Product Development

North Carolina has enjoyed considerable success in recent years in recruiting large economic development projects. A byproduct of this success is that some of our best sites have been depleted.

That’s why earlier this decade the North Carolina General Assembly enacted two programs – the Megasite Readiness Program and the Selectsite Readiness Program – to help identify and assist local communities in preparing sites that can house large corporate users.

During 2025, 11 projects from the Megasite Readiness and the Selectsite Readiness programs were awarded a total of $28.3 million from the EDPNC. There are four eligible expenses in which a site can request funding:

• Site acquisition
• Public infrastructure improvements
• Onsite preparation
• Site due diligence

In late 2025, a national site selection consultant identified five additional sites in western North Carolina that could be included in the Selectsite Readiness Program. The five sites – in Alexander, Burke, Jackson, Mitchell, and Wilkes counties – will now receive funds as they seek to attract advanced manufacturers as tenants.

The addition of these five locales is especially important to the ongoing recovery of western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene which devastated the region in September 2024.