A-B Tech has landed a $29.2 million disaster recovery grant from the Economic Development Administration to build a manufacturing and workforce training center in Asheville.
The proposed WNC Futures Factory is an ambitious 70,000 square-foot facility that aims to create thousands of new jobs, attract new companies to the region and add more than $359 million to the region’s economy by 2035.
John Gossett, the president of A-B Tech, described the project as a “catalyst” that could help chart a new path for the region’s economy after Hurricane Helene, which suffered $44.4 billion in direct economic impacts, according to the grant application.
“We know that we can't depend only on one industry, tourism. We need to diversify our economy and the Futures Factory allows us to do that,” he said.
The college plans to build the facility on 13 acres at Biltmore Park West, the same place where aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney operates. Biltmore Farms has pledged to donate the land, valued in project documents at $4.6 million.
A-B Tech will own the building, but the college and its partners have not finalized how it will be managed. There’s a large number of partners involved, including a consortium of state universities, community colleges, and NCInnovation, a statewide public-private economic development initiative.
Buncombe County is providing another $5 million using revenue from its Article 46 quarter-cent sales tax. Most of that money had previously been set aside for a smaller A-B Tech workforce center planned specifically for Pratt & Whitney that was never built.
Gossett said the Futures Factory will not contain a dedicated wing for the aerospace manufacturer, but the company would have the same opportunity as other regional manufacturers to lease space, seek training or work with university researchers.
Most of the building – about 52,000 square feet – would contain industrial workspace where companies could research technology, test production methods and operate small-scale production lines. The remaining space would include classrooms and offices.
The idea is to bring research, product testing and workforce training together in one place, said Clark Duncan, executive director of the Asheville-Buncombe Economic Development Coalition.
“In the absence of a research university in western North Carolina, we are instead innovating this hub,” he said.
Western North Carolina has more than 860 manufacturers. Duncan is hopeful that these resources could help them expand and remain competitive as technology adopts things like artificial intelligence and other forms of automation.
According to the project’s impact narrative, the center itself could eventually employ up to 50 people, generate 1,100 additional manufacturing jobs and create 2,747 total jobs across the region by 2035. Those larger figures include employment resulting indirectly from business growth and additional spending.
The Futures Factory is eventually expected to support itself through a combination of research contracts and memberships and fees paid by companies to lease laboratory, classroom or demonstration space. However, project leaders have not finalized the business model or fee structure.
An earlier version of the impact narrative specifically identified the U.S. Department of Defense as a possible business partner. That language was removed from the revised version.
Still, Gossett said the center would look for grants from a range of sources and did not rule out seeking Defense Department funding. He said the DOD supports research involving computer chips, supply chains and manufacturing efficiency, in addition to military equipment.
“This is not going to be a Futures Factory specifically to develop implements of war,” he said. “It is going to be a factory — or it’s going to be a think tank — to support our local manufacturers so they can become more efficient; they can become more effective; and they can hire more of our citizens.”
A-B Tech will next solicit bids for the facility’s design. The college and its partners also must decide how the building will be managed, what equipment it will contain and how manufacturers will pay to use it.
The award was the largest in a $34.2 million package of federal disaster recovery grants announced for North Carolina. Other awards included $2.1 million for a sewer lift station in Murphy; $1.2 million for improvements to the western Carolina University dam in Cullowhee; and $500,000 for Land of Sky Regional Council to support recovery work in Buncombe, Henderson and Madison counties.
