Buncombe County buys former JCPenney site for emergency operations center

Buncombe County is betting the former JCPenney at Asheville Mall can become more than a vacant anchor box. The 6.24-acre site is slated to become the county’s first standalone Emergency Operations Center, a $5 million public purchase that could reshape where Buncombe houses emergency coordination, training and disaster-response planning in Eastern Asheville.

County leaders said the move fits work already underway after Tropical Storm Helene. The county’s after-action review focused on Emergency Operations Center planning, staffing and logistics, 911 and public safety communications, shelter operations, family assistance, community resource support, non-emergency call centers and damage assessment. The same review calls for redundant county-wide communication systems, updated operational plans, stronger damage-assessment processes and public preparedness campaigns.

The county said the purchase also aligns with its Preparedness Action Plan and Helene Recovery Plan. That recovery plan is a five-year strategy with 114 projects, developed with the county’s six municipalities, Asheville, Biltmore Forest, Black Mountain, Montreat, Weaverville and Woodfin, and shaped by input from more than 2,600 community members.

Location is part of the equation. Asheville Mall gives the county a central, familiar site with road access and the kind of larger footprint that can support emergency services functions year-round. County officials said the site would provide more room for training, preparedness and disaster-response planning and operations, and they have said the county’s Emergency Services Department could use the property as a larger base for work now handled from 164 Erwin Hills Road in Asheville.

The timing also underscores how much of Asheville’s retail landscape remains in flux. The former JCPenney had been vacant for just over a year after closing in May 2025. Another anchor, Sears, closed in July 2018 and remained vacant as of 2026. In that context, the county’s plan points to a different future for one of the mall’s most visible parcels: not another empty storefront, but a county-owned resilience hub.

The move comes as recovery work continues across Buncombe County. On May 9, FEMA approved 142 additional buyouts in the county, bringing the total approved properties there to 189. FEMA allocated $59 million for buyouts covering Buncombe, Haywood, Mitchell and Madison counties in the same approval batch, a sign that the region’s long-term recovery remains far from complete.