COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN: A prominent empty building enables Appalachian State University to expand.

• Author: Ellis, Kevin

Remove Hickory from North Carolina's largest metropolitan areas without a four-year public university.

Hundreds of students like 2023 East Burke High School graduate Macy Carson started classes in late August at Appalachian State University's campus in Hickory, resurrecting a five-story, 225,000-square-foot building originally used as a furniture market.

"I really do think I'm going to get my dreams accomplished here," says Carson. The Hickory campus allows Carson to attend Appalachian State and live at home. Carson also benefits from a $2,000 "Hickory First Scholarship," offered to all inaugural students, cutting tuition to about $6,000 a year, before any other financial aid.

"It's really close to home, and the price is really good," says Carson. She hopes an entrepreneurship degree will help her start a business putting her artwork on clothing and other items.

The Hickory campus also may help Appalachian State meet its dreams of greater influence beyond its mostly built-out main campus in mountainous Boone, 45 miles to the north. About 21,250 students attend there, a 15% increase from a decade earlier, making it among the fastest-growing schools in the 16-campus UNC System.

Initial enrollment in Hickory was 363 students, and that number should double next year and continue to double for several years, Chancellor Sheri Everts says. University officials expect the Hickory campus to mainly draw students from the Unifour counties of Catawba, Burke, Caldwell and Alexander, which have a combined population of nearly 400,000. In comparison, Appalachian States home county of Watauga had about 54,200 residents in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

$1 MILLION PURCHASE

The new campus occupies the former Hickory Furniture Mart that opened in the 1960s. Corning Optical Communications later bought the building as its headquarters and employed as many as 800 people there before moving to north Charlotte in 2019, says Vice Chancellor Nick Katers.

Appalachian State bought the property for $ 1.02 million in 2021, then received $9 million from the state for renovations and technology upgrades. The six-floor building, including an under-ground floor, is bigger than any facilities on the Boone campus.

It's...