Steelhouse redevelopment project receives $2 million in federal funding from Congress' bipartisan omnibus bill
Sam Funchess (left), CEO of the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship, and Lisa Hazlett (right), vice president, are working on plans to redevelop the former Carolina Steel plant.
The Nussbaum Center received $2 million in federal funding from the bipartisan omnibus bill signed by Congress last month.
Approximately $25.5 million of the omnibus funding is allocated towards 15 community projects, like the Steelhouse, in North Carolina’s Sixth District.
To date, the redevelopment project – which envisions renovating the 200,000-square-foot former Carolina Steel manufacturing plant for a multitude of uses – has raised over $8.6 million.
“The grants we have received to date will enable the Steelhouse project to move forward in 2023,” said Sam Funchess, CEO of the Nussbaum Center. “We will begin to breathe new life into this historic structure as a future home to startups and entrepreneurs who serve the community and create high-paying jobs.”
Lisa Hazlett, president of Nussbaum, told TBJ that the funding from the omnibus bill is not specifically designated for any phase of the project. Specific phases include ghost kitchens, community space and a manufacturing center. Find out more about the project – which is expected to cost a total of $38 million and create or retain 600 jobs – here.
Liza Hazlett is the first female president of the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship.
Jarvis T. Harris
The project received $2 million from Guilford County in October and $2 million from the Greensboro City Council in June, both from local American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. Nussbaum also received $2 million for the ghost kitchen phase from an undisclosed source, as well as funding from the Stanley and Dorothy Frank Foundation, the Cemala Foundation, the Carolina Steel Foundation and the Golden LEAF Foundation.
The Nussbaum Center has envisioned a redevelopment of the over 200,000-square-foot Steelhouse building, renovating it for multiple uses including ghost kitchens, a manufacturing center, a year-round farmers' market and offices.
Sam Funchess (left), CEO of the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship, and Lisa Hazlett (right), vice president, are working on plans to redevelop the former Carolina Steel plant.
The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship helps entrepreneurs on their business journeys by providing space and resources. The hope is that the Steelhouse, once completed, will be an extension of what the Nussbaum Center does.
The Nussbaum Center's main building, as seen from the back. Across the same parking lot is O'Neal Manufacturing Services, a Florida-based company, who Hazlett said has expressed enthusiasm for the redevelopment project.
The Steelhouse redevelopment will take a phased approach to complete four major areas, including ghost kitchens, a manufacturing center, food production center and office and community space.
Triad Business Journal recently toured the Steelhouse with Lisa Hazlett, vice president of the Nussbaum Center. Here, she points a rail cart line that was used to cart metal within the building.
As it has been empty for more than a decade, the building has fallen into a state of disrepair. The plan is not to demolish it, however, but rather renovate extensively.
Phase I of the redevelopment project will consist of 20 ghost kitchens; Phase II will be a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing center; Phase III is a community space including a farmers' market and 40,000 square feet of office space; and Phase IV will be 40,000 square feet of qualified food production space.
The Steelhouse still has an expansive overhead crane system ranging in weight from 2 to 20 tons. Some will be made operational again for the manufacturing center, Hazlett said.
Phase I, which will consist of 20 ghost kitchens, is a "done deal," Hazlett said, as long as the Nussbaum Center can get its new fire safety plan approved by the city. Built in the early 1900s, the Steelhouse did not have fire safety infrastructure required in modern buildings.
“The vision and mission of the Steelhouse is helping entrepreneurs take their ideas to market,” Hazlett said. “The pandemic has heightened the importance of small business, and that’s why we’re pushing for the Steelhouse now.”
The Steelhouse also has about 2,000 linear feet of rail line that comes through the building. There is one rail line the Nussbaum Center definitely does not want to reactivate, Hazlett said, as it would interfere with redevelopment plans. But there is one that it is looking to renovate, seen here, as it connects to the Norfolk Southern line that leads one way to the Toyota Megasite and the other way to the airport.
As of right now, the Nussbaum Center has $63 million out in grant requests, all of which should be decided by September, Hazlett said. Each phase of the redevelopment has its own grant application.
Hazlett said the Nussbaum Center is only trying to raise funds through grants. In doing so, the Steelhouse will break even at 19% occupancy, she said. At 100%, it will operate at $1 million in free cash flow that will be reinvested in serving entrepreneurs at the Nussbaum Center.
The Steelhouse has 40-foot-high ceilings. The Nussbaum Center hopes to add two floors from the top down to convert into 40,000 square feet of office space targeted at entrepreneurs and startups.
Some space within Phase III of the project might be fit for a craft brewery. The Steelhouse sits on an acre of land, some of which could be used for outdoor seating.
The Nussbaum Center estimates that each phase, with the exception of Phase I, will cost approximately $12 million. This covers everything from engineering to contractors to materials.
The Nussbaum Center has already received a $2 million investment from an undisclosed organization for Phase I. The investor will be named when construction on the phase begins.
For Phase II, the Nussbaum Center is seeking just under $13 million funding as part of the Piedmont Triad Regional Council’s SITE Next-Gen application to the Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge, for which the PTRC is a finalist. Forge Greensboro has also applied for its own funding through the EDA to assist in the makerspace’s relocation.
The Nussbaum Center has raised $625,000 from the Stanley and Dorothy Frank Foundation, the Cemala Foundation, the Carolina Steel Foundation and the Golden LEAF Foundation. Of that collective $625,000, $200,000 from Golden LEAF is designated for fire safety and $100,000 from Cemala is for two bays within the manufacturing center. The rest is for the overall project.
For Phase III, the Nussbaum Center applied for city and county funding, including for a $2 million portion of Greensboro’s American Rescue Plan funding. They have not begun fundraising yet for the final phase.
“The nice thing is that what we believe is going to happen when that first crane appears out there and people start seeing activity, there’s going to be a level of excitement and enthusiasm that maybe doesn’t exist right now, because so many people walk in here and they don’t see it,” Hazlett said. “Sam can walk into here and see what it’s going to look like, but you have a lot of people that walk in here and can’t. They see the dirt, they see the trash, they see that thing sitting on the ground.”
If the Steelhouse receives all the grants it has applied for, the entire redevelopment project could be finished by the first quarter of 2024, Hazlett said.
The Steelhouse will have plenty of leasable space for entrepreneurs and businesses. Hazlett wants to to ensure that the space will be scalable so that as a business grows, the Steelhouse can accommodate it.
In not demolishing the Steelhouse and instead redeveloping it, the Nussbaum Center will be preserving a piece of Greensboro’s – and North Carolina’s – history.
Lillian Johnson
In the fall, the Steelhouse was passed over for $13 million in funding as part of the Piedmont Triad Regional Council’s SITE Next-Gen application to the Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge, for which PTRC was a finalist. Despite not receiving that funding, Nussbaum has said it will not wait to begin the project and move forward with the money it has in hand as it continues to aggressively fundraise.
“The Nussbaum Center provides an important economic development model for the Triad region,” Hazlett said. “We expect the Steelhouse to become a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, small businesses, artisans and entrepreneur support organizations – and an anchor for our dynamic and growing innovation district.”
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