Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please use the button below to manage your account.
The historic Lakeside Cotton Mill is located at 423 Lakeside Ave. in Burlington.
Times-News
Google Maps
The renovation of a local historic mill will bring some overseas manufacturing operations back to the U.S. and create at least two dozen high-paying jobs for Burlington-area residents.
Burlington will receive a $200,000 investment to renovate the former Lakeside Cotton Mill as part of a $3.7 million N.C. Rural Infrastructure Authority grant program announced last week. Mongoose LLC, a furniture manufacturer, will take over the vacant facility.
Gov. Roy Cooper recently announced that 11 North Carolina Rural Infrastructure Authority grants had been approved. The grant requests include commitments to create 486 jobs statewide and $32 million in private investments is expected.
“Rural Infrastructure grants help speed up recovery across our state,” Cooper said. “Stronger, more resilient buildings and water and sewer systems attract good jobs for North Carolinians and greater investment by innovative companies.”
These grants can be used for a variety of activities, including infrastructure development, building renovation, expansion and demolition, and site improvements, a press release from the governor’s office said.
Burlington is one of six grant recipients to use the funding for building reuse. The $200,000 grant will support the renovation of the 26,500-square-foot, currently vacant Lakeside Cotton Mill facility at 423 Lakeside Ave., where Mongoose LLC plans to relocate.
Historic drawing of the Lakeside Cotton Mill, located at 423 Lakeside Ave., Burlington.
Times-News
Wikipedia
Mongoose, the parent company of NOA Living, designs and manufactures high-end furnishings from recycled textiles and clothing. Once the building renovation is underway, Mongoose expects to add jobs and invest more than $3.7 million into the project, according to a news release.
Peter Bishop, the economic development director for the City of Burlington, noted the Mongoose LLC showroom is currently located in Raleigh and their goods are manufactured overseas or through partner companies.
“This project would purport to onshore that manufacturing and those partnerships here in Burlington and to create a design center and manufacturing center in the Lakeside building,” Bishop said.
“This building symbolizes the birth of the industrial revolution in America and is full of history. It’s a special place — and we want to bring it back to life! As designers and makers, we think it’s the perfect place for our company headquarters,” Fida Nehme, design principal and partner for NOA Living, said.
In a March City Council meeting when the project was first discussed with city officials, Sam Nehme, CEO of Mongoose LLC, said, “We are excited to bring some of our operations from overseas here to North Carolina. We looked at the mill and it’s pretty suitable from many angles for our operation.”
“We will create a minimum of 24 jobs, high-paying jobs. We’re going to perform and (create) some really exciting products so I’m looking forward to it,” he added.
Average salaries for the new jobs will be $51,350, Bishop said.
According to Eva Sutton, the creative director for Mongoose LLC, the building reuse project will also save the mill, which was originally built in 1893, from being torn down. The Lakeside Cotton Mill was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The total cost of the project is expected to be more than $600,000 in the first two years of the project. The city will match $10,000 that was already budgeted for grant matches, Bishop said in March.
“The building reuse grants really are a valuable redevelopment and incentive tool. This is a targeted program that looks specifically at underused industrial buildings in suburban and rural communities throughout North Carolina,” Bishop said. “The cost to renovate these facilities or make them no longer functionally obsolete is incredibly expensive and you can add additional expense when it’s a historic property as well. It’s very challenging to get funds to renovate these properties and this building ruse fund is one of the best avenues to do so.”
Bishop added that the project will target redevelopment in a low-to-moderate income area of the city, creating jobs where they are needed most.
“We’re excited about bringing a project to a building that needs it and bringing jobs to a neighborhood that certainly needs it,” he said.
State Rep. Ricky Hurtado commented on the grant approval this week, stating, “I am grateful for this Building Reuse investment into Burlington and Alamance County. This $200,000 grant will help renovate our rural infrastructure and help us attract good jobs for our community. When we invest in our rural communities, we invest in our families and future. This is good news for Alamance and all rural North Carolinians.”
Additional grant recipients are located in Caldwell, Columbus, Alexander, Gaston, Greene, Lincoln, Cleveland, Robeson and Onslow counties.
“Through these new grants, we will help support the resiliency of North Carolina’s rural areas, so that they can attract jobs and build for the future,” N.C. Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders said. “Our Rural Economic Development Division and the RIA are proud to continue working with local communities to create the conditions for economic growth.”
Thank you for being a subscriber! It’s your support that keeps The Times-News going.
Elizabeth Pattman is the trending topics reporter for the Times-News in Burlington, covering business, COVID-19 and all things trending. Contact Elizabeth (she/her) at epattman@gannett.com. I'm also available on social media @EPattmanTN on Twitter or @burlingtontimesnews on Instagram.
