In Person County:

Person, which is north of Durham County and borders Virginia, has the fifth megasite in North Carolina. The sites are designated by the state because they have enough acreage, potential workers and access to roads and utilities to attract big industrial companies.

The 1,394-acre site puts Person County in contention with other rural areas of the state where land has been set aside for manufacturing operations that take up a lot of space.

….Stuart Gilbert, the county’s economic development director, says the site will provide extensive electrical supply thanks to nearby steam power plants. He said the county isn’t in a position yet to talk about potential tenants.

“We don’t have an industry we’re announcing,” Gilbert said Thursday. “We’re working closely with the state Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of N.C. There have been a number of large projects and our sites have been submitted on some of those.”

He said county leaders would like to attract clean, advanced manufacturing.

“That would allow us to have better jobs for the community and a clean environment,” Gilbert said.