McCrory praises deal for eco-industrial park

McCrory and state environmental agency chief John Skvarla announced an agreement allowing development of the eco-industrial park on a former Superfund site in Charlotte.

A developer has already spent years on the "ReVenture Park" project on the 667-acre grounds of a former textile-dye manufacturing plant along the Catawba River. The landowners have spent $40 million to clean up contamination.

The park, which is expected to include a biomass heat and power plant and encourage the development of renewable energy businesses, could produce 245 jobs, $73.5 million in investment and up to $12 million in environmental remediation in its first phase, McCrory's office said. The three phases comprising ReVenture Park could total more than 700 jobs and $300 million-plus in investment.

The "project will create jobs and allow us to transform a once highly contaminated site into a new and thriving energy-related complex," the governor said in a release after a formal announcement at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.