It appears that Greensboro may have found the solution to its economic development woes – High Point.
The announcement on Thursday, Dec. 5 that Sunlight Batteries would be opening a new lithium battery assembly plant in East Greensboro is the second time in less than a month that High Point has helped Greensboro land jobs.
The first was the announcement that Fresh Market would keep its corporate headquarters in Greensboro. High Point is providing $301,000 in economic incentives for those jobs, as is Greensboro.
In this case, High Point recruited Sunlight Batteries to the area, but Sunlight ended up finding the location that fit its needs in Greensboro.
What makes this situation even stranger is that neither the City of Greensboro nor the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce sent out a press release about Sunlight announcing it was coming to Greensboro, but the High Point Economic Development Corp. did.
The Greensboro City Council talks about the need for economic development in East Greensboro constantly. In fact, the script that city councilmembers read when property is being rezoned includes a statement about economic development in East Greensboro. The same script is read even if the rezoning is in the far northwest corner of Greensboro and has nothing to do with East Greensboro.
But this week when Greensboro, with the help of High Point, actually landed an estimated 46 jobs paying an average of $48,000 a year for East Greensboro, the city was silent.
Or not entirely silent. The Marketing and Communications Department, which sends out a press release when a street is closing for a couple of hours, Tweeted a photo of the announcement that was made at the O. Henry Hotel about Sunlight coming to Greensboro.
Perhaps along with assistance in economic development, High Point could be recruited to provide Greensboro with some assistance in public relations.
