Regional Business
Reports
Charlotte
46-story Heart
Tower nearing completion
Charlotte’s
skyline is taking a new shape as the state’s second-tallest office
tower nears completion. Bank of America, which already occupies the
tallest building at 60 stories, will complete the Hearst Tower in
January. Named for the giant media company that will serve as a major
tenant, the Hearst Corp., the 46-story building is the latest
contribution by the bank in a decade-long investment in uptown
Charlotte that now totals $2 billion.
In just the past five years Bank of America has financed and developed
such other uptown projects as Gateway Village, a
1.9-million-square-foot office complex; the IJL Financial Center, a
30-story tower; and the Odell Building, a 19-story building. Fueled by
bank acquisitions, bank officials estimate that Bank of America has
added 6,000 jobs to the Charlotte market over the past half-decade.
The Hearst Tower, designed by the Atlanta architectural firm
Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, is a
combination of several styles of buildings, says John Saclarides,
senior vice president of corporate real estate for Bank of America,
including art deco and modern. Parts of the building mirror the
classical architecture of the nearby Bank of America Corporate Center,
which resembles the Empire State Building.
Saclarides says the shape of the building, which expands out as it
goes up, was an ingenious design that creates larger floor plates at
the top of the building, where the views are better and the rent
higher. “Seldom do you get interesting architecture together with
practical economics,” Saclarides says.
Law firm Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman will take the
prestigious top floors. Other key tenants include
PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting firm, law firm Mayer Brown and Platt
and the regional headquarters for Trammell Crow property management
firm. Bank of America is the building’s largest tenant.
At the street level the building will include 50,000 square feet of
retail space, with tenants such as restaurants, a day spa, an art
gallery and gift shop for the nearby Mint Museum of Craft + Design.
The Hearst Tower may be the last multi-tenant office building built in
uptown Charlotte for a while, as the market for office space has
softened in recent months and several high-profile projects have been
shelved.
Bank of America’s tower was almost fully leased before construction
even had begun in 1998. On the eve of its opening, 98 percent was
leased. Uptown Charlotte neighbor and competing bank First Union
completed Three First Union, a 32-story tower, in 1999 but then put on
hold plans for a much-hyped 70- to 80-story tower.
And developer Lincoln Harris also cancelled plans earlier this year to
start a 39-story office tower, saying the economic environment
wasn’t favorable and vacancy rates were rising. -- Laura
Williams-Tracy
Gastonia
Construction on
power plant boosts employment prospects
Gaston
County, among those hit hard by manufacturing layoffs, could get a
temporary boost of up to 300 construction jobs if plans proceed for a
$500 million wholesale power plant on Interstate 85 near Gastonia.
Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. intends to pursue state permitting
before year’s end for the power plant, which would be one of the
largest recent industrial investments in the state. If Mirant receives
approval, construction would begin next year with commercial operation
starting in 2004. Once open, the plant would add up to 35 highly
skilled, full-time jobs.
The plant is what’s called a merchant power plant, which sells
energy on the wholesale market to other utilities. So far Mirant has
not signed any contracts, says spokesman David Payne, but utilities
such as Duke Power and CP&L are potential customers. The wholesale
energy market is where prices have soared in California, but in North
Carolina retail power sales remain regulated.
If built on less than 40 acres of a 122-acre site in a Gastonia
business park, the plant would contain two natural gas-fired
combustion turbines, two heat recovery steam generators and a steam
turbine. A 1,200-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant would provide
enough power for 1.2 million homes. The new plant would be a gain for
Gaston County, which has lost at least 5,000 jobs in the past five
years from mill closures and other factory layoffs.
Gastonia and Gaston County officials provided tax incentives for the
project, including rebates of 90 percent of city property taxes for 10
years. The project would add up to $500 million to the local tax base.
Mirant’s plant would be the largest merchant plant in North
Carolina. One other, operated by Dynegy in Rockingham County, is
operating, while two others have permits pending.
Mirant is a global competitive energy company with operations
in North America, Europe and Asia. The company develops, constructs,
owns and operates power plants and sells wholesale electricity,
natural gas and other energy commodities. -- Laura Williams-Tracy
Roxboro
Dominion plans
to construct $600 million power plant
Dominion,
the Richmond, Va.-based electricity utility that serves northeastern
North Carolina, says it would construct a $600 million natural
gas-fired electric generating station in Person County, one of the
largest industrial investments in recent state history.
The 1,100-megawatt facility, to be located in the Person County
Industrial Park in Roxboro, is expected to sell its generation on the
wholesale electricity market.
Approximately 400 people will initially be employed in the
construction of the facility and as many as 40 permanent employees
will be hired when the facility becomes fully operational.
Dominion serves four million retail customers in five states,
including 110,000 in northeastern North Carolina through its
Dominion/North Carolina Power subsidiary.
“Person County provides an excellent location for this facility,
with access to needed supplies of gas, water and transmission
capacity,” says Thomas F. Farrell II, CEO of Dominion Energy,
Dominion’s electric generation subsidiary. “By constructing the
proposed facility here, we can help meet the growing need for energy
and make a significant contribution to the regional economy.”
“Dominion is an excellent company, and we are extremely pleased at
the prospect of having them join our corporate community,” says Glen
Newsome, executive director of the Person County Economic Development
Commission.
“The capital investment and new job creation associated with this
project are substantial and will accord significant benefit to the
city, county and state of North Carolina. We look forward to
continuing our relationship with Dominion and are committed to
bringing this project to fruition.”
Raleigh
Capital Bank
grows by buying Burlington's First Community
Capital
Bank Corp., headquartered in Raleigh, plans to acquire
Burlington-based First Community Financial Corp. for about $54 million
in cash and stock.
The resulting company would have total assets in excess of $600
million and 18 banking offices in seven counties focused in central
North Carolina. It would be the 10th largest publicly
traded banking company headquartered in the state.
“It gets us to a size where we have more power,” says James A.
Beck, president and CEO of Capital Bank Corp. “As we get bigger we
get more attractive to investors. We’re trying to make our stock a
more attractive investment for our shareholders.”
Capital Bank’s board authorized the company to repurchase up to
450,000 shares of its common stock — or approximately 20 percent of
the number of shares the company plans to issue — to complete the
acquisition.
First Community Financial Corp., with $213 million in assets as of
June 30, is the holding company for Community Savings Bank Inc., which
operates four offices in Burlington and Graham.
Capital Bank Corp., with $377 million in assets as of June 30, is the
financial holding company for Capital Bank, which operates 14 offices
in Wake, Chatham, Granville, Lee, Northampton and Warren counties.
Beck says the merger would likely result in some layoffs, although he
says he isn’t sure how many cuts would be made. Capital Bank has
about 125 employees, while First Community has 63 employees.
“There is overlap in a lot of areas,” he says, while noting that
branch overlap is not one of them. “There will be some jobs
affected.
“This is about revenue enhancement,” he adds. “This is a growth
strategy.”
The transaction has been approved by the directors of both companies
and is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. It is expected
to be completed in the first quarter of 2002.
William R. Gilliam, the chairman, president and CEO of First Community
and of Community Savings Bank, will become vice chairman of Capital
Bank Corp., while O.A. Keller III, chairman of the board of Capital
Bank Corp., will continue in that capacity. Beck will continue in his
role of president and CEO of Capital Bank Corp.
— Kevin Brafford
Raleigh
Golf tourney
proceeds earmarked for education
Dr.
Jim Goodnight will tell you that his golf game is frequently devoid of
birdies, but the president and CEO of SAS has made a couple of big
ones in the Triangle this fall.
He first brought a Senior PGA Tour event to Cary when the inaugural
SAS Championship was played at the Prestonwood Country Club in late
September. He then ensured that its proceeds from this year and two
subsequent years will be earmarked toward a worthy cause when he
pledged $300,000 to the newly formed Community Learning Partners (CLP)
of Wake County, which is building a new learning center in the
Kentwood public housing community in West Raleigh.
“We’re proud to be the first corporate donor for an organization
whose focus matches with our corporate giving philosophy toward
education,” Goodnight says. “It’s important that the business
community steps up and supports CLP and its efforts to narrow the
achievement gap in our schools and prepare young people for life.”
The nonprofit CLP grew out of a merger between two area organizations
— Community Learning Centers and Communities In Schools of Wake
County. The Kentwood learning center will be the fourth in Raleigh —
others are in the Chavis Heights, Heritage Park and Mayview
communities.
The merger was announced on the Monday of the SAS Championship. The
Senior PGA Tour tournament, won this year by Bruce Lietzke, will be
played the next two Septembers at Prestonwood before moving to the
Tournament Players Club at Wakefield Plantation in North Raleigh in
2004. SAS has signed on as the title sponsor through 2003. -- Kevin
Brafford
Charlotte
BellSouth
Pioneers pitch in to held struggling schools
BellSouth
is doing its part to improve student achievement by making the
workplace more alluring for teachers. West Charlotte and South Robeson
— two of the lowest performing high schools in BellSouth’s service
territory — have been selected to share $200,000 for teacher
incentives, professional development and supplies as well as benefit
from hours of volunteer time from the company’s civic organization,
BellSouth Pioneers.
The program, called BellSouth Enabling Super Teaching (BEST), is meant
to attract and retain highly trained and motivated teachers at these
two schools, which have traditionally performed poorly on the
state’s ABCs of Education performance testing. More than 9 percent
of students at West Charlotte have limited English proficiency, and 87
percent at South Robeson, in Rowland, qualify for free or reduced
lunches.
BEST hopes to make those schools attractive to teachers by paying
beginning teachers $3,000 at the end of three years of exemplary
teaching. They will receive an additional $2,000 at the end of five
years. Teachers who earn national certification as teachers will
receive a $2,000 bonus.
The money also will be spent on professional development and for
materials, equipment and supplies.
Finally, as many as several hundred BellSouth Pioneers, which is made
up of retired and active employees, could lend a hand at the school as
tutors, photocopying or serving in any role where the school has a
need, says Clifton Metcalf, state media relations director for
BellSouth.
“If the schools decide they need math tutors, well, we’re a
company of engineers who understand math,” Metcalf says.
Metcalf says student achievement programs frequently focus on what can
be done for the students. He says BEST hopes to make a difference by
helping to motivate teachers and giving them the resources they need
to do their best work.
“All of us can name a teacher in our lives that
made a difference for us. Those are the super teachers. To the extent
we encourage that then we have helped the students as well.” -- Laura Williams-Tracy
Greensboro
UNCG rated tops
in teacher training
For
the second consecutive year, the teacher education program at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro has been rated tops in the
state by the State Board of Education.
“You did it once, you did it twice,” Chancellor Patricia A.
Sullivan told students in a recent ceremony, adding that UNCG is a
“powerhouse for public education in North Carolina.”
In addition its No. 1 ranking, UNCG’s teacher education program was
given its second “exemplary” rating on the 2000-01 Institutions of
Higher Education rankings.
The university will hold the title until 2003, as the rankings will be
released on a biennial basis in the future.
Dr. Dale Schunk, dean of the School of Education, said that North
Carolina has always stood out as a leader in education for the nation.
“To be able to say that you’re the best in North Carolina is to
say that you’re the best in the country,” he said. “This is a
great honor that we have earned, but it’s a challenge at the same
time. We can’t sit still.”
UNCG topped the list of 47 state teacher preparation programs, posting
perfect scores in 10 of the 14 categories and a point total of 141 of
a possible 150. Second place was the teacher-training program at East
Carolina University (140). Others rated exemplary were UNC-Pembroke
(138), Salem College and Western Carolina University (136 points
each), and Appalachian State University and Duke University (135).
The teacher-education “report card,” as it has been nicknamed, is
prepared in compliance with the Excellent Schools Act of 1997. The
report is to be issued annually for three years and biennially
thereafter. Institutions will be rewarded or sanctioned based on its
data.
Schools that receive exemplary ratings, which require a score of 135
or higher, will be rewarded with scholarship funds for students
through an appropriation from the N.C. General Assembly. The state
rated each teacher education program based on three criteria:
compliance with state and national accreditation standards, the
quality of its graduates, and involvement with and service to public
schools. — Kevin
Brafford
Kings Mountain
Ryan Homes
parent plans to construct supply facility
Officials
in Cleveland County, which has been particularly hard hit by layoffs
in the textile and manufacturing industries, says they are delighted
that a Virginia company, NVR Inc., will open a home-construction
components manufacturing facility in Kings Mountain that will create
about 150 jobs.
NVR will construct a 120,000-square-foot facility to manufacture
home-construction components that will be used by the company’s Ryan
Homes and NV Homes divisions.
Construction is expected to be completed by April 2002. “We are
excited about this new opportunity for NVR, and feel that this
location will offer additional production capacity for NVR’s growth
in the region,” says Dave Williamson, vice president for
manufacturing for the company.
Local officials welcomed the announcement in Cleveland County, which
has suffered from an unemployment rate of more than 12 percent in
recent months. Willie B. McIntosh, chairman of the Cleveland County
commissioners, calls it “a most appropriate time for this wonderful
announcement. The creation of job opportunities during this global
economic slowdown is great news for Cleveland County.”
“I am very happy and excited that these job opportunities are coming
to Cleveland County,” says county EDC Chairman Ralph Dixon.
The N.C. Department of Commerce collaborated with the Cleveland County
Economic Development Commission (EDC), John Barker Realty of Shelby
and Kings Mountain Mayor Rick Murphrey in securing the project.
Raleigh
IMAX theater
ready for debut
Exploris
is about to get up-close and personal with its visitors. On
Nov. 16, the downtown Raleigh museum will debut its IMAX theater, the
first large-format theater in the Triangle, with two films that will
take viewers on a trip around the world, “Mysteries of Egypt” and
“The Greatest Places.”
“There simply won’t be a bad seat in the house,” says Anne
Bryan, president and co-founder of the interactive museum about the
world.
Bryan says that the primary factor in the IMAX experience is the
location of the audience’s eyes in relation to the screen, which in
turn requires careful positioning of the seats and the seating deck.
The strong sense of reality, which is unique to IMAX presentations
worldwide, is achieved through a variety of techniques, including the
giant screen, state-of-the-art sound system and the overall theater
design.
The giant screen permits the picture to extend beyond the field of
geometric recognition to the edge of the peripheral vision. As in
reality, viewers must move their eyes and heads to take in the entire
picture.
The IMAX theater design also calls for seating that is steeply raked,
usually ranging from 19 to 25 degrees with the bottom edge of the
screen being placed so the audience looks down as well as up and to
the sides. Thus, the horizon appears in a natural position for most
viewers. In contrast to many traditional theaters with raked seating,
visitors enter the theater in the center row.
“The extreme screen size, advanced, multi-channel, digital sound
system and the theater seating collectively complete the illusion of
being at the center of the action rather than merely an onlooker,”
says Bryan. “Through the power of IMAX, our visitors will feel as if
they’ve been transported to places that they’ve previously only
dreamed of going.”
The new theater will span 28,010 square feet and accommodate 271
visitors. The addition includes a food service area and retail space.
The featured presentations will be selected from a library of more
than 150 films — about 10 new large format films are produced each
year.
Exploris, located at 201 E. Hargett St., is open Tuesday through
Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
Admission is $6.95 for adults, $5.95 for seniors, $4.95 for children
and $3.95 for groups of 10 or more. For more information, call
919-834-4040 or visit www.exploris.org.
-- Kevin Brafford
Hickory
Hosiery industry
sends help to New York rescue workers
Even
in difficult economic times, North Carolina hosiery manufacturers were
among the many nationwide to reach out to those involved in the Sept.
11 national tragedy.
The Carolina Hosiery Association, based in Hickory, and manufacturers
from throughout the state have sent thousands of pairs of socks to the
firefighters and rescue workers who have been digging through the
rubble and destruction from the New York bombings.
“We are not sure how many pairs were sent, but one manufacturer
alone sent 1,800 dozen pairs through our office,” says Chrystal
Bell, assistant executive director of the association. “Other
manufacturers sent hundreds of dozens out themselves. So I would
estimate that, overall, they sent tens of thousands of dozens of
pairs.”
The product was sent within a week after the association was made
aware that firefighters and rescue workers were in need of socks.
“They needed socks because the debris in the piles that they are
working on are such small fragments and the glass is shattered into
slivers,” says Marty Childers of Hickory Throwing Co., who was
contacted by a customer who had heard of the need. “All that gets in
their socks, and the tiny slivers of glass work their way into the
yarn and can’t be washed out.” The association sent out an appeal
for help, and within hours, the socks were pouring in. About 60
percent of all American-made hosiery is made in North Carolina.
Employees at Ellis Hosiery Mills in Hickory went a step further,
decorating a large box for the company to send its 3,500 socks out
with messages of sympathy and encouragement to the recipients. They
also held bake sales, raffles and sold ribbons to collect
money for the American Red Cross.
In addition, Great American Knitting Mills of Newton and Asheboro,
maker of Gold Toe socks, is
donating 50 cents per pair of Gold Toe’s USA Collection to the
American Red Cross and is aiming toward a goal of $100,000 to help the
disaster relief efforts. The company came up with the idea after
several retailers requested they make a patriotic line. Not wanting to
exploit the tragedy, the employees came up with the idea of donating
part of the profits to the relief efforts. -- Charlene H. Nelson
Wilkesboro
Lowe's products
turn up on TV reality show
Imagine
being stranded in a place such as Mongolia with little food, water or
the like. You certainly might need any number of survival items,
including flashlights and duct tape.
At least that’s what Lowe’s, the Wilkesboro-based home improvement
stores chain, is banking on as one of the primary advertisers of
“Lost,” a reality TV show appearing on NBC. In addition to being
one of four major sponsors, Lowe’s was given a “high-profile
opportunity” for product placement during the first show in the
six-week series that made its debut in September.
As the contestants (there are three two-man teams) tried to make their
way out of Mongolia in a global race to the Statue of Liberty and a
winning purse of $100,000 each, they received a wooden crate with the
blue Lowe’s logo prominently displayed.
“Viewers of the first episode saw a box of supplies from
Lowe’s,” says Chris Ahearn, a company spokesperson. “The
producers selected products that would help contestants on their
journey.”
Ahearn added that items from Lowe’s would be displayed in other
episodes, but she was not sure what specific items would be shown.
“Regardless of the product-placement opportunity, ‘Lost’ was a
good fit for Lowe’s,” says Ahearn. “The reality program won its
time slot (Wednesdays at 8 p.m.) the night of its debut, and it is a
program that appeals to the younger end of the 25-54 age group, many
of whom are homeowners.”
— Jim Buice
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