On a quiet stretch of riverfront wedged between Sylva and Cherokee, the old Drexel furniture plant in Whittier is set for new life as an economic development engine that just might end up hosting a few “engines” of its own.
For years, the property at 271 Clearwood Drive languished, leased out to farmers, overgrown and largely forgotten. Now, county officials say, it will become one of the most ambitious economic development projects in Jackson County’s history — a multi-phase event and agricultural center designed to boost tourism, support farmers and provide a gathering place where none existed before.
“This is something that’s been in the works for quite some time,” said Tiffany Henry, Jackson County’s economic development director. “It’s a property the county has owned for decades, but it’s been highly underutilized in a lot of ways. We’ve been trying to figure out what we could do with that site, what’s the highest and best use of that property, and we felt like Whittier, being the heart of our agricultural community, deserved something more.”
What’s emerging is the Charles R. Elders Event Center, a 24,000-square-foot enclosed structure named for a late county commissioner who served three terms and passed away in June. The center will include ADA-compliant public restrooms and flexible meeting space that the county has long lacked.
Adjacent to the event center, plans call for a 48,000-square-foot open-air pavilion, retaining one of the old Drexel loading docks as a nod to the property’s industrial past. The pavilion could serve multiple audiences — Future Farmers of America students, 4-H programs, truck shows, concerts and county fairs.
For Jackson County, which does not currently have a fairground-type facility as in other counties, the project fills a longstanding gap.
“We just don’t have big meeting space,” Henry said. “This gives us the capacity to host events and serve the community in a more flexible way.”
The sprawling 28-acre parcel fronts the Tuckasegee River and is one of few large, flat tracts in the county still available for development. That scarcity makes the location even more strategic, but in Western North Carolina, rivers carry tremendous flood risk.
Much of the site lies in the floodway, so mitigate that risk, the county removed about 20,000 square feet of concrete, creating flood storage capacity. The open-air design of the pavilion also allows water to flow through without catastrophic damage.
The county has already secured a $500,000 federal planning and development assistance grant. Additional applications are pending, including nearly $800,000 from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is also working with the county to extend water infrastructure to the site, a benefit not only for the event center but for surrounding residents.
“You don’t make projects like this happen without partnerships,” Henry said. “And we are fortunate enough to have another opportunity to partner with EBCI on a grant application to [the Appalachian Regional Commission] for water.”
The $1.5 million phase one includes drying-in the main building and is now complete.
Phase two adds the pavilion. Phase three outfits the event center with a commercial kitchen, giving farmers the chance to produce value-added goods for regional markets.
Henry said phases two and three would together likely cost another $1.5 million, but total costs remain a moving target dependent on engineering and grant awards. The county, Henry said, is phasing construction deliberately to spread risk and match funding opportunities.
Commissioner Todd Bryson pressed County Manager Kevin King on how the county would profit from the venture. King pointed not only to direct revenue from leases and events, but also to room occupancy taxes and sales taxes.
“All of that money will be coming back into Jackson County,” King said.
But the parcel also carries another advantage — a rail spur once used to ship furniture still connects directly to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad main line.
“We’ve been working with the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad to look at options for train excursions to be leaving out of the Whittier area,” King told commissioners Aug. 19.
King added that the railroad has already secured a grant from N.C. Rail to improve siding on the property, opening up the possibility of special events and tourism packages without undermining the railroad’s successful Dillsboro operations. Any excursion would generate new entertainment tax revenue, money the county currently does not collect.
“We’re really ramping that up in hopes that we can get it operational by summer of 2026,” King said.
The ultimate timeline depends on funding and construction schedules. Henry said the goal is to open the first phase by late spring 2026, assuming water line work can begin this fall. County staff expect to return to commissioners soon with lease agreements and contracts for electrical, HVAC and plumbing.