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The Voice of Business,
Industry & the Professions Since 1942
North Carolina's largest
business group proudly serves as the state chamber of commerce
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December
2004 Regional Business Reports
Triangle
They'll
Give You Cash for Your Old PCs
Most of their customers are pleasantly surprised when they get a payment check
after donating used computer equipment to IBM’s Asset Recovery Solution, says
Jennifer Van Cise, director of IBM global asset recovery services.
About 2,000 computers a day go through the Solectron facility that IBM leases to
process used computers, laptops and printers. The largest of five U.S. plants
refurbishing or disposing of the used equipment, the 322,000-square-foot
Solectron recovery center employs 650 people.
Last year the recovery center, located near RDU, processed about 560,000 PCs.
Most were refurbished and remarketed, providing businesses with an unexpected
revenue stream. The company says it sold $1.5 billion of certified used
equipment in 2003 alone.
IBM started the program in the summer of 2001 and expanded it globally in
November, when it also added incentives to encourage its business partners to
recommend the program to their clients.
Van Cise says IBM offers businesses several options through the program. If a
company just wants to safely get rid of used equipment without going through the
hassle of figuring out what they have, IBM will pack it, transport it and
sanitize or dispose of it for free. But the majority of the program’s
customers itemize their equipment and receive a check from IBM 30 days later,
Van Cise notes. The businesses earn from $2 to $500 for most standard equipment
IBM buys to resell, she says.
IBM also touts its asset recovery expertise, which allows it to reclaim
components and precious metals with resale value. It also offers defense and
government agency standard disc sanitization and cleansing with a three times
overwrite process that makes sensitive business data nearly impossible to
recover.
IBM cites the National Safety Council estimate that 500 million PCs will become
surplus or obsolete by 2007 as pointing to asset recovery as a growth business.
The center accepts IBM and non-IBM PCs that operate on Intel Pentium or Celeron
processors 233MHz or higher; laser printers that turn out eight pages a minute
or more; and monitors, sizes 19 inches or greater or SVGA flat panels 15 inches
or greater. -- Allan
Maurer
Charlotte
Development
Tailgates New Outerbelt Interchanges
Rezoning petitions and development announcements are coming faster than the cars
speeding along the I-485 outerbelt loop as the Queen City grows at a gallop to
the north, west and east of downtown.
In the north, three Charlotte developers want to create a $65 million retail
project at Perimeter Woods, a business park near the NorthLake mall project
already underway. The developers, Core Properties, Collett & Associates, and
Trinity Capital, want to rezone the site for a commercial center.
The business park on Reames Road at I-77 and W.T. Harris Boulevard would include
100 residential units, retail, restaurant and office space on 63 acres,
according to developer plans. If city council approves the zoning change in
January, construction could start by spring for opening by summer 2006.
Cornelius-based CENTDEV Properties wants to rezone 14 acres across I-77 from
Northlake Mall for a $20 million project called Northlake Village. The developer
says the I-485 loop just north of Smith Corners will make it easy to get to the
site from both east and west Charlotte. If approved, H.H. Gregg Appliance Inc.,
which operates under the name hhgregg and competes with Best Buy and Circuit
City, would be an anchor tenant.
A flurry of development plans also followed the opening of the western leg of
I-485. Lord Baltimore Properties, which already has zoning approval for a
58-acre area on Wilkinson Boulevard at I-485, expects to construct 340,000
square feet of industrial space and 120,000 square feet of offices starting this
spring with a bulk warehouse. Atapco plans to build a $75 million office complex
nearby at Steele Creek.
At the new I-485 interchange east of the city, Centex Homes plans a 1,200
single- and multi-family home community on 310 acres on Albemarle Road. It would
be one of the first developments capitalizing on opening of the outerbelt’s
eastern loop.
Other east Charlotte projects include Kingstree, a 1,200-unit development near
Albemarle Road, and additional residential homes planned along the Larkhaven
Golf Course on Camp Stewart Road. -- Allan Maurer
Catawba County
Auto
Parts Maker Puts Pedal to the Metal
North Carolina always was the bridesmaid, never the bride, when automakers were
choosing southern states for new assembly plants. But while North Carolina
hasn’t yet landed a car plant – as have Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South
Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi – the state has enjoyed a thrilling ride in
the car parts manufacturing business. That sector of the economy has exploded in
recent years and now numbers more than 400 companies and about 600 other
companies who supply them.
And their business apparently is booming. Getrag Corp., a German maker of timing
gears, transmissions and rear axles, is expanding its Maiden plant with an $81
million investment that will create 300 new jobs and nearly double its payroll.
The current facility makes rear axles for DaimlerChrysler and General Motors
cars and is located in Maiden. The facility is perhaps best known for making
power-train parts for the Corvette.
The state offered the company a Jobs Development Investment Grant (JDIG) worth
$2.5 million over 11 years, if Getrag creates all the jobs promised. Officials
estimate the expansion will generate a cumulative gross state product value of
about $981 million and predict a $34.6 million impact on net state revenues.
Getrag is the 20th company to receive a JDIG grant.
When the expansion is complete in 2007, Getrag President and CEO Friedemann
Strasser said production at the Maiden plant will swell from about 300,000 axle
assemblies a year to one million units annually. The average wage for the new
jobs will be $33,557 a year, company officials said.
Founded in Germany in 1935, Getrag entered the U.S. market in 1981. It opened
the Maiden facility in 1986. Getrag had global gross revenues of $2.3 billion
last year and a workforce of 9,200 in 16 locations in Europe, Asia and America. — Steve Tuttle
Greensboro
Merger
of Civic Groups Gives City a Unified Voice
The planned merger of Greensboro’s various economic development entities on
Jan. 1 will enhance the Gate City’s commitment to regionalism, says Dennis
Barry, chairman of the Greensboro Partnership.
The partnership, unveiled in late October, combines efforts by the Greensboro
Chamber of Commerce, Action Greensboro, the Greensboro Economic Development
Partnership and the Greensboro Development Corp.
Barry, recently-retired head of the Moses Cone Health System, says that all
existing commitments to Triad economic development efforts “will continue and
be improved in the future.”
He added that the partnership will include a group focusing on regionalism
“operating at a high level.”
“We think it’s important to interact as much as possible with other Triad
economic development groups,” Barry says.
Action Greensboro, funded by grants from charitable foundations, has worked
since 2001 to revitalize downtown to appeal to young professionals. Their
efforts have resulted in a new minor league baseball park and a center-city
recreational park which plays host to street festivals. The downtown area also
has seen a boom in residential construction, restaurants and nightlife.
The Greensboro Chamber is made up of nearly 2,000 area businesses. The
Greensboro Economic Development Partnership is a privately funded non-profit
group which has worked in recent years to recruit new businesses to the city to
replace lost jobs in textiles and other manufacturing areas. The Greensboro
Development Corp. also recruited new industries in the past but has not been
active in recent years.
“To the extent that Greensboro’s voice in the Triad economic development
effort has been historically fragmented, it will strengthen our efforts to speak
with a single voice,” Barry says. It’s also expected that the union into a
single umbrella agency will result in increased staffing efficiency, elimination
of overlapping services and messages, and streamlining of organizational
oversight with a single board. — Jerry
Blackwelder
Raleigh
Construction
Begins Soon on New Convention Center
Now that the disputes, editorials and discussions are out of the way, the
much-debated Raleigh Convention Center is finally in the hands of designers,
architects, and builders.
Skansa USA, Barnhill Contracting Co., and O’Brien/Akins, Clearscapes and
Atlanta-based TVS, a national convention center design firm, must now go from
the schematic drawings that illustrate what the building will look like to
actually creating it. So, they’re busy fulfilling an $870,400 contract for
pre-design and pre-construction services.
“I think the architects did a great job of merging concepts of traditional
versus iconic looks,” says Margaret Mullen, president and CEO of the Downtown
Raleigh Alliance. “A building this size – a two-story building tall as a
ten-story building that takes up an entire block — can’t look too old.”
Mullen says she thinks the community will be thrilled with the view from the
enormous ballroom that tops the building. “I think the ballroom will be the
part the community uses the most,” she adds.
Kenneth Luker, a senior architect with O’Brien/Atkins, the firm responsible
for much of the look of Research Triangle Park, says that while the completed
building may not look as traditional as the State Capitol and other Raleigh
historic buildings, “it will incorporate similar materials and it will have a
stately quality. It’s about attitude. But the scale and room sizes are unlike
anything traditional architecture ever addressed.”
Andy Whiteley, senior vice president of Skansa USA, says that now they’re past
“fishing for ideas everyone liked, we’re starting on the detailed design.”
Luker explains that means going from the schematic drawings to what architects
call “design development. It’s getting down to the nitty-gritty of how to
make it happen. How to make this wall work and this roof form. The schematics
get highly refined.” Design development should conclude by March.
“Next comes the construction document phase,” Luker explains. “That’s
when we provide detailed specifications on materials and say this has to be
exactly four inches wide and ten inches long and so on.”
The designers face a number of challenges, Luker notes, such as matching budget
limitations to city aspirations and meeting building codes. One problem they
must address, for instance: how to move 10,000 people up from the exhibit space
and 2,400 people down from the ballroom if both are in use during an emergency?
The new Convention Center is one of five parts of the Raleigh “Livable Streets
Plan,” that also includes reinvigorating Fayetteville Street, improving the
pedestrian environment, reforming regulations to make it easier to do business
downtown, and taking a one-stop approach to downtown management.
Excavation and shoring of the foundation starts in February. Construction of the
building itself is slated to start by April and city planners project it will
host 375,000 visitors a year when it opens in 2007.
— Allan Maurer
High Point
Showroom
Space Continues Growing Despite Challenge
The opening of the Las Vegas Furniture Market next summer hasn’t dampened
enthusiasm for High Point as the heart of the home furnishings industry.
“My understanding is that we should have another 700,000 square feet of
showroom space available by the time of the October Market next year,” says
Judy Mendenhall, president of the High Point Market Authority.
That’s in addition to the 11 million square feet of space already filled with
home furnishings, accessories, carpets and rugs from around the world on display
to the buyers who come to Guilford County twice a year to make wholesale
purchases for the coming season.
“Anytime you have major investments, it speaks to the strength of the High
Point market,” Mendenhall says.
Most industry experts agree, feeling that the Las Vegas show will settle in as
another regional market along the lines of those found in San Francisco or
Dallas while High Point retains its traditional status as a “must-see” show.
“I’m very bullish on High Point
and I’ve got a lot of faith in what’s happening here,” says Coy Williard,
whose company has been designing and building showrooms in High Point and other
markets for nearly three decades. He says 2004 represented one of Williard-Stewart’s
best years ever and points to the transformation of the century-old Wright
Building downtown into showroom space and apartments as evidence of the
continued growth of the trade show.
Furniture retailing direct to consumers is also expected to fare well in the
coming year, says Andy Counts, CEO of the American Furniture Manufacturing
Association. “We’re hoping for some positive news in the way of consumer
confidence picking up,” he said. “We feel like 2005 should be a good year
for us.”
Even exports of American furniture, which have been overshadowed by concerns of
imports primarily from Asia, have seen a spurt of growth recently.
“Certainly with the dollar strong relative to foreign currencies it makes
American furniture much more attractive,” Counts says.
Sales of U.S.-made furniture in Canada, Mexico and Australia in
particular have seen significant growth recently.
— Jerry Blackwelder
Raleigh
Supreme
Court Decamps During Building Renovation
The state Supreme Court will vacate the Justice Building on Capitol Square next
month when a $9.5 million renovation begins on the aging structure. The seven
justices and their support staff will set up shop for at least a year three
blocks away in the old Wachovia Bank building on Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street
Mall.
The Justice Building, built in 1939 as a WPA project, will be gutted except for
the main courtroom where the Supreme Court hears appeals. Because it’s
considered an historic location, it won’t be disturbed except for new windows
and new heating and air conditioning systems.
The old structure is the last of the major state government buildings on Capitol
Square to be renovated, and it shows. It still relies on window air
conditioners, which are so loud they have to be turned off during court sessions
– even on broiling summer days — so the judges and lawyers can hear each
other. Brown water gurgles from all the water fountains and bathrooms. The roof
leaks and the elevator creaks.
A major feature of the remodeling will be to create office suites for each
justice and his or her staff. Now, the justices are on an upper floor and the
staff sits a floor below. The Supreme Court will keep its same phone numbers
during the remodeling. -- Steve Tuttle
Wilmington
It's
Deja Vu All Over Again in Hospital's Pick of Architects
History repeated itself when New Hanover Regional Medical Center awarded Boney
Architects the $150 million contract for a major expansion and renovation of the
hospital. The firm also was the architect of record 40 years ago when the
hospital was first built in downtown Wilmington.
Christopher Boney, 32, the third-generation member of his family to run the
regional architectural firm, says he’s overjoyed “to carry on in a tradition
that my father and grandfather started over 40 years ago.”
Boney will team with HDR Inc., a national design and engineering firm, to
develop plans for the renovation and expansion, which include a new surgical
wing, an expanded ER department, additional parking decks and renovation of the
main tower. The Coastal Rehabilitation Hospital also will be moved to the Cape
Fear Hospital campus, creating space for an expanded women and children’s
healthcare center on the 17th Street main hospital campus.
“New Hanover Hospital gives incredible care, they do a good job with the
resources they have, and this will allow them to bring their facility in line
with the finest in the nation,” Boney says. “The hospital means a lot to my
family. We have been a part of the Southeastern North Carolina community for
over 80 years and this is why we’re here.”
Christopher Boney was at the hospital the day the board of trustees picked his
firm over 40 others for the project — but in the maternity ward, not the
boardroom. That day, Charles Henry Boney – named for his two grandfathers —
was born at New Hanover Regional.
Is that an omen for the future relationship between the Boneys and New Hanover
Regional? Christopher Boney says only the future will tell.
“You don’t have many days like that,” he laughs. “It was a wonderful
birthday gift for my son from the hospital. We couldn’t be more excited about
the birth of our son and the new hospital project.” --
Steve Tuttle
Metro
Downtown
Campuses Spur Urban Renewal
You couldn’t find a downtown university presence in most larger North Carolina
cities until recently, but by 2006, students and professors will teach and
attend downtown classes in Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro. It’s a trend
encouraged by officials and downtown boosters in all three cities, each of which
courted the heart-of-the-city campuses.
Following on the heels of Johnson and Wales University opening its $82 million
downtown Charlotte campus in September, N.C. State University’s College of
Design expects to open a downtown Raleigh urban design studio in February. Then,
in 2006, Elon University plans to start a brand new law school in downtown
Greensboro.
City and economic development officials in all three areas say a university
presence adds 24-hour energy and economic impact to downtowns. “Universities
have taken a leading role in urban renewal in nearly every city in this
country,” says Margaret Mullen, president and CEO of the Raleigh Downtown
Alliance. “In any community, students get you closer to a 24-hour environment.
They’re the next generation and we need them invested in every downtown.”
Mullen and NCSU officials say having a university urban design studio downtown
is particularly fortunate for Raleigh. “You’ll have young creative minds
with no political agenda coming up with new solutions to old problems,” Mullen
says. The NCSU urban design studio is the smallest venture of the three,
locating about two dozen students and faculty members in a 3,000-square-foot
space a block east of the Wachovia tower.
Before deciding to put a law school in downtown Greensboro, Elon University’s
Martha and Spencer Love School of Business released a study that concludes Elon
generates about $243 million in annual economic activity in Alamance, Guilford,
Orange and Durham counties.
The Greensboro City Council approved the sale of the old Central Library
downtown for $2.2 million to the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation of Greater
Greensboro, which raised $10 million in private funds to establish the new law
school. About $6 million in renovations to the library building will be
necessary. The university will rent the building for $1 a year. It is located
only blocks from state and federal court buildings. It’s projected to open
with 40 professors and 350 students by fall 2006.
Charlotte lured Johnson and Wales, with its famed cooking and business schools,
with $17 million in public incentives and an additional $12 million from The
Compass Group, a Norfolk, Va.-based food service company with a major presence
in the city. J&W expects to enroll more than 4,000 students by 2007.
— Allan Maurer
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