Summer 2008

Southeastern North Carolina's appeal as a center for distribution operations is becoming known to top American firms. Despite a slowing national economy, regional development officials continue to see strong project activity surrounding the Southeast's distribution centers—the sprawling warehousing and logistics facilities that direct products into the hands of retailers and end-users.

Ongoing upgrades to container shipping terminals at the Port of Wilmington have driven one private real estate developer to Leland Industrial Park, just 10 miles away. Earlier this year, BPG Properties, a Pennsylvania-based developer, unveiled plans to construct a speculative distribution building that will span nearby a million square-feet on a 75-acre plot off U.S. Highway 74/76.

Though convenience to ports drove BPG to Brunswick County, inland communities in the region are not being overlooked as destinations for big distribution facilities. In March, officials in Richmond County announced that SRB Holdings would construct a 300,000 sq.-ft. distribution center on a 29-acre site at Richmond County Industrial Park in Hamlet. The company is investing $12 million in the venture and will employ 150 people there in the distribution of its recreational products.

Scotland County is also entering the logistics big leagues. Officials with WestPoint Home (formerly WestPoint Stevens) recently embarked on a new strategic partnership with Hellmann Worldwide, a leading global third-party logistics provider, to consolidate WestPoint's national distribution operations at the latter's shuttered textile plant in Wagram. The center now employs 120, and its workforce will expand to 200 by the end of the year. In time, other tenants will work with Hellmann Worldwide, a German multinational whose U.S. operations are based in Miami, in bringing additional logistics clients to the 1.6 million-square-foot complex.

Titan Announcement Boosts
Building-Products Industry in Region

The Southeast Region's building-products cluster took a major leap forward in April with the announcement by Titan America that it would resurrect and modernize a former cement production complex in Castle Hayne. The site will employ a 161-person workforce at an average annual salary of $72,068, pay that is well above New Hanover County's $33,228 average.

If approved for permitting by state and federal regulators, it will be North Carolina's only cement plant. Titan America is a Norfolk, Va.-based subsidiary of century-old Titan Cement Company S.A. based in Athens, Greece. Company representatives contacted North Carolina's Southeast for assistance in their location search, as well as officials of Wilmington Industrial Development (WID), which oversees business recruitment in New Hanover and Pender counties.

Advanced Energy Projects Highlight Recent Announcements

Several years of planning by two Southeast communities have reached fruition with April announcements of new jobs and investment in biomass and nuclear fuels.

John Swope recalls making initial contact with officials at Fibrowatt in September 2005. He and other Sampson County officials worked directly with the Philadelphia-based company throughout 2006. "By end of 2006, about 100 people here had met with the company," says Swope, who is director of the Sampson County Economic Development Commission. After spending the bulk of 2007 identifying workable sites, Fibrowatt, a pioneer in the generation of renewable energy from poultry waste, announced plans in April to build the first of three North Carolina biomass power plants in Sampson County, near the intersection of I-40 and N.C. Highway 403.

"Sampson County offered an attractive site with everything we were looking for, including good topography, a utility transmission line crossing the site, convenient highway access and close proximity to an ample supply of poultry litter," says Rupert Fraser, chief executive officer at Fibrowatt, which was founded in 2000 by a management group that had developed similar power plants in the United Kingdom during the 1990s. "When we completed our technical evaluation of all of the sites offered, it was an easy choice to make," Mr. Fraser says.

Fibrowatt's 55-megawatt SampsonCounty plant (slated to be named the Fibrocoast plant) will amount to a $200 million investment and will provide employment for about 35 people at an average yearly salary of $42,000, Mr. Swope says. A nearby fertilizer production facility that will rely on a Fibrowatt by-product will create another 10 jobs. Mr. Swope expects additional industries may find their way to the attractive Greenfield property within view of I-40. "We're excited that this project might be the start of additional development at that interchange," says Mr. Swope.

Five years after relocating its headquarters to Wilmington, GE's Nuclear Energy Division is bringing additional employment, physical plant and investment dollars through its partnership with Japan's Hitachi Ltd. GE Hitachi (GEH) intends to build new manufacturing capacity, training centers, simulation buildings and testing facilities at its 1,600-acre campus in New Hanover County in a move bringing $900 million in new investment and 900 scientific, technical and managerial jobs averaging $85,000 in annual pay. Some 22 North American locations vied for the facility, which will pioneer laser-based uranium enrichment technologies that have important ramifications for the nation's commercial energy producers.

"At a time when many American communities are dealing with shuttered plants and idled workers, Greater Wilmington continues its emergence as a center for the growth-oriented industries of the Knowledge Age," said Scott Satterfield, president and CEO of Wilmington Industrial Development (WID), which worked quietly with GEH executives for more than a year in addressing the company's site, workforce and location needs.

Justin Smith Assumes New Duties for Columbus

June is typically a time for graduating. And, even though he didn't receive a diploma, June 16th was graduation day for Justin Smith, who left a position at Cumberland County Business Council (CCBC) to become Columbus County's new economic development director.

"The experience in Fayetteville was very important," says Mr. Smith, who served for nearly six months as an economic development assistant there. "I had the opportunity to see where projects come from and how they work."

A native of Whiteville, Mr. Smith worked as a freelance reporter and photographer while attending Whiteville High School. He continued freelancing during his years at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he studied journalism and mass communication. Late last year, Mr. Smith was brought on board by CCBC, which oversees economic development and other business programs. While there, he attended Southeast Commission Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meetings and got to know allies and counterparts in the region. "Now it will be my job to use that experience," Mr. Smith says. Among his priorities will be strategic planning and development of a two-county park in collaboration with Brunswick County.

"Justin is an outstanding young man with great potential," according to Phyllis Owens, executive vice president for economic development at CCBC. "His desire to have a positive impact on his home county is understandable, and given the right tools, I am sure he can be a positive force."

TAG Plots Marketing Vision at Pinehurst Planning Session

For business clients and site consultants, perceptions of a community are reality—until they can be altered through the marketing efforts of economic developers. That was a key message delivered by Jonathan Sangster, a site selection professional with the firm of CB Richard Ellis, to the 28 local, state, regional and allied developers taking part in the Southeast Commission's annual planning session in February. The session is held annually under the auspices of the region's Technical Advisory Group (TAG).

Mr. Sangster, who is based in Atlanta, said the Southeast Region's cluster targets are appropriate ones. The presence of the military is a "huge plus" for the region, he added, with military spouses representing an asset for many back-office operations. Expansion of port facilities in the region, Mr. Sangster said, is an indicator of future opportunities with which most other destinations cannot compete. Mr. Sangster led TAG members through a recent case study of a major site selection project, illustrating the data-rich complexity of the process whereby firms whittle down the list of possible locations for new operations. 

N.C. Commerce Secretary Jim Fain spoke to the group regarding plans for 2008, including the opening a North Carolina office on the Chinese mainland, in either Beijing or Shanghai. The department has deployed salesforce.com, which will improve the quality of DOC relationship management, and is engaged in other "capacity-building" initiatives designed to maintain economic development and job growth during a slow-growth period for the U.S. economy. Russ Smitley, an industrial development representative with CSX Transportation, offered the group an overview of the nation's current "rail renaissance," a trend spurred on by surging global trade and a desire for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly modes of transportation. The renaissance has significance for the Southeastern North Carolina, Mr. Smitley said, given the region's burgeoning consumer population.

"The annual planning session gives us up-to-the-minute information and knowledge we can take back to our communities and use immediately," said Don Porter, chairman of the TAG and executive director at Raeford/Hoke Economic Development. "It also provides an opportunity to look at where we are as a region and determine where we want to go."

Southeast Region to be Featured in Business Series to Air on National TV

The producers of The Economic Report plan to feature North Carolina's Southeast Region in an upcoming segment of their series "Doing Business in the Global Economy." The Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based production team is working with NCSE's personnel in obtaining video and honing a script that will showcase the unique assets and amenities that make Southeastern North Carolina a lucrative, globally oriented business destination. The five-minute segment, which will be hosted by noted broadcaster Greg Gumbel, will air later this year on news networks such as Fox Business, MSNBC, CNN and the Discovery Channel. Aside from the obvious promotional value of the broadcast, the Southeast Commission is free to utilize the tape thereafter as part of its ongoing marketing and outreach efforts.

Bladen County Non-Profit Gathers National Economic Development Award

The U.S. Department of Commerce is giving its 2008 Excellence in Economic Development Award to Bladen's Bloomin' Agri-Industrial, Inc., a private non-profit real estate company operated in conjunction with the Bladen County Economic Development Commission. The "Excellence in Innovation" award, one of eight award categories for which the federal government considers nominations each year, cites Bladen's Bloomin's market driven strategy for helping grow the local economy. Sandy K. Baruah, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, will travel to Bladen County later this summer to personally present the award to Bladen County leaders.

"The pioneering model of a non-profit real estate entity serving the county's product development and job growth interests offers a valuable case study that other rural communities might replicate," says Leon Martin, chairman of Bladen's Bloomin' Agri-Industrial. "Urban areas might also learn from this model as they address the challenge of maintaining an adequate inventory of affordable, ready-to-go industrial space amid rapidly changing economic realities." Founded in 2002, Bladen's Bloomin' Agri-Industrial has effected an innovative strategy for drawing new jobs, firms and industrial investment into Bladen County. In recent years, the large, rural community has witnessed steep job losses due to the migration of apparel and textile manufacturers to low-wage nations. To attract new businesses and sustainable employment opportunities, county economic development leaders established Bladen's Bloomin' as a way to raise private funds and philanthropic grants to boost the county's inventory of quality industrial space. The organization has thus far built or acquired 10 industrial properties, a portfolio currently valued at $7.3 million.

A panel of national experts reviewed nominations for the award in May, whittling nominations to a short list of four finalists that included Bladen's Bloomin' as well as programs in Hawaii, Virginia and Pennsylvania. From those, Bladen's Bloomin' emerged as the top choice of U.S. Department of Commerce officials. Additional information about the U.S. Department of Commerce's 2008 Economic Development Awards, visit www.eda.gov/NewsEvents/ExcellenceAwards.xml.

National Logistics Forum

Steve Yost (NCSE Marketing Manager), Phyllis Owens (Cumberland County Business Council Executive Vice President), Jim Bradshaw (Brunswick County Economic Developer) and John Swope (Sampson County Economic Developer) attended the second annual Real Estate Logistics Forum in Chicago, IL. The event focused on all elements of the international supply chain, including transportation global logistics and the port side of the international trade industry, and how it all impacts real estate decisions. 

Commerce Luncheon

Steve Yost and Joe Melvin delivered a Powerpoint Presentation of NCSE FY 08 accomplishments to the NC Department of Commerce Business and Industry Development Team on May 12th. The presentation served as an opportunity for NCSE to reinforce the marketing strategies and activities that make southeastern NC attractive as a business relocation destination for global companies. The meeting fostered the collaborative partnership that continues to provide successful economic development results in the region.