DFI Facilitates New Vision for Historic Broughton Hospital Campus

In November 2018, the N.C. Department of Commerce released an updated master plan outlining the redevelopment of 800 acres at the historic Broughton Hospital campus, located within a state-designated Opportunity Zone census tract, in Morganton, North Carolina. The updated Broughton District master plan, which was facilitated by the School’s Development Finance Initiative (DFI), was presented to local officials in November 2018. It involves a 10-year public-private development strategy to attract more than $180 million of private investment for the mixed-use development, including potential for hotels, retail, for-sale residential, rental apartments, and an active adult community.

“This plan has the potential to preserve and breathe new life into the historic fabric of the Broughton Hospital campus while also having a transformative impact on the City of Morganton and Burke County,” said Tyler Mulligan, School faculty member and DFI director.  “We look forward to assisting the state and local stakeholders to continue moving this project forward and ultimately to attract private investment into this incredible property.”

Since 2015, DFI has been engaged with the Department of Commerce on crafting the redevelopment strategy for the historic campus and surrounding publicly owned lands, as a new state-owned psychiatric hospital campus is being constructed adjacent to the historic campus. The old hospital campus leaves more than 600,000 square feet of vacant or underutilized space in well-maintained buildings, some of which are more than a century old. 

For more information about the project, visit sog.unc.edu/dfi/broughton or download a full project report here. If your community is interested in DFI’s services to ensure opportunity zones are ready for private investment, visit sog.unc.edu/dfi/oz.