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Five years later, progress has been largely stagnant on the project, despite proposals and reports and letters of support from local organizations since the idea was first introduced in 2016. Just one housing project is complete.

Three years after its initial conception, the Development Finance Initiative at the UNC School of Government completed an updated 10-year Master Development Plan for the Broughton District in 2019.

The 10-year master plan for redevelopment of around 800 acres that is owned by the state, Western Piedmont Community College and Burke County calls for private investment of between $182 million to $192 million to develop the area. The property is bordered by South Sterling Street, Enola Road, Interstate 40, Burkemont Avenue and West Fleming Drive.

Since the completion of the master plan for the Broughton District in 2019, the Development Finance Initiative said it has advised the local governments and the state on advancing both the private and public development projects within the district.

But COVID-19 hit in 2020, which kept business and development at bay and by the time things opened back up, construction costs shot up.

According to the 10-year plan, redevelopment would include:

• A hotel in the historic Broughton Hospital Avery Building. The hotel would be a 118-room full-service, luxury hotel with conference center, restaurant and spa amenities. Next to the hotel would be a 53-unit multi-family residential project in the remainder of the Avery Building and Reece Building, according to the report.
• A new 51,000-square-foot Western NC Discovery Center museum complex developed by the state in the repurposed historic steam plant, laundry, machine shop and Saunders buildings with some new construction.
• Silo Ridge: A mixed-use village that would include reusing 45,000 square feet of historic barns (including the iconic silos) into retail shops and restaurants along Enola Road coupled with the construction of 81 for-sale residences in single-family and townhouse styles.
• Colony Commons: New construction with the reuse of the Colony and Abattoir buildings as a 144-unit residential community for active senior adults, with several on-site amenities including multiple dining rooms, classrooms, theater, barber shop/salon, fitness center and swimming pool. It would be on the southeastern corner adjacent to new residential development.
• Alternates to the luxury hotel concept would move it from the Avery Building to the site around the Colony Building and move the active adult community from the Colony Building to the Avery Building.

What has been done so far

One portion of the proposed redevelopment plan, Silo Ridge, called for a development of townhomes and single-family homes, as well as retail.

Murphy’s Farm Apartments, a 240-unit complex, was built where the mixed used townhomes were proposed and uses the silo barn that was part of the old Broughton Hospital. Murphy’s Farm Apartments opened in mid-2022.

The initial plan called for Broughton Terrace apartments, which is described much how Murphy’s Farm turned out, with a clubhouse and swimming pool and other amenities.

However, the apartments were proposed just south of the Avery Building and comprised renovated historic buildings such as Bates, Scroggs, Harper and Dining, as well as a newly constructed apartment building, according to the proposed plan.

Whether additional single-family homes will be built in the area is unknown at this point.

Sandy Hoilman, vice president for administrative services and chief financial officer for Western Piedmont Community College, said the college sold 20 acres of property for Murphy’s Farm Apartments. She said the college still has close to 45-50 acres on its Richardson Complex, and another approximately 14 acres where the school’s current Emergency Services Training Center is located. But the college has no plans for any development at this time, she said.

She said every now and then the college gets some interest in the land but there is nothing currently.

Hoilman said the college’s board of trustees and its system’s office has approved selling more of its vacant land but there is nothing in the works at this time.

Hoilman said the college’s priorities will remain with finishing the new Emergency Services Training Center on Vine Arden Road with the swiftwater addition. The college broke ground on the $18 million facility in September.

The master plan for the area said the relocation of the Emergency Services Training Center would enable the rest of the district vision.

The plan also called for a mid- to upscale 120-room hotel on Burkemont Avenue in front of Western Piedmont Community College. However, college officials say that plan has been nixed.

Hoilman said the proposal for the hotel was something that the NC School of Science and Mathematics had floated, but it won’t fit in with college’s current plans at this time.

Burke County Manager Brian Epley said the only property the county owns throughout the area of land proposed in the redevelopment is the 20.1-acre site where the emergency services training center is located on Coal Chute Road.

He said at this point, the community college will have a need for it until the new emergency services training facility on Vine Arden is built. The college is constructing the facility in phases, according to its plan.

Epley said the county has no imminent plans for the property.

State-owned property

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services owns the old and new Broughton Hospitals and other state institutional land and buildings in the area.

The state has 762,000 square feet of building space in total, which consists of 384,000 square feet of occupied space, 325,000 square feet of vacant space and 53,000 square feet of space planned to be demolished on 52 acres, said Summer Tonizzo with the Office of Communications of NCDHHS.

She said the 325,000 square feet of vacant space is in a state of disrepair that would take a significant amount of money to renovate for future use.

The Avery Building, which has been proposed for, in part, a hotel, is currently being used for non-patient purposes such as a history museum, statewide nursing testing center, storage and administrative purposes, Tonizzo said.

The Avery Building was the first one built on the campus in 1882, according to the reuse report. A section of the Avery building would have challenges to any adaptive reuse of it, including its 1- to 2-foot thick walls, the report said. The report said there also have been suggestions of demolishing the building to make way for private development.

If redeveloped and maintained according to historic preservation standards, the Avery Building would receive 50% deferral of annual real estate taxes indefinitely due to its local historic landmark designation, the report said.

Tonizzo said NCDHHS must maintain the 384,000 square feet of occupied building space on the old Broughton Hospital campus to meet operational needs. NCDHHS will continue to utilize the space until replacement space is provided, she said.

The new 477,000-square-foot Broughton Hospital opened in August 2019 and has a capacity of 382 beds, according to NCDHHS and previous News Herald articles.

Local government

The city of Â鶹´«Ã½ doesn’t have property in the area, but Broughton Hospital, NC School for the Deaf and other state institutions have been important anchors for the city.

One of the features of the proposed development is a Catawba River Greenway connector.

That would take an estimated $4.7 million for things like planning and design, as well as demolition of certain structures and building the connector. The Emergency Services Training Center on Coal Chute Road would eventually need to be demolished to make way for the project.

In the first phase, the area of the proposed development would have a park and the first leg of a greenway extension, named Hunting Creek greenway, from South Sterling Street to Interstate 40 culverts, as well as intersection improvements to connect the greenway to downtown, according to the report.

The second phase calls for Hunting Creek greenway to be extended under I-40 through J. Iverson Riddle Center campus to Enola Road.

A third phase of development calls for the Hunting Creek greenway to be extended to school campuses in the city.

Before Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina as a tropical storm, Â鶹´«Ã½ City Manager Sally Sandy said there has been no movement on the greenway connector as part of the Broughton property redevelopment plan. She said there was a request to include money in this year’s state budget for planning and design for the project, but there has been no news on that.

Sandy said the city and state both put money toward planning to align the greenway with Hunting Creek. She said the alignment would require some stream restoration of Hunting Creek, which is important to the city because it affects the water supply. She said Hunting Creek is an impaired stream, and restoration and cleaning it up helps to clean up the city water system.

A preliminary report that sets out a general proposal for a stream restoration and the general alignment for the greenway side has been done, Sandy said.

The next step would be getting the money to do full design and planning work, Sandy said. She said the plans would go to contractors and engineers to get permitting done with the for the stream restoration, because there’s federal permitting required.

Sandy said ultimately the property owners have to decide who’s going to pay for it, who’s going to seek the money for it and create a agreement to decide who’s going to maintain it.

Within the master plan for the Broughton district there is a proposed agreement between the parties involved.

Sandy said the city has tried to stay engaged with the state in the proposed redevelopment of the property and is still showing it to developers as an opportunity for housing development. Sandy said she thinks there is great potential for the property.

She said because of construction costs having increased after the pandemic, attracting developers has been challenging.