Greensboro, NC, Mar. 11--New owners of the property housing Burlington Industries' headquarters plan to demolish the structure and make way for new mixed-use development.
According to the the High Point Enterprise, Coolidge Porterfield, president and chief executive officer Starmount Corp., said the development company--which now owns the site--has plans for 325,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, including 100 residential units. He said the present 400,000-square-foot office building is simply not suitable to meet those demands.
"The shape and size are all wrong," he said.
What's more, Porterfield noted, the local market for office space is presently sluggish at best.
Starmount owns the Friendly Center shopping mall next to the Burlington property. Porterfield said the development plan will expand the mall by about 25 percent.
A request to rezone the property has been submitted to Greensboro's city planning department and is slated for discussion in April. Porterfield said developers will provide details regarding anticipated traffic numbers and other impacts accordingly.
In the meantime, he said Starmount will be reaching out to residents in the neighborhood.
"We'll be showing them what we plan to do," he said, adding that developers would like to begin the demolition "as quickly as possible."
He said he expects the project to be under way by year's end. Burlington officials are still using the building following what Porterfield said was a "recent" deal. He declined to disclose details of the agreement.
