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Regional Business Reports

Kinston
How a Community Turned Blight into Beautiful
A blighted property has been transformed into a major tourist stop for travelers on their way to the coast, resulting in a business boom for this Lenoir County town. The Neuseway Planetarium, Science and Health Museum opened last July, adjacent to the Exchange Nature Center in the Neuseway Nature Park. More than 50,000 people have since visited the two facilities, says Bill Ellis, director of Lenoir County’s Parks and Recreation Department.

“One thing we recognized early on was that we wanted to bring in people to spend money and help with our taxes. They make a stop off Highway 70 and stay in Kinston. It has worked,” Ellis says. “We’ve had visitors from 50 states and 18 countries. It’s been a wonderful project, utilizing the skills and talents of all of our local people.”

The nature center was the first to come along, opening in June 1996. The county bought land for the center, the Kinston Exchange Club took it on as a civic project, and the local travel and tourism board ponied up $25,000 to offset initial expenses. The museum includes exhibits of life along a river, featuring poisonous snakes of North Carolina, an alligator tank, static displays of beaver lodges and 305-gallon aquariums, Ellis says.

The idea for the science museum came after Hurricane Floyd, when a private residence next to the nature park flooded and went up for sale. “We thought it was a great way to add to the nature museum,” Ellis says. “It’s amazing what one community can do after a disaster.” The county applied to the state for a Parks and Recreation Trust Fund Grant for $125,000, with a $125,000 local match. An additional $100,000 was raised, resulting in a total of $350,000 for the startup.

The renovation involved gutting the entire structure, Ellis says. The Kinston Exchange Club worked weekends with 200 to 300 volunteers. And a group of 125 Boy Scouts from Charlotte helped with the demolition and framing of walls.

Today, the 4,000-square-foot facility features a 60-seat planetarium with a 24-foot dome and a projector that shows the night sky from anywhere in the world on any given day. The museum also includes space exhibits donated by the Smithsonian.

Lenoir Memorial Hospital donated $50,000 for a giant heart. Children crawl through the blood vessels and learn how a heart works. There is also a 25-foot-long, 6-foot-tall model of the digestive system. Children enter through the mouth and exit down a slide through the intestine.

The “My Body and Me” exhibit goes over different stages of the development of a baby and also discusses AIDS. The museum also has a butterfly and hummingbird habitat, and other exhibits include a giant bubble-making machine and an 8-foot-tall tornado-making machine. And a Foucault Pendulum from the San Francisco Academy of Science Museum shows how the earth tilts on its axis. -- Heidi Russell-Rafferty


Charlotte
Ruth Shaw Tapped as Duke Power's New Leader
Duke Power Co. President Bill Coley retired at the end of February, making way for Ruth Shaw, 54, to become the first woman to lead the utility and to become one of the most high-profile women in North Carolina business.

Shaw was executive vice president and chief administrative officer. She joined Duke in 1992 after serving six years as president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte.

“Ruth has distinguished herself as an extraordinary business leader with strengths in strategy, operations, management and customer and employee relations,” says Duke Energy Chairman and CEO Richard B. Priory.

Shaw began her career in education, serving as president of El Centro College in Dallas and then leading Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. She earned bachelors and master’s degrees in English from East Carolina University and a Ph.D in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Shaw began her career at Duke as vice president of corporate communications in 1992. By 1997 she was executive vice president and chief administration officer for Duke Energy and president of the Duke Energy Foundation. She was Charlotte’s Woman of the Year in 1992 and Business Woman of the Year in 1995.

Coley spent 37 years with Duke. He led the company’s non-regulated business until Duke’s 1997 merger with Houston-based PanEnergy. Since then he has led Duke Power. Coley served as second vice chair of NCCBI last year; his retirement removes him from the association’s volunteer leadership team.

Under Coley’s leadership, Duke Power agreed last summer to reduce air pollution at coal-fired power plants in North Carolina.

Duke Energy  is concentrating on electric transmission and natural gas units and scaling back its energy trading. Duke Energy plans to reduce its workforce by some 2,000 employees, many of those layoffs coming in Houston.  Duke Power is Duke Energy’s most profitable subsidiary, posting a $1.6 billion operating profit in 2001.  — Laura Williams-Tracy


Greensboro
Smaller Spaces the Key to Business Park's Success
Don’t tell Ken Canter that demand for commercial real estate is lacking. Canter, owner of Canter Properties in Greensboro, plans to continue expanding Fairfax Business Centre, a business park on Fairfax Road off High Point Road.

The business park has added three office and warehouse buildings totaling 31,200 square feet since Canter purchased the property three years ago. Canter says he wants to add five more buildings with about 10,000 square feet each in the next few years. “There aren’t a lot of smaller industrial buildings in the area, and we’re able to offer smaller units with a lot of flexibility,” Canter says. “We’re completely full right now.”

About 20 companies occupy space in the business park. Canter recently completed the largest of its three most recent buildings and has leased the entire space to BEA Fasteners, which is the U.S. arm of a German manufacturer of nailing and staple equipment. The company previously operated out of the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship in Greensboro.

When Canter, who also runs Canter Electric in Greensboro, bought the 15-acre park, there was a two-story office building and a 26,000-square-foot warehouse building. In addition to the 12,000-square-foot building that is being leased to BEA Fasteners, the other two buildings are 9,600 square feet each divided into four bays of 2,400 square feet.

“We’ve got another eight acres to develop,” Canter says. “We’re looking at doing one or two buildings a year, depending on the demand and how things go with the economy.”  — Jim Buice


Winston-Salem
BB&T Invades Virginia in Its First Big Acquisition
BB&T Corp., which grew a banking empire through years of acquiring small institutions, has made its first large purchase with a $2.97 million buy of First Virginia, that state’s largest independent bank.

The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, is the largest of 150 acquisitions that BB&T has announced since 1990. First Virginia, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., operates 364 branches in Virginia, Maryland and Tennessee — where BB&T already has branches — and boasts $11.2 billion in assets.

Under terms of the transaction, BB&T will exchange 1.26 of its shares for every share of First Virginia. That values First Virginia at $47.07 a share, a 25 percent premium over the bank’s closing stock price on Jan. 24, two days after the deal was announced. John Allison IV, BB&T’s chair and CEO, says the premium is warranted due to First Virginia’s strong presence in Virginia and the Washington suburbs.

First Virginia has 88 branches and $3.62 billion in deposits in Northern Virginia. In the same area, BB&T has 67 branches and $3 billion in deposits. When the two are combined, BB&T will be the fourth-largest bank in the D.C. area — the fourth-wealthiest market, ranked by per-capita income, in the United States. In Virginia, BB&T will vault from No. 7 to No. 2.

In addition to market share, BB&T will gain one of the Southeast’s top-performing banks, Allison says, noting that First Virginia has reported six consecutive years of rising profits. In 2002, the bank’s profit rose 22 percent. And the bank’s balance sheet is pristine: First Virginia’s loan losses, as a percentage of its total assets, are the lowest among 50 of the nation’s largest regional banks.

The combined bank will be the nation’s 11th largest, with $91.9 billion in assets and branches in 11 states and the District of Columbia.   — Kevin Brafford


Fayetteville
'Metro Bridge' Gives City an IT Edge Over Competition
Fayetteville believes it can offer one business incentive that no other U.S. city currently can — a system that lets you transmit voice, video and data through a single connection.

Called Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN), this high-tech and cost-effective system was developed and built by Advanced Internet Technologies (AIT) in a unique private/public partnership with Fayetteville’s Public Works Commission.

Described by Clarence Briggs, the CEO of AIT as a “metro bridge,” the system uses fiber optic cable as the infrastructure, with technology that integrates services so a single connection can be used for multiple applications.

Briggs says the system’s advantages are off the chart. Service costs, for example, can be cut by as much as 70 percent as separate lines for telephone, data and other services such as credit card machines and video conferencing are no longer needed.

Further, he says, consider the AIT customer that has seven locations around the state, with seven telephone systems and costs for seven data connections. Now, with MAN, they’ll only have to pay for one connection. The network also is ideal, Briggs notes, for companies with plants or branch locations in the Fayetteville area and home offices elsewhere.

Companies with different types of computer systems can benefit from MAN’s ability to network these computers, even though they use different operating systems. All computers on the network, regardless of their systems, are able to share data and applications. This means companies no longer have to replace older machines to make them “networkable.”

MAN is part of AIT’s “wiring Fayetteville” project. AIT, in partnership with the city’s Public Works Commission, is committed to offering area businesses the digital tools that will give them a competitive edge on regional, national and global markets. AIT also recently opened a 20,000-square-foot high-security data center that offers technology services such as document storage and applications hosting.  — Rosimar Melendez


Raleigh
600 Condos Envisioned Above Crabtree Valley Mall
An unstable economy hasn’t derailed mixed-use development projects in the Capital City. The latest plan to be announced calls for a $180 million transformation of an aging shopping center overlooking Crabtree Valley Mall.

Crabtree Avenue Investment Group hopes to turn the mostly vacant Kidd’s Hill Plaza shopping center into a tiered brick building three to seven stories high. Named The Promenade at Crabtree, the 11-acre project includes up to 600 condominiums, 150,000 square feet of offices and 226,000 square feet of retail space. Retail stores and offices would occupy the first two floors with condominiums on upper levels.

The condominiums would range from $190,000 for a 1,100-square-foot, two-bedroom unit to $1 million for penthouse units with up to 6,000 square feet. The condominiums would overlook two promenades — open pedestrian areas, with fountains — in the center of the building. The two promenades would be joined at the center by a 15,000-square-foot restaurant with a second-story bar. Parking would be in a three-level underground deck with approximately 1,900 spaces.

Mark Tipton, a partner in the investment group, told the News & Observer that he expects the project to be built in phases over three to five years. His group bought the site for about $10 million in September and submitted plans to the city late last year. The city council will consider rezoning the property to mixed use on March 18.

Three other large mixed-use projects are in the development stages in Raleigh. As we reported in February, Progress Energy is planning a $100 million development downtown that would have 400,000 square feet of offices, 25,000 square feet of retail and 30 to 40 condominiums.

Developer John Kane hopes to demolish North Hills Mall and turn the site into a $200 million project with big-box discount store Target, movie theater, hotel and 370 condominiums. And Crosland plans 373 housing units, 27,000 square feet of shops and 3,000 square feet of offices at Oberlin Road and Wade Avenue.  — Kevin Brafford


Two seemingly unlikely partners will give downtown Winston-Salem a major boost as Krispy Kreme and the N.C. School of the Arts have said they will anchor Unity Place, a $60 million mixed-use development. In addition to a new 100,000-square-foot headquarters for Krispy Kreme, the development will include a multiplex theater, a performing arts center, an amphitheater, townhouses, a food court and other retail and office space. The project, which Mayor Allan Joines calls “one of the most important” in the history of the city, will occupy 10 acres on the west side of downtown.

A nonprofit corporation created by the School of the Arts, Unity Development Corp., will own the development. Krispy Kreme eventually will lease 20,000 square feet for its headquarters, including a “Krispy Kreme Village,” complete with a recreated façade of the first Krispy Kreme store, a 1950s–vintage doughnut shop and a training facility that will also serve as an outlet. The four-story building, which will resemble an old-time schoolhouse, will be built on the spot Modern Chevrolet has occupied since 1947. The dealership is moving to a new location on University Parkway.

Krispy Kreme began looking for a new corporate headquarters about two years ago and thought it had secured a spot off Robinhood Road in the northwest part of Winston-Salem before those plans fell through. City officials were hopeful that the company would end up downtown. “This validates our belief in the future of downtown as a vibrant and visible place to live and work,” says Scott Livengood, chairman and CEO of Krispy Kreme.

Construction for the project is scheduled to start later this year with Krispy Kreme moving in early in 2005. Charlotte developer Lincoln Harris will build the complex.  — Jim Buice


Sparta
Martin Marietta Expansion Lifts Spirits Across Region
Alleghany County is expected to reap a substantial economic benefit from Martin Marietta Composites’ announcement that it has chosen to open shop in a facility formerly occupied by Bristol Compressors.

Martin Marietta says it will use the 185,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility to manufacture highway and pedestrian bridge decks, commercial truck trailers, components for rail cars and other structural composite products for the transportation and construction industries.

Company officials believe the Sparta plant will become the hub of their composite structures program, helping to position the plant for potential growth and expansion. “We believe our composite products represent the building materials of the future, with applications in several industries, and we are excited to be able to manufacture them in Sparta,” says Phil Sipling, executive vice president of Martin Marietta Materials.

The announcement was a payoff for AdvantageWest Vice President Sam Powers and Ronnie James, Western Region director of the N.C. Department of Commerce, both of whom spent months showing site consultants and Martin Marietta executives industrial real estate across the western reaches of the state. “We’ve got some outstanding inventory in western North Carolina, and that building was just the perfect facility for their needs,” says Powers. “The building sold itself, really. This will be good for Alleghany County and good for western North Carolina.”

Local government officials praise the company’s investment, which will create quality new jobs in the wake of a decline in manufacturing in the region. “We’re delighted to welcome Martin Marietta to our town,” says Sparta Mayor John Miller. “We look forward to Martin Marietta being our new neighbor.”  -- Kevin Brafford


Durham
Duke Reaches $2 Billion Goal Year Ahead of Plan
Not only has Duke University surpassed its fund-raising goal of $2 billion, it did so nearly a year ahead of schedule. The Campaign for Duke, which was announced in 1998 with a $1.5 billion goal (a mark adjusted two years later to $2 billion), had taken in $2,017,660,929 by Feb. 12. The still-growing total makes Duke just the nation’s fifth university to surpass the $2 billion mark in a single campaign, joining Columbia and Harvard universities, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California.

The donations have been used for faculty support, financial aid, research and academic programs. The private dollars also have transformed Duke’s campus, where a children’s hospital, new dormitories, academic and athletics buildings and student recreation centers have sprouted in the past few years.

Duke President Nan Keohane says the campaign will take the university to new heights. “Duke is committed to creating an environment that nurtures superb learning, teaching, patient care, service to society and discoveries in many areas of our life and our world,” she says. “This is why we undertook this ambitious campaign.”

More than 225,000 donors have contributed to Duke in the past seven years. The campaign has added $661 million to Duke’s endowment — money that is permanently invested to generate annual income. Duke’s endowment was $2.37 billion last year, the largest of any university in the state but still well behind Duke’s Ivy League rivals. It’s worth noting that Duke tied for fourth-best university in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings, but its endowment was only 18th largest.

About $325 million from the campaign is earmarked toward facilities. Projects under way or planned in the near future include library renovations, an art museum, an addition to the Divinity School, an eye research institute, a public policy building and a large science complex partially financed by $30 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda Gates, wife of the Microsoft chairman, is a Duke alumnus and trustee. — Kevin Brafford


Charlotte
Region's Biggest Hospital Plans $70 Million Expansion
The Charlotte region’s largest hospital will grow even bigger with a planned $70 million expansion. “This is the largest construction project we’ve had on this campus in the last 10 years,” says Michael Tarwater, Carolinas Healthcare System president and CEO. Tarwater succeeded longtime CEO Harry Nurkin in 2002. The expansion “is essential because of the dramatic growth we’ve seen, not only in volume, but in technology,” Tarwater says.

Carolinas Medical Center is the region’s largest hospital with the area’s only Level One Trauma Center and emergency flight service.

Highlights of the expansion plan include the construction of four new floors atop the existing surgery tower and expansion of the hospital’s intensive care units for neurosurgery, trauma and surgery. The ICUs will be designed to provide space for new technology and services that can be delivered at the patient’s bedside. Each floor will have new family lounges, waiting rooms and private family conference areas. The project also includes new elevators and a ground floor connection to the main lobby. 

While the expansion won’t increase CMC’s 843-bed count, it will grow the hospital’s Neurosciences Institute and the Department of Neurosurgery by increasing the capacity of the department’s intensive care facilities. CMC performs more brain surgeries on North Carolinians than any other hospital in the state.

The project needs state approval to proceed. An application has been filed with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Certificate of Need office in Raleigh. If approved, construction will begin this year with completion in early 2006.

Carolinas Medical Center is owned by Carolinas Healthcare System, the largest healthcare system in the Carolinas. US News and World Report has named the hospital one of America’s Best Hospitals for the last two years. It is one of five academic medical center teaching hospitals in the state.  — Laura Williams-Tracy

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