A barren, 42-acre site of the Swannanoa community’s once-famous blanket manufacturer will begin to see new life later this year as a multi-use park that could, in years to come, form the heart of new commercial and residential development, say a group of local entrepreneurs who shared their vision with residents Wednesday.
The entrepreneurs say their goal is to revitalize the former location, and surroundings, of the sprawling Beacon Manufacturing Company plant that burned in a massive 2003 blaze, Buncombe County’s largest structure fire. (A man who confessed to starting the fire was convicted of arson in the case.) At its peak, some 2,300 workers wove, folded and shipped so many blankets that it ranked as the world’s largest blanket manufacturer and the area’s largest employer. (With about 1,200 looms, it was home to the world's largest weave room.)
From 1933 to its closure in 2002, the mill helped generations of local residents pay bills, feed families and build homes and businesses nearby.
Community pride in Beacon ran deep, and remains embedded, in a place that’s been a mostly forgotten, abandoned brownfield for the past two decades. Still, there have been other makeover plans for the site that have come and gone over the years. Those plans included an industrial park and a large affordable housing development.
Now, all those memories form the foundation and impetus for redevelopment that will start with the construction of a nearly 5-acre bike park and event lawn surrounded by a walking path.
Casey Watkins, co-founder of the new Beacon Village and a Swannanoa-based insurtech company named Quility, whose grandparents were Beacon employees, says “Our goal is to bring this old mill village back to life” and build a physical manifestation of the pride so many people still have in the place.
Jon Sarver, a development partner who has deep ties to the community, sees the project honoring personal and collective histories. “We really want to honor the past, give back to the community and build a legacy project,” he says.
Sarver is a graduate of nearby Warren Wilson College and a former BMX racer who started his own bicycle messenger company in Asheville before becoming a real estate broker. He met Watkins, another avid mountain biker, on a bike ride.
“This is a purpose-driven project,” Sarver emphasizes.
Initial plans
Watkins says the plan is to start with a 4.7-acre bike park designed and built by Velosolutions, a global company respected for its accessible playgrounds. The Beacon Village paved-surface bike park will have slopestyle, jumpline, and pumptrack lines. It will be open to the public and designed for a variety of skill levels and user groups to include push bikes, mountain bikes, skate boards, inline skates, one-wheels and adaptive wheelchairs.
Watkins says the entrepreneurial group has been thinking through how to make sure the park is financially viable, including charging some type of user fee, but no decisions have been made yet. A natural surface pedestrian trail encircling the park will accommodate walkers, runners and bikers.
Beacon Foundation (a nonprofit entity that includes Casey Watkins, Sarah Watkins, Brandon Ellison and Meredith Ellison), in cooperation with Beacon Brothers LLC, plans to invest $4.5 million in the first phase of redevelopment, Watkins says.
Other initial elements will likely include: low-impact gravel parking with stormwater runoff; bioswales (channels that move stormwater runoff while removing debris and pollution)and rain gardens; a bike park pavilion and temporary bike shop/park office; event lawn for movie and music events and picnicking; a food truck staging area; and sustainable landscaping.
The community gathering spot could then catalyze the commercial and residential rebirth of a 20-block town that was once a bustling hub of vitality, the entrepreneurs say. Today, the area is a mix of old and new: dilapidated buildings, parking lots of junked vehicles, a wholesale bakery and a brand new brewery/restaurant.
Brandon Ellison, co-founder of Beacon Village and CEO and co-founder of Quility, says the Beacon group is working with the Asheville-Buncombe Economic Development Coalition to identify like-minded business partners who may want to be a part of the redevelopment as it evolves.
“The village will be a great place for outdoor industry businesses to thrive and hit the pump track with their employees at lunch and their kids after work,” Ellison adds.
Building a legacy
It makes sense to Watkins now to start an ambitious redevelopment project with a park and green space, but that wasn’t always the plan.
In a July 2019 press release, Watkins announced that it had purchased the 42-acre mill site along Whitson Avenue, with plans to build a new office for his company. (A limited liability corporation formed by top Ingles Markets executives had purchased the former Beacon Manufacturing site in 2005 for $1 million.) The announcement noted ongoing discussions about the possible construction of a family-friendly indoor sports complex, as well as the potential for other eventual retail, commercial and recreational development.
That calculus completely changed after the Covid pandemic hit in 2020. “We started re-envisioning the project,” and the priority became the outdoor space, Watkins says.
“We’d heard over and over that neighbors wanted a park,” he says, so the first goal became creating more outdoor space for the area.
That idea fit with the Quility company mission, which “is to enrich the lives of our clients and those in our communities through connection, kindness, and action,” says Meredith Ellison, co-founder of Beacon Village and Quility co-founder and leader of its corporate well being and philanthropic efforts.
“We believe that for-profit businesses have an opportunity to enrich our communities,” Ellison says, “and this project is how we are doing just that in our own neighborhood.”