A manufacturing plant in Conover, North Carolina, has changed hands, with Forsite Development acquiring the shuttered building at 1800 Conover Blvd. E. and laying out plans to bring it back to life for industrial tenants. The property sold for $12 million, a price tag that reflects both its scale and its potential for a second act in a region hungry for industrial space.
Forsite Development acquired the shuttered manufacturing plant in greater Charlotte, according to CoStar. The company purchased the Conover warehouse from American Signature, as reported by the Charlotte Business Journal, which put the sale price at $12 million.
The building itself is sizable, at approximately 278,000 square feet. It was built in 1986 and is zoned M-1.
Plans to Reposition the Site for Manufacturers
Forsite's stated intentions are straightforward: renovate the building and re-market it to prospective tenants. The Charlotte Business Journal's report on the sale said plans include revamping the site specifically to capture demand from industrial manufacturers, a signal that the developer sees the aging plant as a candidate for a new production tenant rather than a teardown or conversion to another use.
The manufacturing plant had been shuttered before Forsite's purchase.
A Snapshot of the Broader Industrial Market
The Conover deal lands amid a mixed national picture for industrial real estate. National industrial vacancy climbed to 7.6% in the fourth quarter of last year, driven by new supply outpacing demand, according to a report from Plante Moran, though the same report noted that small-bay industrial space has remained limited nationally. More recently, the broader U.S. industrial market entered the second half of this year with renewed momentum, with national vacancy declining for the first time in the post-COVID cycle, per a market overview from Avison Young.
Neither of those national reports speaks directly to conditions in Conover or the broader Charlotte-area market, but they offer context for why a developer might see opportunity in repositioning a long-dormant plant right now. For Forsite, the bet appears to be that a renovated, ready-to-lease facility of this size can find a manufacturing tenant looking for exactly the kind of light-industrial footprint the Conover property offers.
