A number of potential new projects have begun to percolate inside the bounds of an industrial park that lies on the westernmost fringes of Burlington’s municipal limits.
Next week, the city’s planning and zoning commission is slated to consider a zoning request for one of these prospective ventures within the Rock Creek Center, which spans roughly two miles of I-85/40 in the eastern reaches of Guilford County.
The focus of this specific proposal is a 39-acre swath of undeveloped land that’s perched at 6910 Konica Drive near the Rock Creek Center’s eastern perimeter.
According to Burlington’s planning department, the property owner has asked the city for a “limited use” form of office and institutional zoning to replace the light industrial designation that Guilford County currently assigns to the parcel. The property owner has also requested annexation into Burlington’s municipal limits as a prelude to the site’s potential development.
Under Burlington’s unified development ordinance, a property owner can request limited use zoning in order to rule out certain unsuitable uses and key in on others that are deemed more site appropriate. In this case, the owner of 6910 Konica Drive appears to have excluded only 8 of the 56 uses that are permitted by right in an office and institutional zone.
Among the potential projects that the property owner has piled into the request are two dozen institutional uses that include schools, hospitals, childcare centers, museums, and telecom towers. The request also specifies 17 potential commercial establishments ranging from restaurants and microbreweries to professional and medical offices.
Despite the relatively wide scope of these potential uses, the city’s planning department has seen fit to endorse this request in light of other industrial and commercial developments in the vicinity.
“Though not in our comp plan, this area has previously been identified by [the] council and staff as an area for economic development growth,” the city’s planning staff goes on to explain in its report to the planning commission. “[The] council has funded public water and sewer projects along the [NC] 61 corridor and adjacent areas…In addition to the adjacent Ametek, Red Oak Brewery, and Zink companies, the property is just north of the 1.3 million square foot distribution center [that’s under development] for Food Lion’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize USA.”
In the meantime, site preparations are underway for a speculative warehouse that’s presently under development at 6880 Konica Drive.
[Story continues below photos of excavating and grading equipment on the site of a future warehouse being built by Crow Holdings.]
Located within Guilford County’s sphere of influence, this project will ultimately comprise two industrial buildings, according to a site plan that the county received from the property owner last year. Guilford County has also received a request for a construction permit that proposes a “speculative unconditioned warehouse building” with an overall footprint of 211,926 square feet.
At this point, the county’s inspections department has not signed off on the requested permit.
Crow Holdings, the company developing this project, has already completed two speculative warehouses at the North Carolina Commerce Park – a publicly-driven development that Alamance County has pursued in tandem with the cities of Mebane and Graham. Completed in 2024 and 2025, these buildings feature 248,310 and 156,000 square feet of floor space near the future home of a much-anticipated Buc-ee’s travel center at the commerce park’s entrance. Both of these buildings are currently vacant.
