Glass, CAI Inks, Latham Pool and Piedmont Natural Gas — all in the Rockingham West Industrial Park. Impact Plastics, which already had a site on County Home Road, opened a second location at the fifth shell building in 2020.
“You’ve heard me say numerous times, being a rural Tier 1 county as we are… has its challenges,” Land said. “But in our county, our future is bright and we have a tremendous amount to be proud of.”
