Nussbaum Center's Steelhouse Redevelopment Enters Phase 2 in East Greensboro

The old Carolina Steel Plant on South Elm-Eugene Street sat empty for years before the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship gutted it, poured concrete floors, tore off the roof, and started over. Now, with four businesses already holding lease or service agreements on 60% of the Phase 1 space, the project formally entered Phase 2 on March 18, 2026.

"It's been it's been awesome seeing the building come back to life," said Lisa Hazlett, president of the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship.

Phase 1, which began in June 2024, focused on manufacturing and retrofit work across 85,000 square feet of the former steel fabrication facility at 1431 S Elm Eugene Street. The transformation included insulated walls, a new roof, new lighting, concrete floors, fresh water and sewer lines, and upgraded electrical services. Hazlett said crews repurposed materials salvaged during demolition to build interior walls, and converted the old plant's locker rooms into public bathrooms using the original sink fixtures.

Tenant buildouts are next. Once permits are secured, Hazlett said, construction is expected to wrap up within two to three months.

Phase 2 will add a year-round indoor farmers market, incubator offices, and health services. Phase 3, still further out, calls for a food production facility anchored by a shared commercial kitchen aimed at growing food businesses. "We're in the fundraising phase for phase two right now," Hazlett said.

The Steelhouse project, spanning roughly 15 acres and encompassing a 222,000-square-foot historic property, is backed by $9 million in New Markets Tax Credits as part of a total project cost listed at $36 million in NMTC Coalition financing documents. Truist served as the investor, alongside Community Development Entities CCG Community Partners and Truist. Those same documents project 64 full-time-equivalent jobs and 150 construction jobs tied to the NMTC-financed portion of the work, while local reporting has described the broader project as expected to generate more than 600 new jobs. The Nussbaum Center has not publicly reconciled those figures.

The site sits in what the NMTC Coalition describes as the poorest census tract in Greensboro. Bruce Katz, founder of the New Localism initiative, called The Steelhouse a "transformative investment" with the potential to "trigger profound ripple effects."

For nearly 85 years before any of this, the building served as Carolina Steel's primary fabrication plant and world headquarters. Steel bent and shaped there went into the Dean Dome and the Reynolds Building, the Art Deco tower in Winston-Salem that influenced the design of the Empire State Building. The site's heavy industrial zoning, three-phase electrical capacity, and below-market lease terms are now being turned toward a different kind of production: small businesses, artisans, and entrepreneurs who the Nussbaum Center says have outgrown what its current facility can support.

The NMTC Coalition profile notes that without the tax credit financing, "this critical asset will continue to face financial strains that threaten its long-term economic viability." With Phase 2 fundraising now underway and the first tenants weeks away from moving in, the Nussbaum Center is betting the South Elm-Eugene corridor is ready for what comes next.