Iredell County, NC

Iredell County lies due north of Charlotte and contains a number of unique commercial centers and corridors. The arrival of retail giant Lowes Home Improvement’s corporate headquarters to the Mooresville area brought thousands of jobs and tax revenue to an area that was already enjoying the economic benefits of being home to many of NASCAR’s premier racing teams and  the same residential boom that enveloped the rest of the Lake Norman area over the past decade. 

The corridor stretching from southern Iredell and northern Mecklenburg eastward to Kannapolis (where the NC Research Campus is emerging some 15 miles away) is developing into one of the Charlotte region’s next major employment centers complete with the many accompanying infrastructure challenges, primarily those associated with transportation and changes in commuting patterns.   Statesville’s position at the crossroads of two major interstates should allow it to maintain its prominent role in distribution derived from its central location between Charlotte, Winston-Salem and the Catawba Valley corridor near Hickory. As the Catawba Valley corridor now grows in importance for the technology sector (both Apple and Google are locating major data centers there), even more opportunities for economic diversification are likely.    In the midst of this growth, the northern end of the county continues to be one of the Charlotte region’s most important farming districts.  The continued concentration of well-managed growth in the southern end of the county has the potential to lessen pressures for growth in the northern end, enhancing efforts there to preserve that part of the county’s traditional way of life.