Home of future $740M NC drink manufacturing site has storied, troubled history

The site of a new $740 million beverage manufacturing plant in Concord has had a long, and at times, troubled history while playing a critical role in Cabarrus County’s economy.

The old Philip Morris cigarette maker site in Concord even was ready for its closeup with a pair of high-profile Hollywood productions, too.

On Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper and other state and local officials said two global beverage companies, Red Bull and Rauch, are teaming up to invest $740 million in a new manufacturing facility there.

The energy drink maker and filling company are the latest to find the sprawling 2,100-acre campus appealing. Now called The Grounds at Concord, the complex is off U.S. 29 not far from Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Here’s a brief history of the site at 2321 Concord Parkway S. in Concord:

From farmland to cigarettes, movies and cars

▪ 1970s: Philip Morris bought the site, a dairy farm up until that point, Concord Mayor Bill Dusch said Tuesday. Even after Philip Morris took over, some of the land was leased for farming, and it was not unusual to see cows wander along the front of the property near the road.

▪ 1983: The Philip Morris facility opened, covering 3.5 million square feet and about 500 acres — the size of Northlake and Carolina Place malls combined. The site eventually made 155 billion cigarettes a year, mainly Marlboros, averaging 17.1 million cigarettes an hour.

▪ 2004: The cigarette maker invested $200 million to modernize the plant.

▪ 2007: Philip Morris announces plans to close the plant in the next couple years to consolidate work in Virginia, throwing 2,500 people out of work in Concord. It was easily Concord and Cabarrus County’s largest taxpayer, the Observer reported at the time, contributing about $4.9 million in total city taxes and about $7 million in tax revenue to the county.

▪ 2009: The plant finally closes, in one of the biggest layoffs in Cabarrus County history.

▪ 2012: Some scenes from “The Hunger Games” and the first season of “Homeland” were filmed there. For “The Hunger Games,” that included scenes of tributes preparing for the games. The massive site also held many of the costumes and some of the sets needed in the movie’s production.

▪ 2014: The site sat vacant until Alevo Group, a Swiss vehicle battery maker, bought the campus for $68.5 million, renaming it Victory Industrial Park, the Observer reported. Alevo said then it would create 500 jobs when it opened production in spring 2015 and employ 2,500 people within three years.

▪ 2017: By the summer, Alevo closed the Concord plant, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off nearly 300 workers citing production and hiring problems.

▪ 2019: Charlotte investment firm Bootsmead LeaseCo said in January when the site was ready to be demolished, it would take an entire year to complete the demolition and turn it into a mega site for economic development. It renamed the site The Grounds at Concord.

▪ 2019: Carvana announced it would put an auto inspection and recommissioning facility on the site, creating 400 jobs and investing $30 million. The Carvana project would comprise about 4% of the 2,100 acres at the Grounds at Concord site.

▪ 2020: GoldenHome International Inc., a subsidiary of a Chinese company, said it would open its North American headquarters on the site, with $3.2 million in incentives from the state.

▪ 2021: Red Bull and Rauch say they plan to invest $740 million in their beverage manufacturing complex by 2027. It’s the largest economic development project in the county’s history, Cooper said.

This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Home of future $740M NC drink manufacturing site has storied, troubled history."