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KENANSVILLE — Adjacent to Duplin County Regional Airport’s 6,000-foot runway is the AirPark-Duplin County Business and Industry Center, now in the very beginning stages of a big development poised to change the county’s economic landscape.
“It is a very exciting time in Duplin County,” said Scotty Summerlin, Economic Development Commission executive director, as he speaks about the land clearing and grubbing going on at the AirPark.
The cleared area is part of a master plan that encompasses 15 acres out of 119 owned by the county and available for development. The site goes from Best Road to Airport Road and incorporates a lot that will be used for a shell building and the corridors for roads, water, and wastewater.
“There’s no vertical construction going on right now,” explained Summerlin. “The road design is practically done, so when we get water and wastewater plans finalized, we are going to go to bid for the water, the wastewater and road construction.”
The AirPark will be home to NC Forestry Service Region One Headquarters, which according to Summerlin will be completed in late 2025.
As for the master plan, Summerlin shared that they have identified some larger tracts that could be used for distribution facilities. “There’s industrial parks dotted all over this state that have a combination,” said the Army veteran, explaining that some larger spaces may be 100,000-square feet “but also, we want to take advantage of the 25,000-square feet and smaller that may be like outparcel space and could be smaller-type operations. We want to take advantage of both.”
According to Carrie Shields, County manager assistant and former EDC director having shell building infrastructure adjacent to the airport’s runway positions the county in a suitable place to attract manufacturing companies and light industrial businesses that complement the surrounding counties.
“We are really in a perfect position to capture any kind of businesses and industries, due to our location,” said Shields.
Located less than nine miles from Interstate 40, the AirPark provides six exits throughout the county with easy connections to I-95, I-85, I-77, and I-26. Access to Highway 24 is only 5.2 miles from the AirPark with two deep-water ports within a 1.5-hour drive. In addition to its proximity to Duplin Airport, the Airpark is conveniently located 41 miles from ISO regional airport, and 60 miles from ILM international airport.
According to Summerlin, a $12 million State Budget allocation for infrastructure improvements will provide funding for all three industrial parks in Duplin County and added that a fourth industrial park is on the horizon for Beulaville.
“The state has been very helpful,” said Summerlin. “Senator Brent Jackson and Representative Jimmy Dixon, they were instrumental in getting funding to help us.” Summerlin also shared that because the county relies on the towns for sewer capacity at each park, they will be working closely with the towns of Kenansville, Warsaw, and Wallace.
According to Summerlin, in addition to the State Budget allocation they received $262,000 for project design and appraisals from the North Carolina Southeast Regional Partnership, $17,500 for project due diligence work, and $423,500 for clearing, grubbing, and rough grading of the project area from the Golden LEAF Foundation, a legislative allocation of $1.5 million from the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund for road construction within the park and $2.75 million for water and sewer extensions, and additional road construction from the NC Commerce Industrial Development Fund, totaling $16,953,500.
“It’s taken a whole community to rally behind this to make this happen,” said Shields, explaining that the AirPark was the fruit of an effort that brought together local and regional stakeholders, members of the Economic Development Board, the Airport Board, County Commissioners, and legislators.
“Jennifer Martin with Parish and Partners and myself, we went and interviewed all our stakeholders that are currently at the airport. We met with Smithfield, Southern Bank, Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation, and the North Carolina Electric Cooperatives,” said Shields, explaining that the stakeholders were instrumental in the planning process of developing the AirPark master plan providing key insight to industry-specific needs and funding.
“They helped open our eyes to several things that we were lacking that we wouldn’t have necessarily seen unless we were in that industry,” said Shields. “The master plan was finalized in 2021 and from there, we have been advocating with our state, and our stakeholders for funding so that we could make this vision a reality.”
Shields attributes its success to knowledgeable leadership with an enterprising mentality.
“The Economic Development Board is an extraordinarily strong forward-thinking board as well as our Board of County Commissioners. They see what other counties are doing, and we have done the right investigative work to position Duplin County to receive the same opportunities,” said Shields, adding that “Tri-County EMC and the North Carolina Electric Cooperative, they’ve been our biggest advocates to support the Airpark.”
“Through this forward-thinking effort, they are making sure that all of our municipalities that have available infrastructure are in a position to recruit business and industry,” said Shields, explaining that the goal is to “create space to attract business and industry that complement the businesses and industry that we have already recruited to Duplin County as well as what is being recruited around Duplin County.”
Summerlin told the Duplin Journal that they are looking to bring industries that support services for agriculture and aviation. “Logistics also could be a major player, but supporting aviation and supporting agriculture is what we’re going after,” said Summerlin.
“We’ve got our eyes open to lots of opportunities,” said Shields. “It’s definitely going to be prosperous for Kenansville as a municipality and then Duplin County as a whole.”
“Economic development for me, the true mission is business and industry and for us that is putting infrastructure in place. That is having the water and wastewater because the towns are doing a great job on residential development. But I really see our key role is building capacity and that’s water and wastewater and then marketing the county,” said Summerlin. “I am not saying that we are focusing on one side of business. But really, every aspect of business growth.”
Through local and regional partnerships, the common goal is to encourage economic development across the region.
Summerlin, shared that they are utilizing services of local businesses in the construction. F&S Grading out of Warsaw is handling the clearing and grubbing work, McDavid Associates is doing the water and sewer engineering and design. Parrish and Partners is the lead engineer and was responsible for the Duplin County AirPark Master Development Plan.
