Industrial sites · North Carolina

Meta Data Center

Imported, unreviewedRedevelopedRetrofit builtForest City, NC

Retrofit complete; no opportunity due to built status and county decline. · summary, model-written

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Site profile3 elements · what this retrofit is built with · tap a chip for the evidence

Place

Shrinking county

This site: -2.5% census-acs · all sites with this

Strategy

Redeveloped

This site: …data center record · all sites with this

New use

Data center

This site: …data center newtypes-extraction · all sites with this

All elements and lists · Trends

Now

Status	Retrofit builtnewtypes-extraction reported
Strategy	RedevelopedWikipedia no source
New uses	data centerWikipedia no source
What is there now	data centernewtypes-extraction reported

Planning

Public purchase or subsidy	EPA funds for Brownfields assessment activities and the State Response Program supported the site reuse.newtypes-extraction reported

Site context

Housing permits, Rutherford County (NC), 2024	0 units in 5+ unit buildings, 2 in 2–4, 191 single-family; 2023: 44 in 5+Census BPS
Retail trade in the county, 2025 (BLS QCEW)	2,704 jobs in 222 establishments; average annual pay $32,345; employment location quotient 1.51; employment +0.9% on the yearBLS QCEW 2025, NAICS 44-45, private
Jobs located in the tract, 2022	2,725 jobs; 774 in retail trade, 541 in accommodation and food (workplace blocks summed to tract 37161960800)Census LEHD LODES8 WAC 2022
Upward mobility (Opportunity Atlas, 2010 tract)	children of low-income (25th percentile) families reached the 33th income percentile as adults; 1.1% incarcerated at the 2010 count (830 children in the sample); born 1978–83, measured 2014–15Opportunity Insights
Food access (USDA FARA 2019, 2010 tract)	not a low-access tract at 1 mile; 4% of residents more than 1 mile from a supermarket; poverty rate 37.7%; median family income $31,134; 657 SNAP householdsUSDA ERS
Schools	Rutherford County Schools (PK-12); 1 public school within 1 mile: Rutherford Opportunity CenterNCES EDGE
Elevation	1,017 ft above sea level at the site pointUSGS 3DEP
Storm events in the county, 2016-2025	109 county-logged events: 70 thunderstorm wind, 19 hail, 10 flash flood, 5 flood; $36,146,000 property damage reported; 1 direct deaths; forecast-zone events (most flood, winter and heat) not countedNOAA Storm Events
Homes for sale in ZIP 28043, 2026-09	median list price $281,850 (+3.2% on the year); 79 active listings; median 74 days on market; 27% with a price cutRealtor.com Research
Retail trade in the county, 2012 to 2023	209 establishments (-10%); 2,736 jobs (+9%)Census CBP
Housing market in the county	typical home value $214,563 (+2% 1 yr, +19% 5 yr); typical rent $1,227/mo, 2026-09Zillow Research
Traffic on the busiest road within 600 m (2024)	10,208 vehicles a day on SR-2179 (major collector, 4 lanes); 38 counted segmentsFHWA HPMS

Summary, model-written

Former textile/manufacturing site in Forest City, NC (Rutherford County) was redeveloped into a data center, completed and operational. Public funds (EPA Brownfields, State Response Program) supported the reuse assessment. The site is now a built data center with no further development opportunity.

Why. Retrofit already built (status: 'built'). County population declined 2.5% 2018–23, reducing demand. Opportunity score 0.0 due to these factors. Housing market shows stable ZHVI ($214,563, 2026-09) but no retail growth (retail establishments down 10% since 2012).

Where it stands. No active development opportunity. Traffic data (SR-2179, 4 lanes, 10,208 ADT) is present but irrelevant to current status. Peer comparisons (e.g., Midtown Square Mall, NC) are not applicable as this site is industrial, not retail.

For a planner

Built-out retrofit (no new construction possible)
County population decline (-2.5%) indicates reduced local demand
Public subsidy used for assessment, not construction

For a developer

No opportunity to develop (retrofit already built)
County shrinkage reduces market viability
Data center is operational but not a new project

What we do not know yet

Unknown if data center is operational at scale (record only states 'built')
No details on data center's current capacity or tenant
County population decline trend not quantified beyond 2018–23

Generated by qwen3-30b-a3b-64k:latest on Dell 5820 RTX 3090 (Ollama, qwen3-30b-a3b) from the fields, parcels, deals and context layers on this page, with no outside knowledge. It is regenerated when the record changes and has not been checked by a person. How it is made.

Similar sites

Midtown Square Mall, Charlotte, NC · Malls · same strategy: redevelop; also in NC
North Hills Mall, Raleigh, NC · Malls · same strategy: redevelop; also in NC
Ballantyne Corporate Park, Charlotte, NC · Office parks · same strategy: redevelop; also in NC
Lafayette Place Mall, Boston, MA · Malls · same strategy: redevelop

Elsewhere on the web

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Multifamily screen

retrofit already built
county shrank -2.5% 2018–23

Inputs: record fields (size, status) and county Census ACS 2018–2023 figures (growth, rent). How the points work. Not a recommendation.

History and original facts

County	Rutherford County
Census division	5 · South Atlantic
Notes	Draft from epa.gov, model-extracted, unreviewed: Meta converted two adjacent industrial brownfield sites in Forest City, North Carolina, into a data center.

Not yet recorded: acres, GLA, year opened, original developer, retrofit year. Know it? Tell us.

Sources

Reuse Considerations for Data Centers on Brownfield Sites | US EPA
1 quoted sentence
A data center on brownfields in Forest City, North Carolina

Cite

Retrofit Atlas (2026). "Meta Data Center, Forest City, NC." Record n-839cd29b56, imported, unreviewed. Built on the public Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed. https://retrofitatlas.org/industrial/nc/forest-city-meta-data-center/ (accessed 2026-10-20).

BibTeX

@misc{retrofitatlas_forestcitymetadatacenter,
  title = {Meta Data Center, Forest City, NC},
  author = {{Retrofit Atlas}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://retrofitatlas.org/industrial/nc/forest-city-meta-data-center/}},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Record n-839cd29b56, release 2026.10.20, tier: draft. Built on the Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed on the record. Accessed 2026-10-20}
}

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