Technology Overtakes Tobacco in Winston-Salem, N.C. – New York Times
“The idea that universities and government could jointly build a business park framed around technology was born 55 years ago in North Carolina, on farm and forest land eight miles south of downtown Durham. That business park, Research Triangle Park, is a collection of spacious office buildings housing 170 companies on a 7,000-acre suburban campus navigated by car. It fit two of the primary real estate priorities of the postwar 20th century: mobility and privacy. Here in Winston-Salem, about 80 miles west, the technology business park is being updated to fit two development priorities of the 21st century: proximity and collaboration. Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, rising on a 145-acre parcel on the developing east side of this midsize Carolina city, is a partnership between the city and state, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Wake Forest University and Wexford Science and Technology, the Baltimore-based primary developer. The development, initially named the Piedmont Triad Research Park, was once the site of a cigarette manufacturing plant owned by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.”
National Park Tourism in North Carolina Creates $1,533.9 Million in Economic Benefit – The Stanly News Press
“A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 16,710,760 visitors to national parks in North Carolina spent $1,102.6 million in the state in 2014. That spending resulted in 18,528 jobs and had a cumulative benefit to the state economy of $1,533.9 million. ‘The national parks of North Carolina attract visitors from across the country and around the world,’ said regional director Stan Austin. ‘Whether visitors come to explore the natural and cultural attractions along the Outer Banks, or enjoy the poetic pursuits of Carl Sandburg with a visit to his home, visitors come to have a great experience, and end up having an economic benefit to the communities they visit. This new report shows that national park tourism is a significant driver in the national economy — returning $10 for every $1 invested in the National Park Service — and a big factor in our state’s economy as well, a result we can all support.’” The full National Park Service report with state-by-state details can be found here.
Good Luck Escaping Poverty in Mecklenburg County – Charlotte Business Journal
“Children born into poor families in Mecklenburg County are among the least likely to be able to work themselves into a higher income bracket, according to a new report released this week by a pair of Harvard University economics professors. Mecklenburg ranked No. 2 behind Baltimore City, Md., on the study’s ranking of the five toughest places for kids to escape poverty. The report found the national average household income for 26-year-old adults to be $26,000. But in Mecklenburg County, individuals in that age group earn 13.8 percent less than the national average, the analysis found. According to the study, moving children into areas of more opportunity at a young age boosted their income as adults. CNN noted some things that counties with higher rates of upward mobility have in common: less segregation by race and income, lower levels of income inequality, better schools, lower crime rates, and more two-parent households.”
Automaker Pursuit: Where Is NC’s Fourth Megasite? – Triad Business Journal
“In North Carolina’s pursuit of an automaker, three megasites have been at the forefront of the conversation. But another site has crept into the mix. Chris Chung, top executive of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, visited that site on Tuesday. The partnership has been contracted to be the marketing arm of the N.C. Department of Commerce, and Chung is tasked with recruiting big business. That could include an automaker, so Chung has been gathering information about each of North Carolina’s four sites to keep in his back pocket should he enter into talks with a site selector. Chung has visited both the 1,818-acre Chatham-Siler City Advanced Manufacturing Site, owned by Tim Booras and D.H. Griffin Sr., and the Kingsboro megasite in Edgecombe County that has amassed 1,500 acres either under option or purchased. He plans to visit the third well-known site, an area in Randolph County managed by the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation, headed by former Greensboro Mayor Jim Melvin, who says there are more than 1,300 acres under option in Liberty. So where is the fourth site? Moncure, a small community in southeastern Chatham County, adjacent to Lee and Wake counties. The Moncure megasite perhaps has not received as much attention as the others, especially its neighbor to the west, because it is in the earlier stages. The nearly 1,500-acre site is located at the intersection of Old U.S. 1 and U.S. Highway 1, near the Cape Fear Power Plant, and includes an undeveloped site of more than 1,000 acres plus a 420-acre industrial site.”
AOL Co-Founder Steve Case Talks NC Startups – Charlotte Business Journal
“AOL co-founder Steve Case spoke Tuesday alongside Gov. Pat McCrory to business leaders in Raleigh. Case, who addressed leaders such as Citrix GM of Documents Cloud Jesse Lipson and departing ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo, has been to Raleigh before. But this time, he said there’s a more intense energy. ‘It’s a momentum thing,’ he said while standing in front of a giant blue bus in front of the governor’s executive mansion during the first leg of his Triangle ‘Rise of the Rest’ tour. ‘It feels like there’s really a lot of work underway in the last decade to put the foundation in place,’ Case said. ‘But it feels like it could really accelerate in the next decade.’ He compared the Triangle’s entrepreneurship journey to the Internet, starting slowly but accelerating ‘as it hits this tipping point.’”
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