The Guilford County Economic Development Alliance (GCEDA), which since its inception five years ago has met monthly at the Cameron Campus of Guilford County Technical Community College (GTCC) in Colfax, is moving its meetings to a shiny new high-profile home: GTCC’s Advanced Center for Manufacturing across Guilford College Road from to the GTCC Jamestown Campus.
High Point Economic Development Corp. President Loren Hill, who, along with Greensboro Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Brent Christensen, directs GCEDA, said the Center for Advanced Manufacturing is a real plus for economic development efforts in the county. That facility, meant to modernize and increase the county’s workforce, is often one reason new manufacturing businesses choose to locate in Guilford County.
“If we don’t take them through it, we tell them about it,” Hill said of the multi-faceted well-equipped center that’s helping prepare local workers for the auto industry, aircraft industry and many others.
There’s a strong and growing connection between that manufacturing training center and the coming new megasite at Piedmont Triad International Airport.
Hill said the main reason for the GCEDA move was that the manufacturing site in the Jamestown area is more central for everyone.
Guilford County Commissioner Alan Branson, who served on GCEDA while he was chairman of the Board of Commissioners last year, was one person who used to jokingly grumble about having to come from southeast corner of the county to the northwestern Colfax for the 8:30 a.m. meetings that were usually held on a Thursday toward the end of each month.
Though the 2020 GCEDA meetings will be at the advanced manufacturing center, Hill said that a 2020 Guilford County Economic Development Summit is being planned for March, and that event will still be held at the Cameron Campus as it has been before.
GCEDA each month brings area elected officials, Guilford County staff and staff from the cities of Greensboro and High Point, together with area economic development officials and business leaders in an effort to promote economic development throughout the county.
The Cameron Campus may miss the activity that GCEDA brought once a month. in the past that campus has been something of a ghost town on many days, however GTCC officials have said they expect the use of that campus to increase due to county demographics and GTCC offerings.
