But from the beginning, progress was sluggish, and the For Stanly board of directors Tuesday finally decided to head off in a new direction. It will sell the existing site on Highway 52 North and try again elsewhere. B.A. Smith, a member of the For Stanly board, says the idea remains viable. It just wasn't the right site-the rolling land more suitable to housing than industry. Hints that For Stanly was going nowhere became evident earlier this year when a developer bought land up the road in Richfield and has now begun construction of his own industrial park.
Private developers are that way.
They have an instinct for what sells and what doesn't. What also has occurred in recent years is that the county's economy has improved. New industry did move in, some encouraged by tax breaks from the county Economic Development Commission and state Department of Commerce. When For Stanly began, the county seemed to have nothing going for it. Now there is economic movement and For Stanly increasingly has found itself trying to force something to happen on a site that just wasn't right.