Regional Business Reports


CHARLOTTE
A Raging River May Soon Run Through Uptown
The Queen City’s corporate image of bankers in pinstripes and silk ties may soon give way to rushing whitewater rapids, wetsuits and Olympic-caliber athletes. There may be plenty of disconnect in that image today, but all of the right players — from elected officials to big business — are getting behind the idea of building only the second artificial whitewater river in the world in uptown Charlotte. The water park would host international whitewater events and be a drawing card for tourists from all over the world.

The only other such whitewater river in the world is the Penrith Whitewater Stadium, built outside of Sydney, Australia, for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. It provided the inspiration for local business leaders with ties to the sport to conceive of Charlotte with a river running through it. Promoters say the idea seems to fit with Charlotte’s long-range plans to continue development of uptown as the central hub for sports, cultural and entertainment venues. The whitewater park would be the centerpiece for an uptown park and greenway system, which is part of the city’s recently adopted 2010 plan.

“This would be the central point to an uptown park,” which has long been desired by uptown promoters, says Vic Howie, senior vice president of Bank of America, a major sponsor of the United States canoeing and kayaking teams. But more than that, the park would provide almost year-round recreation for residents and city visitors. Howie envisions a “Panther and Paddle Weekend” when visitors come to the city to experience its major sports attractions.

And at a price tag of about $10 million, the park is affordable in comparison to other ideas floating for uptown, including a new arena for the Charlotte Hornets or an aquarium. And the river would be a revenue-producing park, offering rafting and kayaking trips almost year-round. Australia’s park is booked six months in advance for rafting trips.

Chet Rabon, a Charlotte entertainment and sports lawyer who represents several kayakers and is promoting the park, says Charlotte’s river would likely consist of a 1,000-foot-long, U-shaped canal with an upper and lower pool and a series of pumps that recirculates water. The park could have wide regional appeal from YMCAs and children’s programs that would use it for field trips. Charlotte Fire Department officials have said they would use the facility as a training center for swift water rescue, as potentially would other fire departments in the Southeast.

And the athletes, including the U.S. Olympic kayaking team, say they don’t have a real training center in the United States and would love to train in Charlotte. “This is far from being farfetched,” says Rabon. “It’s a very doable project.” Mecklenburg County Parks Department has begun to study the feasibility of the idea, the costs and ways to pay for the project. Rabon says it’s possible to get county bond money to purchase the necessary 20 acres needed for the park. The city might chip in lighting and other infrastructure. The river would be constructed with money from corporations, foundations and possible grants. The facility could be built and open by 2003. — Laura Williams-Tracy

GASTONIA
New Life for the Old Firestone-Loray Mill?
An icon of Gastonia’s textile past may get new life as a mixed-use development of condos, apartments, offices and retail space. And one idea that could boost plans to redevelop the historic Firestone-Loray Mill is to locate a civic center within the enormous project. The mammoth six-story, 600,000-square-foot building was once the largest textile mill in the South and was the site of a violent National Textile Workers Union strike in 1929 that is thought to be the reason unions never took hold in the region. The building now stands empty, hovering over a small mill village just off Gastonia’s main commercial strip.

Preservation North Carolina now owns the building and is working with Rock Hill, S.C., developer David Rogers of Rogers & Associates Inc., to give the building new life. Rogers and his partners plan to put 240 condominiums and apartments in the old mill and call it Picker House Condos at Loray. The project would also include restaurants, office space, retail space and possibly a hotel. And Rogers says locating a community facility, such as a civic center, in the project could round out the development. “I’ve known about that building all my life and I really saw it as a challenge to develop it,” says Rogers. “A building like that needs to be open to the public, and a civic center would do that.”

Rogers plans to meet with the Gastonia City Council this month to talk about how the two projects could be joined. Some city officials have discussed funding part of the cost of a $4 million civic center with an increase in the 3 percent occupancy tax on hotels and motels within city limits. The civic center would need 30,000 to 60,000 square feet of space. Rogers expects to get the project off the ground during 2001, hopefully with a civic center deal and other tenants in line.

Mark Rodman, chief operating officer for Preservation North Carolina, which was given the building in 1998, says the building’s rich history makes it worth saving. “A lot of people don’t see it as an asset because it’s such a huge empty building,” Rodman says. “It doesn’t say a lot good about the community. But its renovation would be so visible it could really turn things around. It has the potential to not only rejuvenate downtown but to be the impetus for other development.”

This is the second time developers have tried to find new life for the Firestone-Loray Mill. In the mid-90s, Charlotte developer Jim Gross tried and later abandoned plans to renovate it into condos and retail space when only 50 of the 232 proposed condos sold. — Laura Williams-Tracy


GREENSBORO
Report Concludes Startups Are the Key to the  Future
The words from the consulting firm of McKinsey & Company didn’t exactly ring of holiday cheer: “Our overall conclusion is that Greater Greensboro is slightly better off today than many of its peers in the Southeast, but given trends, maintaining the current levels of prosperity and ensuring a vibrant local economy will not be easy.” The summary came from a 40-page report commissioned by six Greensboro-based foundations to begin a five-month assessment of the city’s ability to maintain future jobs growth and quality of life. Ironically, at almost the same time in November when the report was released, Guilford Mills, a long-standing Greensboro denim manufacturer, announced it would lay off 550 employees and close one of its manufacturing plants in the city. In 2000 alone, Greensboro lost more than 3,000 textile jobs. 

The report concludes that “business as usual” is not an option for Greensboro, and that the city must virtually reinvent itself as a haven for small companies and entrepreneurs that might one day grow into powerhouses — much like the textile companies that created the very foundations and funded the study. Second, the city needs to become a location cluster for businesses, a destination for like-styled industry, a strategy that is not unlike the way it became the current center for textiles. Third, the city needs to work harder to attract the attention of large corporations looking for headquarters or regional operations.

“I think the report confirmed what most of us involved knew already,” says Richard Moore, president of The Weaver Foundation. “It brought it all together in a pretty coherent way and pointed out some things that we had talked about around the edges. We are now in the process of meeting with different groups throughout the community to digest the findings and suggestions in the report.

“We are not ready to talk about specific courses of action, but discussing the areas in which we want to focus. One of the things we don’t want to do is appear to be offering some sort of top-down dictum on what is good for the community. We will want to meet with all groups and define a plan of action we can do without forming yet another group.”  — Clint Johnson

REIDSVILLE
Field Tests to Assess Best Vines For Fine North Carolina Wines
Wine connoisseurs may one day demand that a well-rounded restaurant wine list carries a good vintage from North Carolina. At least that’s the hope of the North Carolina Grape Council, which has invested about $40,000 from an excise tax on wine sales in the state to plant a variety of grape vines at a North Carolina Agricultural Research Station located on the grounds of the Chinqua-Penn Plantation in Reidsville.

“The Grape Council has been thinking about doing a varietal trial someplace in North Carolina for some time,” says Tania Dautlick, executive director of the Grape Council. The wine industry is relatively new to the state, dating to the 1970s, although there have been a handful of wineries in the southeastern part of the state that use the Muscadine grape. There are 20 wineries in North Carolina today.

“The vines will be planted this coming spring and into the fall,” Dautlick says. “It takes about three years for the vines to produce a full crop, so we expect by 2004 or 2005 we will see a yield. The trials will look at how the vines grow, how susceptible they are to disease, how they react to climate, and which varieties work best.” The completed research will be available to anyone who is thinking of launching a winery. According to Dautlick, those currently operating in the state have done their own testing for vine quality.

Surry County Community College, having seen the vines growing on the wall, so to speak, has created the state’s first viticulture technology program — also the only two-year degree program offered in the southeastern United States. Diploma and certificate programs will also be available for those who do not want to pursue winemaking as a full-time career. The college has hired a professor from Oregon who has nearly 30 years of experience in making and marketing wine. — Clint Johnson

WINSTON-SALEM
Officials Toast the Rebirth When Stroh’s Brewery closed in July 1999 it seemed to be just more bad news for a city that has seen its share of shrinking industries over the past 20 years. Not only were hundreds of jobs lost, but with the beer industry caught in a cycle of consolidation by big brewers and proliferating micro-breweries, it seemed unlikely that another brewer would want to take over a one million square-foot building filled with giant metal fermenting tanks. Suds aside, the space is rapidly being leased, meaning a two-building complex that could have become a white elephant may turn out to be a huge success story of how absentee-but-visionary buyers of industrial property can join with on-the-ground real estate marketers to move property.

Hap Royster, a managing partner with Triad Commercial Properties in Winston-Salem, has been marketing the brewery, now called Piedmont Triad Industrial Center. He credits the property’s buyer, Goodman Industrial Equities of Boston, with having great vision. The company hired contractors to auction the salvageable brewing equipment and then cleared the buildings. Two years was estimated as necessary to lease the space fully. Ten months later, all but 160,000 square feet that’s still under renovation has been leased.

“We thought it had a lot of potential, but we have been very pleased and really pleasantly surprised with the quick success of the project,” Royster says. “There are two reasons it has been popular — it has large, contiguous space, and its location (on U.S. 52, just south of I-40).”

Royster says that he thought the 72,000 square feet of office space would be the hardest to fill, but that concern was alleviated when Walker and Associates, a telecommunications distributor that had run out of space in neighboring Davidson County, opted to take over both the office space and a large chunk of industrial space. The remaining space in the complex should be ready for lease by the end of March. — Clint Johnson

CHEROKEE
Casino’s Major Expansion Awaits Only a Federal Formality
North Carolina’s most popular privately owned tourist attraction is about to double in size. Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, which drew 3.2 million visitors in 1998 to surpass Carowinds as the most visited spot in the state, is awaiting what’s considered a formality — approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior -- to add another 60,000 square feet to its facility. The gaming center, which opened in 1997 at a cost of $93 million and is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is located at the tip of the Great Smoky Mountains. Outgoing Gov. Jim Hunt endorsed the expansion on Nov. 14, signing an agreement with Cherokee Chief Leon Jones. 

The casino currently boasts 2,500 gaming machines and employs 1,500 workers, more than 40 percent of whom live on the reservation, according to an employee survey conducted in 1998. Since its opening, new hotels, restaurants and other businesses have flocked to the town. The tribe pays Harrah’s Entertainment, which runs 21 casinos worldwide, an undisclosed sum to operate it.

 “Right now, we have so many people coming in, and we have to turn them away because we don’t have any space,” says Carroll Crowe, the tribe’s vice chief. “For a long time, our people were in the poverty area. It hasn’t pulled us totally out, but it makes us proud to see our people go buy a new TV and refrigerator. It’s something usable in the household, and that just makes us feel good.”

In exchange for letting the casino expand, the agreement Hunt and Jones signed requires creating a foundation that will promote smart growth, environmental protection and a preservation of Cherokee culture. The foundation is to receive at least $5 million annually from the gaming profits. In October, the tribe broke ground on a 15-story, 600-room hotel as part of its plan to become a convention and conference destination. — Kevin Brafford

TRIANGLE
After Some Notable Successes,
Durham lost one of its most vocal and influential economic growth advocates when Lamont Ewell left the city manager’s post in late December for the No. 2 position in city government in his hometown of San Diego. Ewell, 47, who was credited with leading the city’s revitalization since his arrival in July 1997, leaves his most aggressive project, the Southpoint mall, unfinished. He was the driving force who pushed plans through the City Council despite criticism from residents of South Durham.

Assistant city manager Gregory Bethea was named interim manager, and the City Council said it will conduct a nationwide search that’s expected to last at least six months. Ewell came to Durham from Oakland, Calif., where he was lauded first for his leadership as fire chief when wildfires threatened the city, then as an enterprising assistant city manager who helped woo the National Football League’s Raiders back to the Bay Area from Los Angeles.

Within his first months in Durham he brokered an agreement to ship the city’s garbage to Virginia, delaying the need for a new city dump for approximately 20 years and curtailing a debate that threatened to raise taxes and tempers between a county neighborhood and the city government. Ewell also kept a close eye on downtown. He won overwhelming support for a tax hike to build parking decks that are expected to bring renovations of the vacant American Tobacco factory.

San Diego is the nation’s sixth largest city, and Ewell says his pay is comparable to that of the position he’s leaving — about $150,000 annually. “One might conclude that mine was an easy decision,” Ewell said in announcing his resignation. “I want to assure you that it was not. In Durham, I have found a city that can and has accomplished great things.” — Kevin Brafford

NEW BERN
German Blimp Maker Lands Near the Coast
CargoLifter Inc. not only thinks big, it builds big. The Raleigh-based subsidiary of the German company CargoLifter AG plans to construct one of the world’s largest dirigible plants about 12 miles west of New Bern. The proposed site is near Cove City at U.S. 70 and N.C. 41. The plant, which CargoLifter expects to be operational in four to five years, will be an attention-getter for motorists bound for the beach — it will be as high as a 35-story building and as long as three city blocks. The company says it expects to eventually employ 200 to 300 workers at an average salary of about $50,000.

In this instance, size does matter. The plant will house cargo-dirigibles — more commonly known to people these days as blimps — that are in excess of 850 feet long and 27 stories tall. The dirigibles, filled with nonflammable helium, will transport cargo — and really big cargo at that, like bridge supports, turbines and generators weighing up to 176 tons — up to 6,000 miles.

Now, CargoLifter’s mission is to sell the public on the worthiness and safety of its plan. “There might be a market, but it's yet to be proven,” says Paul Page, editor of Air Cargo World, an industry publication based in Washington. “Nobody knows how to treat it. There are a lot of people who govern the transportation industry who don't like the idea of a suspension bridge or railroad locomotive hovering slowly over populated areas.” The reference specifically is to the Federal Aviation Administration, which must give the company permission to operate. FAA officials say the organization has yet to consider the matter.

Company president Charles Edwards says the dirigibles could carry large items faster and more cheaply than conventional methods. CargoLifter AG recently completed a plant at a former Soviet military base outside Berlin, but has yet to build its first dirigible. The company did, however, raise about $300 million through an IPO. The Cove City plant is desired, Edwards says, because North America accounts for roughly half of the world’s cargo. 

Dirigibles own a checkered past. Prior to World War II, the hydrogen-filled blimps served as airborne four-star hotels, flying wealthy passengers nonstop from Frankfurt, Germany, to Brazil. But their popularity came to a halt after the Hindenburg crashed in flames in 1937 at Lindhurst, N.J., killing 36 people. — Kevin Brafford

TRIAD
Tiffany Knows Where to Go
Call it Breakfast with Tiffany — or lunch or dinner for that matter. That’s the theme being merrily bantered about by Replacements Ltd. of Greensboro, which is the new and sole distributor of discontinued china patterns for the famous New York luxury goods retailer. Under the agreement, one year after a Tiffany china pattern is discontinued, Replacements will purchase all stock in that pattern for sale to customers who are looking to fill out place settings or replace broken pieces.

“We have a long history of helping Tiffany customers find replacements,” says Replacements President Bob Page, “and I appreciate the confidence Tiffany has placed in us to continue this tradition for years to come.” The deal was a no-brainer for Tiffany, which has sent letters to its customers informing them of the arrangement with Replacements. From now on, Tiffany will notify customers one year in advance when a china pattern will be discontinued, and then remind them one year later that they will have to go through Replacements for new pieces in that pattern.

“Replacements is really the best match of the Tiffany philosophy,” says Linda Buckley, director of publicity for Tiffany & Co. “They have a wonderful business and have been helping people find their needed pieces for a long time.” Analysts believe the agreement is a positive for both companies. “For Tiffany to do something like this makes a lot of sense,” says Ken Gassman, a jewelry industry analyst for Richmond, Va.-based Davenport & Co. “They’re a world-renowned company that’s famous for high customer service levels and high quality merchandise.

“Replacements also has a very good reputation in the industry, so it looks like we’ve got two of the top players forming a partnership that should benefit them both as well as their customers.”

Replacements officials have opted not to attach a dollar figure to their deal with Tiffany, but Liam Sullivan, Replacements’ public relations manager, says the potential of the relationship is invaluable. “For Replacements, this means Tiffany is out there telling their customers, ‘Here's a company we rely on to provide a service to you,’ “Sullivan says. “From a marketing standpoint, that’s a recommendation from one of the finest names in the world.” — Kevin Brafford

HICKORY
A Unique Canadian Plane Douses Carolina Wildfires
When the woodlands in Mitchell County caught fire in November, a unique water-carrying aircraft — the best firefighter of all — was called to the rescue. The good news is that it didn’t have to travel far, which made for better news in that the fire was more easily extinguished. The Canadian-made CL215 is headquartered at the Hickory Regional Airport and is an aircraft capable of landing in a lake or water reservoir and filling itself up with 1,400 gallons of water within 10 seconds. In last November’s fire, the plane used Watauga Lake as its water source and was able to leave the fire, fill up at the lake and return within 30 minutes, according to Donna Shope, the aircraft’s mechanic.

“The advantage of the 215 is that it goes straight to the water source, fills up with water and goes back and dumps it on the fire,” says Shope, “while tankers that spread firefighting chemicals and dromadeers have to go back to the airport to reload.” According to Shope, the CL215 “makes a run-on landing on the water and lands two small scoops, about 4 inches by 5 inches in size, which scoop up 1,400 gallons of water.” The dromadeers, she notes, “only carry 400 gallons of water.”

The aircraft is equipped with soap, which is injected into the water to make foam used to douse flames. It also carries firefighters to a point where they can safely parachute into the fire areas. The large yellow aircraft is the only one of its kind permanently stationed in the United States, and there are only 74 all told in the world.

North Carolina opted to purchase the plane two years ago after having leased similar ones for a few years. The state would lease the planes for a few months each year and base them in Hickory, Jacksonville and Lumberton during the major fire seasons. Jacksonville and Lumberton each still house a leased CL215 from March through May.

Hickory’s CL215 responds to calls anywhere in the country, but it is based here so that it can quickly respond to fires in western North Carolina. It also helped fight fires that ravaged Florida in 1998. The state’s acquisition also brought a slight increase in Hickory’s population. Being Canadian-made and the first CL215 actually owned and operated in the United States, there were no American pilots trained to fly it. Thus, two Canadian pilots were recruited, and they have since made their home in the area. — Charlene H. Nelson

TRIANGLE
After Acquiring Florida Utility, CP&L Becomes Progress Energy
The voltage has increased for the parent company of Raleigh-based Carolina Power & Light, now known as Progress Energy following the acquisition of Florida Progress for $5.3 billion. The new corporate name, which was unveiled at a morning ceremony in Raleigh on Dec. 4, represents the publicly traded holding company that owns CP&L and Florida Power, formerly a subsidiary of Florida Progress. Progress Energy replaces CP&L Energy as the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in the Triangle.

 “Progress Energy is built on the strength of two solid companies with long traditions of service to our customers and communities,” says Bill Cavanaugh, CP&L’s chairman and chief executive. “We have built upon that foundation and emerged not only as a new company with a new name but as an organization energized by a new look that drives our vision and mission going forward.”

To that end, Progress Energy quickly launched a new advertising campaign, spearheaded by newspaper ads that featured a wedding cake topped with two electric transmission towers —  a symbol of the corporate marriage. CP&L shares began trading under the ticker symbol PGN on the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 11. Cavanaugh says the CP&L and Florida Power brand names won't disappear anytime soon, but adds that the company will use the new corporate identity as it attempts to position itself as a major utility in the Southeast.

Progress Energy is expected to boast annual revenues of more than $7 billion and has assets totaling $19 billion. It employs approximately 16,600 and serves 2.8 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. The company has two subsidiaries in addition to CP&L and Florida Power: NCNG, a natural-gas company, and Progress Telecom, a fiber-optic network. — Kevin Brafford

GREENVILLE
Foundation’s First Gift Will Help the Uninsured
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina showed a further dedication to corporate citizenship with the November creation of a private foundation. The BCBSNC Foundation was launched with $15 million and will support programs that better access to health services for the uninsured, promote healthy lifestyles, provide health education, and support health initiatives that target minorities, older adults and children.

The announcement was held at the Brody School of Medicine on the East Carolina University campus. That’s where the foundation made its first gift — a $1 million donation to launch ECU CARE, a joint effort benefiting the uninsured in the eastern part of the state. ECU CARE is an infant program designed to aid the healthcare problems that face the region’s poorest families.

“The new Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation will support programs, like ECU CARE, that speak directly to its mission of helping the people of North Carolina improve their health and well-being,” says BCBSNC President and CEO Bob Greczyn, who also will serve as the foundation’s chairman and president. Greczyn says the foundation will support programs and services in response to grant requests, as well as supporting needs identified by the Foundation. “Our Foundation will ensure that we can be a good neighbor to the people of North Carolina by funding worthy programs for years to come,” Greczyn says.

The foundation will be unique in that it will not limit itself to using its interest alone to fund programs. This will allow other significant gifts, such as the $1 million donation to Hurricane Floyd relief in 1999 and the $1 million gift to ECU CARE. “For 67 years, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has worked hard to be a good corporate citizen and to give back to the people of North Carolina,” Greczyn says. “With this new Foundation, we will be working closely with communities across the state to identify and fund programs that have a positive impact on the health of North Carolinians.” — Kevin Brafford

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