J. Keith Crisco, appointed North Carolina's secretary of commerce in January 2009, says what he's seeing in North Carolina today is something new — a “transformation” of the state's economy from traditional, labor-intensive textiles, wood products and tobacco to life sciences and biotechnology, aerospace, information and communications, alternative energy and other technology-focused sectors. Traditional industries are going high tech, too, he adds.

Job creation announcements in 2009 tell the tale:

·        DuPont adding a new $55 million facility to its Bladen County campus, where a polyvinyl fluoride film will be produced for solar-energy panels.

·        Piedmont Aviation Component Services, a provider of aircraft maintenance services and sales, expanding its Kernersville operations and creating 120 jobs.

·        Toshiba America Nuclear Energy opening its national project management and engineering center in Charlotte with 194 new jobs in the next five years.

·        Bayer CropScience, specializing in plant biotechnology, expanding in Wake County, creating 128 jobs and investing $10.2 million in five years.

·        SCR-Tech, a “green” provider of cost-effective emissions control for power plants, growing in Charlotte, with plans to invest more than $12.4 million in five years and create 61 jobs.

·        DRS Technical Services, a global aircraft services supplier, expanding in Pasquotank County and adding 100 jobs.

·        EMC Corp., an information-infrastructure provider, expanding in the Research Triangle Park, adding 397 jobs during the next five years and investing $280 million.

·        Talecris Biotherapeutics expanding its manufacturing facilities near Clayton, creating 259 new jobs during the next seven years and investing $268.7 million.

Crisco notes that employment is rising steadily in North Carolina, month by month and 100 or so jobs at a time. “We have a lot of interest,” he says. “The issue has been getting people to pull the trigger given the economy, but more are pulling it today than they were six months ago.”

Industries And Innovations

In January 2009, North Carolina's Research Triangle Park celebrated its 50th anniversary as an innovative engine for scientific job creation in the region. More than 170 research and development organizations reside on the nearly 7,000 acres west of Chapel Hill in the Raleigh-Durham area. Companies in the park are clustered in several industry sectors, including biotechnology and life sciences, information and communications technology, environmental sciences, and materials sciences and engineering.

In December, international risk management consultant IEM announced it will move its headquarters from Louisiana to the Triangle, creating 430 jobs during the next six years. The privately held company measures and manages threats to people, infrastructure and information, and Crisco says the addition of IEM enhances North Carolina's military/defense sector, which has been expanded to include homeland security. “Already, we are the second-most state in military personnel, and every branch is represented,” Crisco says. In fact, the largest employer in eastern North Carolina is the Marine Corps facility at Cherry Point, where 3,900 civilians work.

Crisco calls biotech and the life sciences North Carolina's “sweet spot.” Bob Heuts, director, Lee County Economic Development Corp., certainly agrees. Billing itself as the “southern base of the Research Triangle region,” Lee County is a home to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (formerly Wyeth) in Sanford. “We have a critical mass of people working in those kinds of industries, and that started with the university system,” Heuts says. “We have Duke, Carolina State and Campbell all right here, and we have Research Triangle Park with GlaxoSmithKline and Biogen — and Novartis now just to the north of us,” (with a vaccine plant in Holly Springs). More than 528 bioscience companies are headquartered or have operations in North Carolina, employing 58,000 people.

Heuts says entrepreneurial ventures are meeting with success in Lee County, too, with the region ranked in the top 10 nationally for the availability of venture capital. He cites two homegrown successful enterprises: Static Control Components, Inc. a laser-toner company, and Frontier Spinning Mills, a highly automated yarn spinner. “Both are multimillion-dollar companies that started basically in the garage,” Heuts says.

Google's decision two years ago to invest $600 million in Caldwell County to build a massive server operation has prompted plans for a “data corridor,” anchored by Google and a new $1 billion Apple data center to be built in Hickory in adjacent Catawba County. Harry Whalen, executive director, Caldwell County Economic Development Commission, says area assets luring data operations include abundant water for cooling and reliable and inexpensive electrical power. “These server farms are huge electrical users,” Whalen explains. Community leaders are considering construction of a business park targeting data operations, and Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute is onboard already with a variety of computer information technology curricula, he adds.

Caldwell County also has a foothold in biotechnology with Greer Laboratories, a supplier of allergy immunotherapy testing and treatment materials, and Adhezion Biomedical, a global provider of surgical adhesives, wound-care dressings and infection-prevention sealants. The county continues to target the biotech sector, as well as solar energy, plastics and food processing.

Talent And Education

North Carolina ranks sixth in the nation in per capita appropriations for higher education, where more than $1 billion is spent annually on sponsored research. There are 36 private college and universities, in addition to the 16-campus University of North Carolina system. With the nation's third-largest community college system, business and industry have come to expect convenient and customized workforce training. About 800,000 students enroll each year in the state's community colleges, and one is within a 30-minute drive of 99 percent of the population.

Crisco says he marvels at the collaboration among higher-education institutions and leaders when it's time to woo a business North Carolina's way. He recalls a recent meeting with a potential biotechnology enterprise, when the head of the community college system and a host of top university representatives from Duke, North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina “were all in one spot talking about what they would do together with that company,” Crisco says.

Assets

With its Eastern Seaboard location, North Carolina is an international logistics center, with four major airports and more than 1,000 daily departures. The North Carolina Global TransPark is a combination airport and industrial site with a foreign trade zone, proximity to two deepwater ports and a rail spur expected to be operational in 2012. Its centerpiece is an 11,500-foot runway, the state's longest for commercial use. North Carolina boasts the largest consolidated rail system in the country, with 3,200 miles of track and 20 carriers.

The ports of Wilmington and Morehead handle both containerized and break bulk cargo, and both access a unique intermodal terminal network — an inland container staging and storage network with more than 400 shippers and receivers. The Charlotte Inland Terminal serves the interstate 77 and 85 corridors. Finally, a new international port just 9.5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean on the Cape Fear River is under development with a 2015 projected opening date.

Lifestyle

North Carolina offers the towering, lush Appalachian Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the west and, to the east, stunning beaches. The state enjoys a moderate climate, certainly a business plus, world-class sports and a competitive cost of living. “It's a good place to raise a family,” Crisco says, “and a good environment with rich culture. I've spent a lot of time working with the Department of Cultural Resources, because that's good economic development.”

For complete details on conducting business in North Carolina, visit:

www.nccommerce.com

www.caldwelledc.org