Brandon Ruppe, President, Burke Development Inc.

Brandon Ruppe, president of Burke Development Inc., spoke with Invest: about Burke County’s manufacturing base, workforce pipeline, infrastructure assets, and opportunities in life sciences and industrial development. “Economic development’s the most important undertaking a community can do,” Ruppe said.

How would you describe the current business climate in Burke County and western North Carolina?

Burke County has probably lagged behind a little bit in some regards to recruiting manufacturing investment, but manufacturing is still the largest sector of the economy here. It represents 33% of our GDP, and 20% of our people work in manufacturing. Manufacturing is definitely a target audience for us, as it is for most people in economic development.

I think we are a ripe market for that investment. We are seeing a lot of activity in terms of interest from new companies that want to move here and companies that want to grow their business here.

We are still a rural community, even given our proximity to Charlotte, and we were recently moved to a Tier 1 community, meaning we are now among the most economically distressed communities in North Carolina. But for us, we see that as an opportunity to grow. There has been a great job done in putting together real estate product and infrastructure. We are primed for new investment.

What makes Burke County stand out for industrial and manufacturing projects?

Over the last 10 years, there has been a real emphasis on site and product development. Our Drexel site is 100 acres, served by rail, pad-ready, completely graded, and utilities are there.

We are also building our own publicly owned 100,000-square-foot speculative development building that should hopefully be finished by November of this year. There has been a huge effort to lay the foundation for a company to come in and be operational as soon as possible.

Our strategic location along the I-40 corridor, our proximity to the Charlotte and Asheville markets, and North Carolina’s position in the middle of the East Coast all offer advantages.

There is also a lot of excess utility capacity here left over from the furniture manufacturing era. One of our target markets is going to be life sciences because we have really robust water infrastructure. Charlotte has had some success recruiting life sciences companies, and Caldwell County has as well, so that will likely be a big push for us within manufacturing.

What are companies looking for most when choosing where to expand or relocate?

The fundamentals are real estate and utilities. If you have the site and it is ready to go, then you have done the fundamentals well. The next thing is always labor. Once you have sites and utilities, it is labor, labor, labor.

We have put together a pretty robust program through a Work in Burke campaign, highlighting local careers and pushing that into the K-12 system. We are aligning that with the community college so that we can take high school students and place them in internships and apprenticeships with companies. From there, they can transition into apprenticeship opportunities at the community college or go straight into the workforce, depending on the company and its needs.

We have really situated ourselves around building a sustainable, long-term pipeline into industry for labor.

How important are partnerships with schools, community colleges, and workforce programs to supporting economic growth?

My background is in workforce development, talent attraction, recruitment, and retention. I spent a long time working with manufacturing companies to understand their labor needs and how educational partners can be strong allies in that.

Western Piedmont Community College recently finished construction on a new skilled trades facility, and they also completed a new mechatronics facility with robotics labs, welding, CNC, and metalworking programs, robotic welding, and automation courses. It is a great asset for the community.

At the K-12 level, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics has its secondary campus here in Morganton. We are attracting students from across North Carolina right here to Burke County.

Their STEM pathway is geared toward the life sciences sector. If we can leverage those students and place them in internships with life sciences companies in the region, we can build a pipeline that helps bring them back after college.

A lot of those students’ families move to this area to be closer to them, so they set down roots here. We think we can build a pipeline from that asset into those businesses, and we feel like we are going to be pretty competitive in the life sciences space.

How do you balance recruiting new companies with supporting existing local employers?

Recruitment and attraction are always the exciting parts of economic development, but existing industry is the most critical thing an organization can do, and as long as I am here at BDI, that is going to be our No. 1 priority.

We are promoting one of our team members, Caleb Gardner, to be the existing industry director. He is going to be solely dedicated to working with companies in this community and supporting existing manufacturers and employers.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities for Burke County over the next two to three years?

Since so much good work has already been done in product development, the next step is pushing that product through marketing and branding. We need to increase our presence in this space.

Our product is not just for new companies. If an existing company wanted to move into our publicly owned spec building, we would gladly facilitate that.

We have built up the infrastructure and the sites, and now the focus is increasing awareness. Marketing is going to be our key focus in the next three to five years to drive investment to our community.

Are there any additional points you would like to highlight?

Burke County also has one of the five megasites in North Carolina, the Great Meadows Megasite. It is a 1,400-acre certified site, and there is a lot going on here.

Both of my children were born in this county, and most of my family lives here. It is a real honor to be able to do this work. Economic development’s the most important undertaking a community can do. It can change the entire trajectory of a community, so I am honored, to say the least.