Brunswick County received nearly $6.3 million from the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina to help prepare the Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park for future business investment, according to an announcement.

The county received $6.275 million to help make the 1,100-acre property more site-ready, including site clearing, rail bed construction and wetland mitigation credits, a news release stated.

In 2023, India-based graphite manufacturer Epsilon Advanced Materials announced plans to build its first U.S. facility in the Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park. At the time, officials said the proposed 1.5-million-square-foot facility was expected to bring $650 million in investment and create 500 jobs. 

According to Evan Hoopfer, a senior communications manager with EDPNC, the funding was not tied to a specific project.

The Brunswick County megasite was one of two industrial properties in North Carolina to receive funding. The other is Mitchell County, which will receive over $81,000 for site due diligence activities for the 90-acre Mitchell Business Park Selectsite.

According to the release, the two sites – Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park Megasite and the Mitchell Business Park – participated in EDPNC’s Megasite Readiness Program and Selectsite Readiness Program, respectively.

“Brunswick and Mitchell counties are taking advantage of programs designed to bring high-paying jobs to North Carolina,” Garrett Wyckoff, product development program manager for the EDPNC wrote in the release. “The Megasite and Selectsite Readiness programs have already brought new investment to our state, and I’m pleased to see these two communities taking the next step in bringing more jobs to their communities.”