Backers of the Carolina Core initiative, meant to provide common branding for four North Carolina megasites, took the opportunity of Wyndham Championship week to meet with business leaders and discuss the progress of the project.
Carolina Core is part of an effort to meet the Piedmont Triad Partnership’s goal of attracting more than 50,000 jobs to central North Carolina over the next 20 years. The thinking of that regional economic development organization is that branding and marketing the four megasites under one umbrella will create familiarity and allow the pooling of economic development resources.
A group of top business leaders got together for a breakfast meeting at Grandover Resort on Thursday, August 1 for a discussion that featured an update on Carolina Core one year after its launch. The morning included a presentation by Inmar Chairman and CEO David Mounts on talent and entrepreneurship in the Carolina Core area, as well as a discussion on regional economic development featuring BB&T Corporation Chairman and CEO Kelly King and High Point University President Nido Qubein.
Stan Kelly, president and CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership and Mark Brazil, Wyndham Championship tournament director, also took part.
The four megasites that will be branded and marketed under that common Carolina Core name include Piedmont Triad International Airport’s new 800-acre aerospace site with runway access, the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite with over 1,900 acres available for future tenants, the Chatham-Siler City Advance Manufacturing Site that offers more than 1,800 acres of available land and the roughly 2,500-acre Moncure Megasite near Research Triangle Park.
Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, said earlier this year that the project should make the region more attractive to businesses.
“The Carolina Core is a strategic approach to economic development that erases traditional borders and focuses on the region’s cumulative competitive assets that are desirable to prospective businesses,” he said.
As part of the effort, the NC Department of Transportation installed new Carolina Core highway signs along the US-421 corridor. Leaders in the region are also working with local, state and federal officials to upgrade that highway to an Interstate. Also, local economic development groups are collectively enacting an aggressive marketing plan to drive leads and business investment to the region using site selection consultant visits and an advertising campaign.
