TIC's Innovation Campus Will Be Ground Zero for a More Egalitarian Morganton
The Industrial Commons' Innovation Campus brings with it a 40-to-45-million-dollar investment in the community and a much more democratic way of doing business.
MORGANTON, NC—It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of the work The Industrial Commons (TIC) is doing in the Blue Ridge.
In fact, I wrote about my first experience with TIC in June 2022 for Shareable, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, news, action network, and consultancy focused on “democratizing communities.”
A sizable aside: If you’re interested in solidarity economics, the commons as an alternative to public and private models of resource management, sustainability, co-ops, and localism, then you ought to become familiar with Shareable. Neal Gorenflo, Co-founder and Board President of Shareable has some fascinating views on the commons and “sharing cities.”
‘Rebuilding a Diverse Working Class Based on Locally Rooted Wealth’
Bearing strong kinship with Shareable, TIC has quickly become a beacon of light for those who share a more egalitarian and localist vision for our community. An ecosystem of various enterprises, economic and cultural, TIC is dedicated to “rebuilding a diverse working class based on locally rooted wealth.”
In other words, they understand the value of place and the power of community.
Formed in 2015 by Sara Chester and Molly Hemstreet, TIC has become a hub for creating meaningful change not only in Morganton, but the Foothills Region and beyond.
Big communitarian things are happening in Morganton. And TIC is ground zero for many of them, including arguably the most ambitious project in years in this small Appalachian town.
The Innovation Campus
As reported by Bill Poteat in The Paper this past week, a vacant 28-acre lot near Downtown Morganton will soon become TIC’s Innovation Campus. Once used to house a furniture factory—one of many that once dotted this region before jobs were shipped overseas in the late 1990s to regions with much lower worker wages and less labor-centric working conditions—this site is poised to embody many of the values shared by Common Appalachian.
TIC aims to invest 40 to 45 million dollars into its Morganton Innovation Campus, a site that will include outdoor gathering areas, gardens, walking trails, public parks, incubation space for manufacturing, offices, community gardens, and creative art space.
A Cooperative Housing Model
Furthermore, an additional 11-acre tract of land adjacent to the Innovation Campus is integrated into the master plan. It will feature a mix of approximately 9 four-bedroom, 30 three-bedroom, 14 two-bedroom, and 2 one-bedroom units. According to their website, “in addition to the homes built, plans for the site include a playground, sports court, community garden, and shared community clubhouse.”
This plan will follow a cooperative model aimed at making housing more affordable, an approach that team members at TIC will continue to iron out and ideate on while the Innovation Campus is designed by Seattle-based architecture firm Mithun.
“This project represents a remarkable opportunity to resurrect the industrial heritage of this site and create a high-performing, sustainable campus that will support workers and businesses in North Carolina—and serve as an exemplary model nationwide,” said Mithun President David W. Goldberg. “We are excited to collaborate with the excellent team of national and local experts already assembled, and to contribute to the innovative work of TIC in support of a diverse working class and inclusive economy.”
Since it will take an incredible amount of effort (and funding, such as a $500,000 grant from the EPA) to clean up the site, in addition to completing designs, construction on the Innovation Campus is not expected to begin until midway through 2024.
So, What Does This Mean for Morganton?
You can read more about the Innovation Campus plan here, but here are just a few immediate observations I have about this pioneering project and what I hope it will bring to our community.
TIC is reviving many manufacturing jobs that have been lost to the region and doing so by rooting wealth in our community. Part of this includes the creation of worker-owned co-ops. Given TIC’s soon-to-be architectural prominence near Downtown Morganton, it’s push for more democratic models of resource management and enterprise are likely to proliferate—or at least increase much more than they would in an otherwise status-quo minded rural county.
Given the many partnerships developing between the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM) and businesses and the regular preexistent collaborations between NCSSM and TIC, it’s easy to imagine the type of economic and cultural synergy once the Innovation Campus is built.
For instance, TIC was featured prominently in NCSSM’s video series “The Road to Morganton,” discussing the Hometown Walkabout, a program that “raises awareness of racial and cultural diversity in Burke County, NC through arts-based walking tours that present, promote, and celebrate local communities and advance inclusivity,” according to TIC’s website. NCSSM and TIC routinely work together on cultural and economic initiatives. I expect we’ll see those opportunities flower.Community gardens and efforts to reintroduce native plants to the Innovation Campus give me hope that we’ll see continued efforts to make the Foothills a more sustainable and biologically diverse place. Some of which will likely strengthen similar efforts at Oak Hill Community Park and Forest.
It’s close proximity to Downtown Morganton should not only bring more energy to our almost-vibrant historic city center, but also entice more jobs and people to the heart of Burke County—give our small town a bit of increased urbanity it needs.
The Innovation Campus is going to further influence local culture, specifically around worker conditions and the nature of how business ought to be conducted. “We do plan for any businesses located at the campus to uphold high standards around environmental sustainability and to prioritize quality jobs and strong benefits for workers,” said TIC Co-founder Sarah Chester. “We will look for businesses to co-locate on the campus that are ‘triple bottom line—focused on profit, people, and planet.”
These are a few of the MANY reasons we should be ecstatic about what’s happening in Burke County. However, it’s still no guarantee the Innovation Campus will become reality.
As Erin Kizer, Director of the Land for the Commons program at TIC observes, it’s going to require significant financial resources, “from a lot of directions” in order to address the environmental clean-up and remediation issues on the site.
I remain optimistic.
If they are able to generate the money needed for such a gargantuan undertaking, as many people involved believe they can, then Morganton may finally begin realizing the economic and cultural potential Burke residents have been chirping about, the so-called “upward trajectory” Morganton has been on for the past decade.
Not only that, but it may even help cement Morganton as a city on the hill (or city in the Foothills?) for other Appalachian towns hoping for greater economic prosperity that is egalitarian and genuinely rooted in community.