Duke Energy Awards Funds for Person County Mega Park

January 11, 2019

L to R: Sherry Wilborn, Person County ED, Phillip Allen, Person County EDC Vice-Chair, John Nelms, Duke Energy, Sr. Economic Development Mgr.; Tanya Evans, Duke Energy, District Mgr.

On Friday, Person County received a $25,000 grant from Duke Energy to help recruit industry and jobs to the area.

Sherry Wilborn, Interim Director for Person County Economic Development, spoke to the instrumentality of Duke’s support. “Duke Energy has been a tremendous partner in our site development efforts with the Person County Mega Site all throughout the process. As our focus turns more towards marketing the site, these funds will allow us to check additional boxes to assure clients that we are ready.”

The funds will be used to provide additional engineering study of the Person Mega Site, which will enhance its marketability to potential businesses. The Person Mega Site is a 1,350-acre site north of Roxboro that is targeting large advance manufacturing industries.

“Economic development is a team sport and we are proud to work with Person County to achieve success,” said John Nelms, Sr. Economic Development Manager at Duke Energy. “Working together, we can shine a light on this high-quality industrial site to attract jobs and investment to Person County.”

This is not the first time Person County and Duke Energy have partnered to enhance the readiness of the Person Mega Site for business and industrial development. This site was a part of Duke Energy’s Site Readiness program in 2014.

Through the program, Duke Energy identifies high-quality industrial sites and partners with county officials and local economic development professionals to develop a strategy for providing water, sewer, natural gas and electricity to the properties. After each site’s state of readiness has advanced, Duke Energy’s business development team strategically markets each of them nationwide to companies looking to expand or relocate their operations.

Duke Energy’s economic development efforts are perennially recognized by Site Selection magazine in the publication’s annual list of “Top Utilities in Economic Development.”