Devotees of the former Buckhorn Jockey Lot flea market have expressed irritation over its forced closure in the summer 2024 to make way for a trucking terminal, but a year later, there’s no sign of construction.
But, as it turns out, much of that work has been going on behind the scenes, working its way through internal Mebane city approvals after having gotten rezoning approval from the city council last July.
Mebane’s technical review committee has completed its review of plans for the first phase of construction of a trucking and freight terminal that R+L Carriers of Wilmington, Ohio plans to build along Buckhorn Road, on the former flea market property off I-85/40.
That project calls for two phases of construction on 134 acres along Buckhorn Road: a trucking terminal an 84-acre site; and a two future warehouses on a second site spanning 49.25 acres. Both sites are across Buckhorn Road from the Petro Travel Center, within Mebane’s extraterritorial jurisdiction but just over the Alamance County line, in western Orange County.
Mebane’s city council approved annexation in July 2024 for the 84-acre site by a 3-2 vote, with mayor pro tem Tim Bradley and council members Katie Burkholder and Montrena Hadley voting in favor.
Council members Sean Ewing and Jonathan White voted against.
The council also split 4-1 – with White opposed – in voting to approve a conditional rezoning request for heavy manufacturing for the 84-acre site in July of last year.
The council, however, voted unanimously to approve light manufacturing/conditional use rezoning for the second, 49.25-acre site where R+L Carriers plans to build two future warehouses, at 706 and 710 Buckhorn Road.
Preliminary plans that the city council heard last July call for construction of a 233,740-square foot warehouse distribution facility and a second 292,640-square foot warehouse that would be directly behind the distribution facility. An attorney for the developer, Michael Fox of the Tuggle Duggins law firm, said at the time that the warehouses would be built on spec, with no “definitive user” or future tenants.
A public hearing on the annexation and rezoning requests for the first phase of developer had drawn dozens of speakers – including flea market vendors, many of whom spoke no English and asked the council through a translator for additional time to remove their merchandise and booths from the property, after they were informed on June 12 to vacate the property by July 15, 2024. [Following a half-hour backroom discussion with city officials, the developer agreed to extend the deadline for flea market vendors to vacate until August 14, 2024.]
The trucking terminal would span approximately 135,950 square feet and have 202 doors, based on plans presented to the city council last summer. The initial plan for the first phase of construction also calls for 7,500 square feet of office space, a maintenance building, as well as parking for 320 employees and 296 truck parking spaces.
A future expansion of the trucking terminal could span about 53,000 square feet, with an additional 81 doors, or bays, based on the preliminary site plan presented to the council last July.
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Though a preconstruction conference for the trucking terminal is likely to be held soon, Mebane city officials told the newspaper earlier this month that they haven’t yet received construction documents for the future warehouses that R+L Carriers plans to build to the south of the trucking terminal.
Stan Richards, vice president of construction and facilities services for R+L Carriers, told Mebane’s city council last summer that construction of the trucking terminal is estimated to bring 125 new jobs for short-haul truck drivers, forklift operators, and administrative staff, whom he speculated would be “domiciled in Mebane.”
R+L Carriers company officials have not yet outlined a target date to begin construction of the trucking terminal.
The 84-acre site – which consists of four properties at 508, 510, 520, and 610 Buckhorn Road – was sold to Ramar Land Corporation of Wilmington, Ohio on August 27, 2024 through three separate transactions totaling approximately $18.5 million, based on documents that were filed at the time with Orange County’s Register of Deeds’ office to consummate the sale.
Ramar Land Corporation is an affiliate of R+L Carriers, according to a report about a $192.5 million joint acquisition of a bankrupt rival company, Yellow Corp., by R+L Carriers and Estes Express Lines that ran in trade publication for the trucking industry in December 2024.
The future site for R+L Carriers is located within one of three economic development districts that Orange County government officials had established in the early 1980s in hopes of attracting non-residential development, according to Mebane’s planning department. Water/sewer infrastructure and gas lines were extended to the property more than a decade ago, according to Orange County government officials.
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