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By KEN ELKINS kelkins@bizjounals.com Charlotte Business Journal
Posted Tuesday, July 19, 2016, 2:57pm EDT

When DAE Systems announced yesterday that it would take a shell building for a $7.3 million headquarters, that meant Catawba County is fresh out of the type speculative buildings that has been so good for bringing jobs to the greater Hickory area.

Not to fear, says Scott Millar, president of the Catawba County Economic Development Corp. There is a plan.

“There’s Building 2 and Building 3,” he says after today’s Catawba County EDC annual meeting.

The same agreement that built a 51,200-square-foot building in Claremont International Business Park is still good for two more buildings.

The only problem now is finding the land for the second and third shell buildings.

There’s no question that Catawba County needs those empty buildings waiting for the next industrial customers who needs space to relocate or open a new facility, Millar says.

“We again don’t have product for sale,” he says. “When you don’t have what people are asking for, that’s a problem.”

Catawba County-based Matthews Construction Co., Catawba County, the town of Clarmont and the county’s EDC agency worked together to build the structure that will now be the home to DAE Systems.

After the question about the site for shell building two, then Millar must decide on the size of the structure.

“We had good success with that 50,000-square-footer,” Millar says, speaking of the building that DAE systems will occupy.

But Millar wouldn't mind having a 100,000-square-foot shell building waiting for the next big fish, he says.

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