Caterpillar wants to build a roughly $1 billion manufacturing facility in Sanford, North Carolina, about 40 miles south of Raleigh, to ramp up production of compact track loaders and telehandlers. It is one of several major industrial commitments landing across the Raleigh-Durham region this year, a shift that’s pulling the area’s identity away from its longtime reputation as a life sciences hub and toward something broader.
Caterpillar announced plans for the Sanford facility on September 30, saying in a statement that it intends to invest approximately $1 billion in North Carolina to expand manufacturing capacity, according to Caterpillar. The company said the plant will lean on advanced manufacturing technologies, automation, digital production systems and integrated logistics capabilities. Reported job figures for the project diverge: Cushman & Wakefield describes the Lee County facility as expected to create 600 jobs, while WRAL has reported that Caterpillar does not plan to increase its workforce at the new facility.
The Caterpillar project lands amid a broader industrial surge. Cushman & Wakefield’s third-quarter 2026 market report found Raleigh-Durham industrial net absorption topped 1.1 million square feet in the quarter, pushing the year-to-date total to nearly 1.7 million square feet. New leasing activity for the year reached almost 4.3 million square feet, 30.5% above the same period in 2025 and 18.5% above the market’s five-year average, per the same report. Overall industrial vacancy slipped 10 basis points quarter over quarter to 9.5%, while 6.0 million square feet of industrial construction was underway, 37.6% above the five-year average, and asking rents rose 2.9% to $11.33 per square foot.
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Caterpillar isn’t the only company pouring money into the region. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced in April that AbbVie would invest $1.4 billion to build a 185-acre pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in Durham, a project expected to create 734 jobs, according to a statement from the North Carolina Governor’s Office…