Former Manufacturing Facility Demolition & Redevelopment Prep – Marion, North Carolina

In Marion, North Carolina, Forsite Development is transforming a former door-skin manufacturing plant into a clean, flexible industrial opportunity for a future tenant. Working alongside embedded Forsite contractor Keith Morgan and RCI Demolition Supervisor Selvin Hernandez, the team has spent more than seven months safely gutting the interior, managing complex legacy systems, and preparing the site as a “blank canvas” for new investment and jobs in the region.

For decades, the facility operated as a large-scale manufacturing plant producing door components. Over time, multiple projects and retrofits layered on top of each other, leaving a dense, intertwined network of:

• Massive presses and production lines
• Dryer tubes, silos, and tall exhaust stacks
• Extensive tanks, piping, and hydraulic systems

Residual materials such as oils, propylene glycol, and fiber (ground wood byproduct)

“When you’ve had several different projects over the years that all overlap, everything ends up entangled,” Keith explained. “You can’t just pull one thing out without touching three others.”

Forsite’s objectives were clear but demanding:

• Fully clear the interior to a shell while preserving the building structure and critical systems (fire protection, electrical, etc.)
• Handling residual chemicals and byproducts safely

• Minimizing environmental risk to soil, water, and surrounding areas
• Maintaining a safe jobsite for everyone on the ground

On top of the technical complexity, Keith had spent 30 years working in that same building before Forsite acquired it. Watching equipment he had operated and repaired for decades being dismantled added a real human dimension to the work.

Forsite approached the project with its characteristic owner’s mindset: combining deep site knowledge, specialized demolition expertise, and day-to-day field coordination.

Leveraging Embedded Expertise

When Forsite acquired the facility, Keith was already intimately familiar with every square foot of the property—utilities, equipment layouts, fire systems, and quirks built up over decades.

“I know what needs to stay, what can come out, where all the pipes run, the electrical, the fire system—the whole building,” Keith shared.

Recognizing this, Forsite retained Keith as an on-site contractor to guide the demolition process, act as a bridge between Forsite and RCI, and help anticipate issues before they became problems.

Field Operations & Logistics

RCI’s demolition scope was led on the ground by Field Operations Supervisor Selvin Hernandez, tasked with turning a heavily built-out plant into a tenant-ready shell:

• Mobilizing crews, tools, and heavy equipment
• Sequencing demolition and cleanup across multiple zones
• Coordinating subcontractors and services
• Continuously adjusting logistics as new conditions emerged

“The first month was interesting,” Selvin joked. “We were learning the building, the services, the subcontractors. Now, seven-plus months in, we’ve got a really solid system.”

Selvin and Keith conduct multiple walkthroughs daily, aligning on the plan, talking through risks, and confirming what can safely come out next.

Solving Complex Demolition Problems

Much of the work at Marion has involved solving one-of-a-kind challenges in real time:

• Massive presses with unusual alloys

• Standard cutting torches barely scratched the surface of the metal.
• Selvin’s team escalated to heavy-duty tips capable of cutting nine inches deep and still had to work methodically to break the machines down safely.
• They consulted maintenance records and even brought in a former maintenance employee to inform the plan.
• Tall tanks, stacks, and boiler structures

• Exterior boilers and tanks stood 40–45 feet high; press exhaust stacks reached up to 90–100 feet.
• The team engineered controlled “falls” using heavy equipment and cable rigging, ensuring large components came down exactly where intended—without striking the building, hydrants, transformers, or other sensitive infrastructure.

• Overhead dryer tubes and cyclones

• Large three-foot-diameter dryer tubes ran across the plant and up through the roof into cyclones 30 feet above the roofline.
• Selvin’s crew used cables and tracked equipment to support, cut, and then lower each piece carefully, avoiding damage to the roof and structure.
• Fiber (wood byproduct) and fire risk

• Residual fiber—essentially very fine wood material—created a significant fire hazard wherever it remained in pipes or systems.
• After witnessing how rapidly a single spark could travel through fiber-lined piping, the team instituted a strict protocol: remove all fiber before hot work in any area, and treat any pipe containing fiber as a high-risk element.
• Hydraulic room strategy

• One hydraulic room housed significant machinery and oils.
• Instead of demolishing it from the top down, Selvin’s team removed the front walls but kept the roof intact while they drained and removed equipment.
• Only after the residual oils were contained and removed was the roof taken down—avoiding the risk of rain driving contamination into the surrounding environment.

In all of these situations, the process was the same: think through the sequence, anticipate side effects, and only then execute.

“Once you start, you don’t have time to think—you need to act,” Selvin noted. “So we do our thinking and planning up front.”

Communication & Culture

Forsite, Keith, and RCI operate with constant, real-time communication:

• Group text threads with photos and questions from the field
• Rapid feedback from Forsite leadership (Ryan, Tom, and others)
• Regular site visits from Forsite and RCI management

“If we send a question, we usually have an answer within minutes,” Selvin said. “That makes decision-making fast and clear for the guys on the ground.”

Over time, the professional relationship between Keith and Selvin has evolved into a genuine friendship—something that has shaped the tone of the entire project. Their teams feel comfortable raising issues, asking questions, and collaborating across company lines.

1. Embedded Local Knowledge
• Retaining Keith, with his 30 years in the facility and strong community ties, allowed Forsite and RCI to understand the building’s history, systems, and quirks in a way drawings alone never could.
2. Safety-First, Methodical Demolition
• Hot work only after residual fiber is removed.
• Environmental materials (oils, glycol, etc.) are carefully drained, containerized, and kept out of soil and waterways.
• Large structures are cut and lowered with controlled plans, backup contingencies, and clear fall zones.
3. Proactive Tenant-Ready Punch List
• As the building transitions from demolition to redevelopment, Forsite, Keith, and RCI are walking the site with a future tenant in mind.
• Small cracks in the floor, leftover anchors, and potential “future headaches” are identified now and addressed before a tenant ever steps inside.

“We’re trying to eliminate those headaches before they become someone else’s problem,” Selvin explained. “If it could be an issue later, we’re dealing with it now.”

Beyond demolition and site preparation, Forsite took intentional steps to reduce long-term operating costs and improve sustainability for a future tenant. As part of the redevelopment effort, the team partnered with eneroi to redesign the facility’s lighting layout using American-made LED high bay fixtures.

By rethinking the lighting plan from the ground up, the team was able to eliminate more than 35% of the existing fixtures while still improving overall illumination. The result is a cleaner, more efficient lighting system that delivers an estimated 76% reduction in lighting-related energy costs.

According to Tyler Neison, the Marion project stood out not only for its scale, but for Forsite’s commitment to quality:

“The American-made LED high bay fixtures we used here are top-of-class. In a market flooded with cheap imported LEDs, Forsite opted for American-made fixtures. The facility looks incredible.”

Compared to the legacy lighting system installed, the upgraded solution is expected to save a future tenant approximately $26,473 per year in electricity costs from lighting alone. These improvements further position the Marion facility as a cost-conscious, energy-efficient industrial space, ready for modern operations from day one.

Today, the Marion facility has been largely gutted to the shell:

• Major production equipment and overhead systems have been removed.
• Residual oils and chemicals have been drained, containerized, and managed properly.
• The building structure, fire systems, and key utilities have been preserved and protected.
• The site is moving through a detailed punch-list and upfit phase, addressing fine-grain issues and making the space more attractive for a new user.

For the surrounding community, the project has already sparked anticipation.

“People in town ask me all the time, ‘How’s the project going up there?’” Keith shared. “When a plant shuts down here, the whole town feels it. Folks are excited to see what’s next and are already asking about jobs for their husbands and sons.”

Selvin sees the work as deeply meaningful:

“My job is to prepare the canvas for the developers coming after us. Demolition is often invisible work—you can’t point to a new building and say, ‘I built that.’ But here, you know that doing it right opens the door for something that will benefit the town for years to come.”

Beyond the physical transformation, the project has strengthened relationships between Forsite, RCI, and the workforce on site. Crew members text Keith to check on his family, ask about local fishing, and share life updates—reminders that this is more than just a jobsite.

The Marion facility is now firmly in its punch-list and outfit stage:

• Final floor repairs and surface prep
• Removal of stray anchors, remnants, and potential trip hazards
• Targeted repairs and improvements to make the building turnkey for a future tenant

Forsite’s goal is simple: hand off a clean, flexible, and safe industrial canvas that allows a new operator to move quickly—without inheriting hidden problems from a prior era.

The project demonstrates how Forsite, working with trusted partners like RCI and local leaders like Keith, can take a complex legacy manufacturing site and:

• Unwind decades of overlapping industrial infrastructure
• Protect people and the environment
• Restore confidence and opportunity in a community that’s felt manufacturing loss in recent years

As Marion awaits its next tenant, the groundwork has been laid—literally and figuratively—for new jobs, renewed tax base, and long-term industrial resilience in the region.