Plans aim for 15.3 acres at 1559 Huffman Mill Road
An Elon-based manufacturer has unveiled plans for a new industrial park in Burlington, where it hopes to relocate its own operations – along with other small businesses that need a suitable place to call home.
International Inventory Management (IIM), a maker of spare parts for the pharmaceutical and vitamin supplement industries, formally broke the seal on this project on Monday when it presented its plans for the proposed industrial park to Burlington’s planning and zoning commission.
During the commission’s meeting that evening, Darrell Gauthier, an account manager for IIM, presented a rezoning request that would allow the company to establish its proposed industrial park on about 15.3 acres at 1559 Huffman Mill Road.
Gauthier told the commission that this particular site is ideally suited for his own company’s operations, which are currently headquartered in Elon – with a second location doing brisk business in Utah.
“We’ve been in Elon for approximately 23 years,” he added. “We’ve outgrown our facility there, and we’ve been patiently looking for land.”
The property which Gauthier and his colleagues have settled on is situated due west of Alamance Regional Medical Center – across Huffman Mill Road from a new office park that the Samet Corporation of Greensboro has begun to construct.
Gauthier told the commission that the property on Huffman Mill Road would allow his company to meet the exploding demand it has recently seen from its international clientele, which he acknowledged includes such household names as Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
Gauthier noted that IIM will only need about 4 acres of this 15.3-acre site. He added, however, that the balance of the property may be a good fit for other small companies that need land within easy reach of the interstate.
“No one has approached me,” he added. “But I personally see the need…and I think it would create a nice little Mecca for light industrial land.
“The long-term plan for Burlington as I understand it is for this area to be light industrial,” IIM’s account manager continued. “So, it’s nice to be swimming with the current rather than against it.”
The planning commission’s members went on to endorse Gauthier’s request by a margin of 7-to-0, clearing the way for the rezoning request to go before Burlington’s city council for a final decision.
