Piedmont Natural Gas celebrated the opening of a new Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)-eligible facility to house Piedmont's customer contact center and resource center serving the Fayetteville area.
Piedmont Natural Gas employs approximately 160 associates in the Cumberland County area, most of whom are now located in the new 60,000-square-foot facility at 4740 Corporation Dr. in Fayetteville. The $8M project represents a valuable addition to the county's tax base.
"Piedmont Natural Gas is proud to serve Fayetteville and Cumberland County, and our new customer contact and resource center is a tangible symbol of our commitment to and investment in the communities we serve," said Frank Yoho, head of gas operations for Piedmont Natural Gas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy. "We are very excited about unifying our customer contact and operations teammates in this facility, which will help us as we strive to continually improve the service we provide to our customers."
In addition to the customer contact center and resource center, the new facility also includes space for training, a fabrication shop and warehouse. A 9,000-square-foot utility building and storage shed are also located on the site, and Piedmont plans to relocate a compressed natural gas (CNG) refueling station to the site from its existing Wilkes Road location.
Piedmont intends to pursue LEED certification for the facility. LEED is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class sustainable building strategies and practices. For the Fayetteville project, Piedmont opted for the inherently more sustainable choice of renovating an existing structure rather than new construction, reusing and recycling building materials when possible and reducing raw material usage.
Additional design elements that contribute to the project's sustainability include maximizing open space and preserving existing wetlands on the 18-acre site, using a natural gas-driven heat pump to reduce energy use, and incorporating energy-efficient fixtures to reduce water and electricity use.
The Fayetteville project was designed by Charlotte-based architect C DESIGN, which previously worked with Piedmont on four LEED-certified facilities.
Piedmont Natural Gas
Piedmont Natural Gas, a North Carolina corporation, is an energy services company whose principal business is the distribution of natural gas to more than a million residential, commercial, industrial and power generation customers in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Piedmont provides a foundation for establishing a broader strategic natural gas infrastructure platform within Duke Energy to supplement and complement the previous natural gas pipeline investments and the natural gas business located in the Midwest.
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is an S&P 100 Stock Index company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com.
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