Business North Carolina November 2020 by Business North Carolina

BUILDING NC: THE STATE’S BEST NEW STRUCTURES DUDA PAINE’S GAINS • JANE SMITH PATTERSON’S FEMINIST FLAIR • MEASURING THE MID-MARKET

Crazy time to open a restaurant, right? Durham’s Lisa Callaghan and crew are among N.C. foodies undeterred by pandemic fears. NOVEMBER 2020 Price: $3.95 businessnc.com

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+ DEPARTMENTS 4 UP FRONT 6 POINT TAKEN

Communication becomes more effective when people look each other in the eye.

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COVER STORY

Jane Smith Patterson has spent her career pushing for civil and women’s rights in politics and the telecom industry.

CO V E R P H O TO B Y C H R I S T E R B E R G ; P I C T U R E D : T R E N TO N S H A N K ( L E F T ) , L I S A C A L L AG H A N , K E V I N C A L L AG H A N

14 NC TREND

Hospitals switch hands; coolest things made in N.C.; aiding entrepreneurs; from Peace Corps to insurance policies.

THROUGH THICK AND THIN

78 TOWN SQUARE

A community-minded doctor invests in a vision to light a spark under a quaint Cabarrus County town.

+ SPONSO RED SECTIONS

64 TRAINING N.C.

The pandemic has sent many of the state’s workers and small-business owners to local community colleges, where training and programs prepare them for a strong rebound.

70 CULTIVATING VARIETY

Businesses are sprouting up in Nash and Edgecombe counties, where agriculture was once the top economic producer. November 2020, Vol. 40, No. 11 (ISSN 0279-4276). Business North Carolina is published monthly by Business North Carolina at 1230 West Morehead Street, Suite 308 Charlotte, NC 28208. Telephone: 704-523-6987. Fax: 704-523-4211. All contents copyright © by Old North State Magazines LLC. Subscription rate: 1 year, $30. For change of address, send mailing label and allow six to eight weeks. Periodicals postage paid at Charlotte, NC, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Business North Carolina, 1230 West Morehead Street, Suite 308 Charlotte, NC 28208 or email circulation@businessnc.com.

BY MIKE MACMILLAN

BUILDING N.C.

28 ROUND TABLE

Cybersecurity experts describe the changing nature of digital privacy and security in the face of COVID-19 and remote work.

How some defiant and determined restaurateurs are launching new establishments amidst an industry meltdown.

A sprawling multiuse space, a “green” high-rise, a 3,023-seat performing arts center and a food hall are among the state’s most impressive new structures.

CENTER FIELD

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Among the latest niches of Durham’s Duda Paine Architects are university student union buildings that connect town and gown. BY DAVID MILDENBERG

MEASURING THE MID-MARKET

Past Mid-Market Fast 40 company leaders share their strategies for sustaining their workforce and revenue.

Start your day with business news from across the state, direct to your inbox. SIGN UP AT BUSINESSNC.COM/DAILY-DIGEST. N O V E M B E R

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UPFRONT

David Mildenberg

ENDURING SPIRIT

ow are you doing compared with four years ago” is the money line used in every presidential election. It’s a foolish question, given how life is an individual crapshoot. I have longtime friends whose net worths have exploded over that period because of business or investing success. I also have a lifelong friend who has spent his four years in an unairconditioned south Florida prison. Surely the question has never been more irrelevant than after more than 40 million people globally have tested positive for COVID-19, with so much sorrow upending the world and changing life in countless ways. Perhaps this is a better query: How are things likely to look four years from now? Count me as a major optimist. A key reason is the indefatigable spirit that drives businesspeople, which I believe will be so much more enduring than both the vicious virus and the months of discord and sensationalism emanating from this year’s political season. That optimism is reflected in one of our cover story subjects, Lisa Callaghan. She and two other groups featured in the story starting on Page 46 had this crazy idea of opening a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic. I’m terrified of cooking for others, so opening a restaurant at any time seems crazy. But in the middle of a pandemic? Really? But how Callaghan and so many others are battling through this horrible crisis makes me confident that North Carolina, more than most places, will come out in a stronger, more resilient position. This month’s magazine cites several examples of creative executives with strategies that are working during a year in which U.S. economic output is expected to shrink by 4%. • Ron Day’s fast-growing community bank based in Rocky Mount • Arthur Samet’s Greensboro construction business that expanded into Georgia this year • Omega Construction, the WinstonSalem contractor led by Barry Hennings and Greg Marshall that has a backlog of distribution center projects

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• John Treece’s automotive-parts distribution company in Tabor City, which would be growing faster if he could hire more employees • Bandwidth’s David Morken and First Citizens Bancshares’ Frank Holding Jr., who made key acquisitions to propel two vital Raleigh companies My own employer also seized an opportunity in October, buying Walter magazine in Raleigh from newspaper publisher McClatchy. It adds some talented colleagues and gives our organization a foothold in each of the state’s three big metro areas. Such optimism doesn’t minimize the perverse way that a few thousand superwealthy folks, particularly those loaded with big tech stocks and luxury real estate, are enjoying fantastic financial gains while 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since May. No North Carolinian can take pride in our state’s stingy unemployment benefits or the increasing number of people lacking health insurance because of job cuts. It’s also tragic that more than 40% of Latino families and 50% of Black ones have lost income because of the pandemic, while so many needy N.C. children may be receiving a subpar education given the haphazard crisis strategies of many school systems. A strong, rebounding economy that can support improvements in public education and vocational training is the best way to address those devastating statistics. Fortunately, unprecedented federal stimulus has kept many people employed and steadied the economy. Virtually everyone, including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, agrees that more government relief is needed until scientists deliver sufficient vaccines and therapies. However the elections turn out, wise fiscal policy that makes life better for the marginalized must be a priority. In the meantime, good luck with those new restaurants in Durham, Charlotte and Asheville.

VOLUME 40, NO. 11 PUBLISHER

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P O I N T TA K E N

Dan Barkin

THE EYES HAVE IT COMMUNICATION BECOMES MORE EFFECTIVE WHEN PEOPLE LOOK DIRECTLY AT EACH OTHER.

round 45 years ago, Steven Beebe was a graduate student in speech communication. He had been taught the importance of good eye contact in effective public speaking. But he couldn’t find if anyone — going back to Aristotle — had ever really tested this hypothesis. His field was evolving from rhetoric into a more empirical discipline based on social science methods, so Beebe created an experiment with different groups of students watching a speaker deliver the same speech but with varied eye contact, vocal inflection and posture. What he found formed the basis of his dissertation. The more eye contact, the higher the speaker’s credibility and the greater the audience’s understanding. He tested the students for comprehension with a multiple-choice quiz. “The best predictor of comprehension and credibility,” Beebe told me recently, “is eye contact.” “If you can’t do anything else — at least for North Americans, because different cultures have different expectations — eye contact is the best single nonverbal cue.” Beebe is retired after a lengthy career at Texas State University, a 38,000-student campus halfway between Austin and San Antonio. A leading communications scholar, his textbooks are used at universities around the world, including in a communications class I teach at St. Augustine’s University. I tell my students calculus may be important to them — who can say? — but being good at communicating will absolutely help their careers and personal lives. I tell them, “Don’t take my word for it.” Midway through my first class each semester, I put up a PowerPoint slide of Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest people on the planet. Buffett says the easiest way to make more money is to improve your communication skills. Learn to communicate better one-onone, learn how to speak effectively to a group, and to communicate well in writing. I tell them they may gross about $2 million by the time they retire. Buffett says they will make at least 50% more if they improve their communication skills now. So, I tell them, it is worth $1 million more over the course of their careers if they get good at communicating, and it starts with this class. They perk up. Beebe had his own approach. He would tell his students that he knew what each one of them would be doing the rest of their lives, which would bring startled looks. “You’ll spend 90% of your time communicating,” he would say. “I don’t know what you’re going to be communicating about, but that’s the bulk of what our professions are about.” Speaking and listening. Trying to relate to people. Writing emails and memos. People who are good at communicating are less wrapped up in

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▲ Communications scholar Steven Beebe

themselves, more attuned to others. They have empathy. They study faces, which reveal much. They follow communications norms: one person talking at a time; looking at someone when they are conversing. They understand that there’s a lot of emotional noise that makes communication as clear as a fast-food intercom. Perhaps the most important skill is the ability to listen. However, one survey cited by Beebe found CEOs reported that fewer than 30% of their staff were good listeners. Imagine how much waste and customer unhappiness could be eliminated with a greater focus on listening. “We spend more time listening, but it’s where we get the least amount of training,” Beebe says. “We have courses in speaking and courses in writing. There are very few courses in listening. Yet, you will spend more time listening than anything else.” Try to maintain eye contact while listening. It is hard. And if you really want to impress someone, bring up something they said a week ago. I tell my students to write on an index card what they learn from conversations over a couple of days, when they truly bear down on listening. You can learn a lot. In hiring and promoting, organizations focus on determining what traits make for good leaders. They often undervalue the crucial one. “The single best predictor,” Beebe says, “of whether a person is going to be a good leader is their ability to listen.”

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I tell my students that when they go out in the workforce, figure out their supervisor’s listening style, because people are different. The safest approach is to assume the boss is an analytical listener who wants facts to be well-organized. I also tell them that because of globalization, it is likely that some of them will be interacting with folks on different continents with their own culture-specific communication rules, and they should learn enough to adapt. In the course of a semester, I cover ground that sounds like management training, but that’s because managing is communicating. I talk about some things that I have learned on the job: ► People will listen to you and follow your leadership if you communicate respect in what you say and how you listen. If folks aren’t sure if they are respected, it is harder for them to listen. Mostly, they stay in a defensive crouch, waiting for criticism. If they feel respected, they can focus on the message. Supervisors often need to offer what is euphemistically called “construc-

tive criticism,” and if the recipient believes that there is underlying respect, they will be more likely to receive it better than if they don’t feel respected. I had a boss who could pretty much tell me anything because he communicated criticism with the same tone, volume and facial expression that he used when he was delivering praise. I could focus on the message because his face wasn’t scrunched up and smoke wasn’t coming out of his ears. ► I tell my students that a lot of their work will be done in groups, solving problems and on projects. These teams will have meetings. The team leader’s job is not to be the smartest person in the room. It’s to make sure the smartest person in the room feels comfortable speaking and isn’t talked over. The leader also has to make sure that difficult team members’ attitudes are channeled into less-toxic behavior. Typically, companies with a bad communications culture see it in their meetings and teams. ► Honesty is the most effective communications approach, at all levels of

leadership. That is particularly true when things aren’t going well. People can take bad news. What makes them crazy is when they aren’t being told anything. I had a boss who had regular, all-hands staff meetings, and he would give honest assessments of how it was going, particularly with the financials. This would drive some other department heads crazy, because they weren’t being candid with their own folks. Because bad news hops over department walls, they were getting questions. My boss’s feeling was that he wanted to prepare his people for pay freezes or furloughs, and not have them be a big surprise. He also made a lot of eye contact around the room during staff meetings, and people believed him, in good times and bad. ■

Veteran North Carolina journalist Dan Barkin can be reached at dbarkin53@gmail.com.

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BNC ONLINE Forrest Merithew We saw these all over SC beaches when we just got back East and were wondering about them. Neat to know the connection!

We love getting feedback from our readers. Here’s a sampling of what you had to say about Business North Carolina on social media last month. Katie Shorter, MBA, MEd

Tourism and Hospitality Consultant

New Bern’s very own Gary Curry....the fella on the top left under “North’! Way to go, Gary 2020 Trailblazers

Jonathan Thill, Ed.D Love these and love that they came from our home at the coast! Hoping they will be as ubiquitous at all beaches as they are in EI. Also proud that they manufacture in our home town of Asheboro. Tracy McCormack Great design—so iconic! Kurt Bland We bought our first one several years ago, back when the founders dropped it off personally on our front door because it was so locally made. Nowadays, they are EVERYWHERE on the Crystal Coast. Good to see the business is buming!

James Lanier I am proud and humbled to be included in this great group of young professionals!! 2020 Trailblazers Jessica Gardner I know the guy from Goldsboro too!! This is awesome! Congrats JAL!!! Reva Sullivan So very cool and so very well deserved. Congratulations Ray Bynum Bunky Jr. You are the man...

Lauren Rash Work to bring textiles back to WNC in new and fun ways, working with Lean Manufacturing and fantastic culture building. Great product and great company. Uconda Dunn My family did our part this summer to support this NC based business. We love our Shibumi Shade!

Read these stories and more at

businessnc.com.

Pat Kahle @ptkahle

@BusinessNC Thanks for recognizing Shane Fraser and David Casper - two leaders of the @ UnionCounty COC ‘s Young Professionals program and Trail Blazers for sure. These two are making good things happen in @UnionCountyNC! Well done. #unioncountychamber #ypuc 2020 Trailblazers

Business North Carolina @BusinessNC Business North Carolina @businessnorthcarolina

UNC Pembroke

Steve Trythall

@uncpembroke

Director of Leasing and Development at C.F. Smith Property Group

While he may shun the spotlight (except for dancing with the stars), it’s nice to see the hard work and dedication of an exemplary man get recognized... Go Neil Robinette! #leadership #retaildevelopment #realestatedeveloper 2020 Trailblazers

We’re so grateful for the generous contributions of Pembroke native Jim Thomas whose continuous gifts are transforming the university and the town. @BusinessNC Pembroke native Jim Thomas rallies Robeson County

Check out Business North Carolina’s weekly podcast on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. at

businessnc.com/ podcast/.

Amy Allison

Director, North Carolina Outdoor Recreation Industry Office at Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina If you have spent any time on the beach this summer, you have probably seen a Shibumi Shade on the horizon. This NC based outdoor company is taking off! #ncoutdoorrecreation #ncoutdoorindustry Shady Business

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No. copies of issue published nearest to filing date 31,587 15,884 2,957 18,841 12,246 12,246 31,087 500 31,587 60.60% James B. Kinney, publisher

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JANE SMITH PATTERSON TABOR CITY NATIVE JANE SMITH PATTERSON HAS SPENT HER CAREER PUSHING FOR CIVIL AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN POLITICS AND THE TELECOM INDUSTRY. BY VANESSA INFANZON

of experience on making broadband available to all Americans.” A native of Columbus County, she was 16 when she left to attend what was then called Women’s College of the University of North Carolina, now UNC Greensboro. She transferred to UNC Chapel Hill to finish her undergraduate degree. In 1994, she earned a master’s degree in global information infrastructure from N.C. State University. Earlier in her career, she worked as a research assistant in mathematical psychology, an editor for what is now McGraw-Hill and a

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JANE SMITH PATTERSON

eveloping broadband systems to boost rural North Carolina remains a critical problem, decades after Jane Smith Patterson helped Gov. Jim Hunt kickstart the state’s work on the issue. Patterson was instrumental in developing the N.C. Rural Internet Access Authority, now the N.C. Broadband Infrastructure Office. During her tenure as its first executive director from 2002-12, internet access increased from 32% of N.C. households to 82%, she says. Her work prompted a national broadband industry award in 2011 with a panel of judges noting, “Jane Patterson’s impact on public policy for rural broadband cannot be overstated. She is the leading voice

▲ Jane Smith Patterson was a pioneering female state official when Gov. Jim Hunt named her deputy secretary at the N.C. Department of Administration.

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In 2017, Patterson received the North Carolina Award for her public service. A resident of Chapel Hill, Patterson, 77, is a partner in Broadband Catalysts and serves as a board member at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the N.C. Telehealth Network, which promotes affordable online medical care. Her comments are edited for length and clarity. [Tabor City] was still segregated at the time I grew up. Our town fought the [Ku Klux Klan]. The Klan came across into North Carolina from South Carolina; we were on the border. They would put crosses on the front of their cars with lights and run them with a battery. My dad would say to me, “Jane, we don’t believe like these people. It’s not the shade or color of your skin that determines who you are. It’s an education and how you use that education for the betterment of all the people.”

▲ Patterson worked in state government during the administrations of Govs. Beverly Perdue and Jim Hunt. real estate agent. After Hunt’s first election in 1976, she became deputy secretary at the N.C. Department of Administration, a rare post for a woman at that time. When Hunt returned as governor from 1993 to 2001, she was an adviser for policy, budget and technology. Between stints in state government, she was director of contracts and, later, a vice president at ITT’s telecommunications division.

[Gov.] Terry Sanford was very much involved with us when we were students at Chapel Hill. He even set up an international student association. He was very much involved in the North Carolina Fund [an early 1960s nonprofit program aimed at curbing minority poverty and promoting civil rights]. The North Carolina Fund is a legend across the country for what it did to pull North Carolina up another few steps. The North Carolina Fund was the first time in the South, and I would say in the country, where students went two by two across the state. Many of the pairs were integrated. We’d

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have an African American and a Caucasian working to try and do away with poverty. We changed the face of government [under Hunt’s leadership] so that it reflected the people of the state. We began to hire more women, more minorities. We put in an affirmative action plan into the state. We also began doing more training for our public employees. [We brought in] citizens on special programs such as advocacy councils for women and people with disabilities. We hired the first African American person to head the N.C. Human Relations Council in the 40 years it had existed. I would have run, at one point, for lieutenant governor. I have a husband whose practice of law is 24 hours a day. Our kids would have had no parents if I were there. When you have children, it’s a commitment you make, and you can’t just walk away from it. I made a decision not to [run]. It worked out better for me because I ended up going to work for ITT Corp., which was getting me back into my field of telecommunication. I fought very hard for women’s rights both within the statutes of the state but also in the Democratic Party. I lobbied through the requirement of equal division of delegates to the national convention, which is the nominating process for candidates who run nationally. I sort of went against Jimmy Carter, who I thought was with me on it, but the labor unions got to him overnight and changed his position. I think one-party rule all the time is not good for any state. The most important thing for the state is the appropriate education for the folks who want to run for office. No matter who ever gets into the office, they are there for the good of the state. In my lifetime, we’ve had two Republican governors who were pretty good: Gov.[James] Martin and Gov. [James] Holshouser. All the telephone cooperatives have been incredible, all across the state, in the most rural areas. There are laws that prevent you from doing innovative things to get into rural areas. Those were argued into the laws of the state by representatives of the companies. In North Carolina, we fought it for five years and finally lost it with House Bill 129 [which passed in 2011, restricting municipalities from building publicly owned broadband networks.] In the long run, I think the companies would have been far better off to have gone and moved ahead to get internet to the homes in such a way that we could do telehealth. At one point, there was a move to fire me as the executive director [of the Rural Internet Access Authority] because I was pushing too hard. I was not fired. When things are changing in an industry, it’s hard to move that through very fast. You

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▲ Patterson helped develop the N.C. Rural Internet Access Authority, serving as the group’s first executive director from 2002-12. will always get some folks who think it’s better if they don’t move ahead. Gov. Hunt wanted me to come back and I [said], “Yeah, if we can do fiber across the state from Murphy to Manteo.” We did the North Carolina Information Highway. It’s like the gazelle and the lion. You have to keep running so you’re not someone’s food. You have to get up every morning to make sure you’re running as fast as you can even though there might be a lion trying to get you. That’s what this state has to be. It has to get up every morning wanting every kid educated and the best possible communication technology. People like to live where there is a “can do” attitude. North Carolina has always had that. We need to look at what moves us in that “can do” attitude. ■

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NC TREND

First take: Health care

■ MANUFACTURING ■ ENTREPRENEURSHIP ■ TRACKING TECH ■ STATEWIDE Page 16

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TAKEOVER TRIAGE NORTH CAROLINA’S HOSPITALS ARE COMBINING IN A HURRY WITH BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND EXTRAVAGANT PROMISES FLYING AROUND. B Y DAV I D M I L D E N B E R G A N D E D WA R D M A R T I N

major reset of North Carolina’s hospital industry is occurring at a blistering pace, reflecting a consolidation that is putting greater control in the hands of fewer, bigger organizations. The trend has affected the state’s smaller cities for at least a decade, but now it’s accelerating with institutions in the bigger markets. Health systems that rank among the largest employers in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Wilmington, affecting more than 150,000 N.C. workers, are in the mix. “I call it the Walmart effect,” says state Rep. Donny Lambeth, a Winston-Salem Republican and former executive at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “The big hospitals in North Carolina have gone after the smaller ones for years. But quite frankly, I think they looked around and said, ‘We still need to get bigger to leverage our operations.’” How the different combinations are being structured varies widely, however. Here are the four distinct models: Outright takeover. HCA Healthcare, the biggest U.S. hospital operator, paid $1.5 billion in February 2019 to buy Asheville-based Mission Health, a not-for-profit authority with dominant control over hospital services in western North Carolina. Most of the proceeds were funnelled into a new $1 billion community foundation, the Dogwood Health Trust, which pledges to improve health care services throughout the region. HCA is a Nashville, Tenn.-based public company known for efficiency. Its efforts to rein in costs sparked the system’s 1,800 nurses to affiliate with a union after a September election. Outright takeover, after a bidding war. Novant Health, the state’s second-biggest health care system, outbid Atrium Health and others in September to take over New Hanover Regional Medical Center, the county-owned hospital in Wilmington. Pending regulatory approval, Novant is pledging about $5 billion in upfront payment and long-term capital investments. A $1 billion community foundation affiliated with New Hanover County is likely to emerge, boosting programs for traditionally underserved communities. Novant also promised Wilmington representation on its main board and formed a pact with the UNC School of Medicine.

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A friendly takeover with fringe benefits. Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare signed a letter of intent in August to merge with Cone Health, Greensboro’s dominant hospital system. Regulatory approval is expected in mid-2021. The transaction combines an N.C. institution with $2.2 billion in 2019 patient revenue with Sentara’s $6.5 billion. Details remain scant, but CEO Terry Akin emphasizes Cone wanted a good partner, not just the highest bidder. Greensboro will probably not gain a large new foundation, unlike Asheville and Wilmington. But there’s a catch: Sentara owns Optima Health Plan, a $2 billion health insurance company that is expected to expand in North Carolina to compete with Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare and other insurers. It’s a potential opportunity for Cone to add jobs and revenue apart from traditional hospital services, Akin says.

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A friendly takeover with starry potential. Charlottebased Atrium Health and Winston-Salem-based Wake Forest Baptist Health agreed to a combination in early October, 18 months after announcing a preliminary agreement. The institutions have combined revenue of $11.5 billion. Promises include a medical tower and eye institute at the Winston-Salem location, a Wake Forest University Medical School campus in Charlotte, an opportunity for the region to become a “Silicon Valley” of health care entrepreneurship and improved medical services for rural North Carolinians.

The combined systems will make Wake Forest one of the state's biggest educators of physicians and other medical professionals. Atrium CEO Gene Woods pledged a “new era of health care … [and] a nationally leading environment for clinicians, scientists, investors and visionaries to collaborate on breakthrough technologies and cures.” Like Cone Health’s deal, few financial details have been disclosed. Wake Forest Baptist and the university do not appear to be getting cash upfront from Atrium, which is a much larger, more profitable institution. CEO Woods and board chairman Ed Brown will lead the combined organization. Lack of compensation scuttled Atrium’s previous attempt to forge a similar partnership with UNC Health in 2017. The two systems’ boards had agreed to marry the powerful Triangle and Charlotte institutions, promising to train more physicians and nurses, boost their national reputations and improve rural health care. As the deal neared completion, however, former UNC Board of Governors Chair Harry Smith, State Treasurer Dale Folwell and others asked for a valuation of UNC Health. They also questioned why Atrium wasn't paying a significant premium since its executives would lead the organization. The answers: Consultants appraised the state-controlled UNC Health’s enterprise value at more than $6 billion, and Atrium and UNC leaders believed enormous benefits from a combination made a rich financial outlay unnecessary. The answers didn’t impress the state officials. The transaction was called off in March 2018, prompting Atrium to take another path. Wake Forest is a private organization, so state leaders have no voice in the latest transaction. Still, Folwell criticizes the combination, which he contends will spark higher medical costs and lead to job cuts in Winston-Salem. Wake Forest officials including university President Nathan

Hatch, trustees chair Gerald Roach and Wake Forest Baptist CEO Julie Ann Freischlag declined comment. Local opposition to the transaction is muted, with several sources expressing surprise that Wake Forest Baptist didn’t extract more specific benefits for Winston-Salem, similar to the Asheville, Greensboro and Wilmington transactions. “It doesn’t look like they drove as hard of a bargain as they could have,” Lambeth says. “Wake brings a whole lot to the table because of its national reputation, which is something that Atrium has wanted for a long time.” He predicts the Charlotte system may push to elevate Wake Forest’s reputation to become on par with national powerhouses Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins. But Wake Forest Baptist has reported mediocre operating results in recent years. As an independent organization with no other obvious merger partner, it may have lacked the financial strength to make significant advances. Underlying the combinations is emerging pressure to address soaring medical costs. Employers are demanded increased efficiencies with Kaiser Family Foundation data showing health care costs $24,000 per worker, including premiums and deductibles. North Carolina ranked as the second-highest state for medical costs in a July study by market-research news group WalletHub, ahead of only Alaska. The state needs more competition, Folwell says. “Everyone realizes the cost of health care is ridiculously high,” Lambeth says. “Rates will have to stabilize and go down. [Hospitals] know that things have to become more efficient.” Novant CEO Carl Armato accepts that challenge, noting that his system is one of the most affordable in the state “because of our predictive capability.” That refers to a science that identifies patients likely to develop certain diseases. Early prevention can lead to cost-effective intervention, he says. “We see real opportunities for cost savings on the clinical variations side,” he says. ■

FOUR MAJOR N.C. HOSPITAL DEALS HCA Healthcare - Mission Health (completed) combined revenue: $51 billion combined employment: 280,000 Atrium Health - Wake Forest Baptist Health (completed) combined annual revenue: $11.5 billion combined employment: 70,000 Sentara Healthcare - Cone Health (pending) combined annual revenue: $10.5 billion combined employment: 43,000 Novant Health - New Hanover Regional Medical Center (pending) combined annual revenue: $6.5 billion combined employment: 36,000 N O V E M B E R

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Manufacturing

MANUFACTURING MECCA THE NC CHAMBER’S INAUGURAL “COOLEST THING MADE IN N.C.” COMPETITION HIGHLIGHTS THE STATE’S POWERFUL MANUFACTURING SECTOR.

BY TAYLOR WANBAUGH

rom sweet, tangy Cheerwine to action-packed video game Fortnite to tongue-tingling Texas Pete to sugary Krispy Kreme doughnuts, it’s easy to find some pretty incredible things made in North Carolina. Manufacturing occupations make up 10.4% of North Carolina's workforce, and the state is home to more than 7,790 manufacturing companies, according to the National Association of Manufacturers trade group. In an effort to recognize the state’s vast manufacturing community, the NC Chamber kicked off a “Coolest Thing Made in N.C.'' competition, crowning the Saf-T-

Liner C2 Jouley Electric School Bus made by High Point-based Thomas Built Buses the 2020 winner. The bus was selected from 72 nominees after two rounds of more than 50,000 votes by the public. “We are grateful to the entire manufacturing community — the backbone of our state’s economy for more than a century,” says Gary Salamido, CEO of the NC Chamber. “As we say at the NC Chamber, what’s made in North Carolina makes North Carolina.” Here’s a look at the contest winners.

WINNER

Thomas Built Buses, founded in High Point in 1916 and owned by Germany’s Daimler Trucks North America, is known for its iconic bright yellow school buses across the U.S. Although its winning electric bus may look ordinary on the outside, it is far from the gas-guzzling model that has transported generations of students. The electric bus has many environmentally friendly benefits, including running emission-free with no fossil fuels, which saves on operating costs. It also is much quieter than traditionally fueled buses. The vehicle can hit speeds of up to 65 mph, accelerating from zero to 60 mph in 45 seconds. It has as much as a 135 mile operating range with a 220 kWh power source. The bus takes about two to three hours to fully charge, and it includes a specialized battery packaging for increased safety.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF THOMAS BUILT BUSES, CATERPILLAR, GEORGE'S SAUCES, HONDAJET

THOMAS BUILT BUSES SAF-T-LINER C2 JOULEY ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUS, HIGH POINT

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NO. 2 FINALIST

NO. 4 FINALIST

CAT 299D3 XE COMPACT TRACK LOADER, SANFORD

HONDAJET ELITE, GREENSBORO

Caterpillar’s hulking machinery can be seen on almost every construction and development site across the country. What makes its compact track loader so popular is its powerful engine, high-output hydraulic system and other technologies that allow workers to dig, load and handle material with little effort. The loader’s cab was redesigned to allow 15% additional space for the operator and a wider opening door that makes it easier to enter. Its quieter design includes a rated operating capacity of 3,560 lbs. and gross power of up to 110 HP. The loader also features integrated Smart technology with attachment recognition, tailored controls and grade assist.

The jet’s sleek design includes the Over-The-Wing Engine Mount configuration — which reduces the shock wave and drag and increases performance and efficiency — and lightweight and durable composite fuselage. The Greensborobased division of the Japanese automaker took care to enable the jet to fly faster, higher and farther, with a larger cabin size and less noise pollution than rivals. It has a max cruise speed of nearly 486 mph at an altitude as high as 43,000 feet (usually commercial airlines fly between 31,000 to 38,000 feet) and a range of more than 1,437 nautical miles. Honda says it also designed the jet’s cockpit after studying pilot and passenger movements and ergonomics. Its modern cabin features a private restroom, full-service galley, a industry first speakerless in-cabin sound system and Wi-Fi, with room for as many as eight passengers. The list price of the HondaJet Elite is about $5.3 million.

NO. 3 FINALIST GEORGE’S BBQ SAUCE, NASHVILLE Where there’s North Carolina barbecue, there’s sure to be mouthwatering sauce. George’s Sauces brews and bottles its scratch-made eastern- and western-style sauces in Nashville. Brothers George and Ed Stallings invented the original sauce recipe in 1975. The tangy vinegar-based sauce is prepped with crushed peppers, apples and spaces. George’s claim to fame is “It’s good on everything except banana pudding.” And it’s true: The sauce has been used on everything from fruit to party snack mix to meats to vegetables. The familyowned company’s condiments were cited as some of the “Best in the Carolinas” by Rachael Ray magazine.

THIS YEAR'S OTHER

SEMIFINALISTS INCLUDED:

Southern Supreme Fruitcakes; Bear Creek Big Spoon Roasters Nut Butter; Durham Cree | Wolfspeed's Silicon Carbide; Durham Benevolence Farm Chamomile & Lavender Healing Salve; Graham Nugget Kids Couch; Hillsborough Mt. Olive Pickles; Mount Olive Bosch Stainless Steel Dishwasher SHX88PZ55N; New Bern Thermador Double Wall Oven PODS302W; New Bern Pepsi; New Bern (originated), bottled throughout N.C. Smithfield Bacon; Tar Heel Artisan Leaf Handcrafted Tobacco Leaf Tables and Surfaces; Wilson

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Entrepreneurship

CLEANING UP ON DIRTY WORK GRIFFIN BROTHERS’ ZOOMUP IS FILLING A VOID, ONE BLUE-COLLAR BUSINESS AT A TIME.

BY JENNINGS COOL

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▲ Jimmy Giler, center, founded Viva Electric in 2018. Colleagues include Michelle Cooke and David Morris. things your typical business owner may not have,” Helms says. “Having a family behind you saying, ‘We believe in you,’ allows me to focus on growing the business. ZoomUp is an incredible opportunity for someone who is not scared to get dirty and someone who doesn’t mind getting humbled really early.” Zoomers are typically 25 to 35 and are college graduates, though a degree isn’t required. Zoomers are then matched with a “recessionproof” business, such as plumbing, HVAC, electrical and septic systems, as a startup, acquisition or investment. Griffin Brothers holds a 10% to 15% stake in the Zooomer companies, which have added about 100 employees to the overall enterprise. It’s more than just capital, however. Griffin also offers advice, support and encouragement as Zoomers navigate day-to-day challenges. “In life you have some road humps and potholes. My goal is to help them get over those humps smoother and work around the potholes,” he says. “Nothing is straight linear — there will always be ups and downs. My goal as a mentor is to help smooth them out and make it less bumpy.” Jimmy Giler and his wife, Maegan, founded Viva Electric in January 2018, then partnered with the Griffins in March 2019. Viva Electric wants to expand beyond Charlotte next year and has a goal of being “the fastest growing and biggest service-based electrical company in the region.” “I am not a corporate guy,” Jimmy Giler says. “I like to get dirty, sweaty, cold, wet, muddy — all that fun stuff all tradesmen have to do to provide for their families. I wouldn't have it any other way.” ■

ZOOMUP BUSINESSES Viva Electric Ease Plumbing and Air Southern Cut Landscaping Absolute Collision

Greenway Waste Solutions Sasser Restoration Roland Black Heating & Cooling

PHOTO COURTESY OF GRIFFIN BROTHERS

he push for younger generations to pursue traditional fouryear degrees and take white-collar jobs has led to a blue-collar labor shortage. With the average age of U.S. plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters topping 40, according to marketresearch firm Data USA, many will likely retire over the next decade. Just how are millennials and Gen Zers going to get their toilets fixed? The multigenerational void is no threat to Mike Griffin. “As an entrepreneur, I see this as an opportunity: There is constant demand and limited supply of people doing it,” he says. So he’s created ZoomUp, mixing private equity investing with training for blue-collar businesses. Griffin’s father, Larry, and uncle, Ronnie, formed the first Griffin Brothers Tire Sales store in downtown Charlotte in 1961 and later added nine more locations around Charlotte. Mike joined the family business and helped it expand beyond tires. The company now owns or has partnerships in waste management, real estate, a microbrewery, and a downtown rooftop space for events. In 2016, the Griffin family sold its tire and auto repair business, while retaining its other operations. Given his experience in car repair, Griffin had a vision of connecting young leaders with so-called “dirty jobs.” It became a reality when he met Austin Helms while serving as a judge for an entrepreneurship competition at UNC Chapel Hill. Helms was a finalist in the program. “I instantly fell in love with Austin’s passion, but I hated his business plan,” Griffin says. “However, passion can be more important than a business plan sometimes.” Helms felt the entrepreneurial bug at age 7, when he started selling candy out of shoeboxes at his sister’s grade school basketball games. He later formed startups such as archery and car-washing businesses. After the Chapel Hill meeting, Griffin offered Helms an apprenticeship to recruit other young, passionate people to fill gaps in blue-collar occupations. The assignment evolved into what Helms termed ZoomUp: a leg of Griffin Brothers focused on “zooming” businesses through ambitious individuals, or Zoomers, not afraid to get their hands dirty. ZoomUps share a similar goal “to put a foothold in a particular industry and laser-focus to grow it into a nationwide brand,” Griffin says. Helms is now majority owner and founder of Ease Plumbing and Air, which is funded by ZoomUp. The business opened in August 2019 when Helms partnered with Derek Thornburg, who had a plumbing license and decades of experience. Ease Plumbing reported $1.35 million in revenue in its first year. It has since expanded into ventilation services by partnering with Cornelius-based Cool Comfort Heating and Air. “ZoomUp allows me to hire the best people and gives me the financial support to supply clean trucks, brand-new tools and other C A R O L I N A

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Tracking tech

POLICY MAKER JENNIFER FITZGERALD TOOK AN UNCONVENTIONAL JOURNEY TO LEADING AN INSURANCE MARKETPLACE TARGETING YOUNGER BUYERS.

BY TAYLOR WANBAUGH

► WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE PEACE CORPS?

Anybody who's been in the Peace Corps, it's kind of a life-changing experience to live in a different culture and a different level of means than you're used to. … You are supposed to live how the people that you serve live. I think I got a housing allowance or a full allowance of like $100 or $200 a month to live on, which was enough to rent a small house and to live. I was a volunteer from 2001 to 2003. A lot was going on

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▲ Jennifer Fitzgerald in the U.S. at the time. I was probably a month into service when 9/11 happened. We didn't have reliable access to the internet or to TV news. So a lot of our contact with the outside world was a bit delayed. We knew 9/11 happened when it happened, but everything else after that, like the war in Afghanistan, I often relied on our free Newsweek subscription, which would get to us a couple months later. It was a very surreal time and experience because you are kind of isolated from the rest of the world. … It really transformed how I thought about the world and what it means to be part of the broader world. ► WHAT DID YOU WANT TO DO DIFFERENTLY WITH POLICYGENIUS THAN OTHERS IN THE INSURANCE MARKETPLACE?

The big opportunity that we saw was around upgrading and innovating the consumer experience in a way that consumers were used to in other parts of their life. If you think about how we shop for other financial products, it's very self directed. It's online. You've got these really robust third-party marketplaces, whether it's Zillow for shopping for a home or Amazon for consumer goods. But insurance was still very disconnected from the digital experience and how consumers were used to shopping, getting information and searching for products and interacting with service

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER FITZGERALD

sked what led her to co-found online insurance marketplace Policygenius, Jennifer Fitzgerald, 42, cracks a smile. “It was a bit of a nontraditional career path to starting a tech company.” After graduating from Columbia University’s law school, Fitzgerald joined the Peace Corps in Honduras, where she focused on local government planning and administration for two years. She later became a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., advising insurance companies. In 2014, she and fellow McKinsey alum Francois de Lame co-founded Policygenius with the goal of simplifying the insurance shopping process using an online format. Last October, the New York-based company said it would set up a second headquarters in Durham to benefit from the Triangle’s strong tech market. Plans call for 377 jobs over the next five years. The company currently employs 150 at its Durham site. Fitzgerald has earned praise for her work, winning the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and being named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. More than 30 million customers have used the platform to compare and shop for insurance online, and the company secured a $100 million funding round in early 2020. Overall, it has raised $161 million from investors including KKR and MassMutual. Fitzgerald discussed her career and the company’s prospects in a recent interview. Her comments are edited for length and clarity.

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providers. So we wanted to create that online marketplace experience for insurance, but also not lose the human touch. Insurance is a very confusing category. People don't have a lot of experience choosing a life insurance product or a home insurance product. So even though it was digital, we didn't want to lose that human touch and great advice, which is what shoppers are looking for once they're ready to buy. ► HOW DO YOU REACH THE GROWING MILLENNIAL AUDIENCE FOR SELLING LIFE INSURANCE?

One is the recognition of the life event being the key trigger. Life insurance is not really a need until you have a home or you have children or you have a spouse who relies on you financially or with whom you share financial obligations such as a mortgage. So, once you start having those life events, life insurance becomes a need. The other thing that's made us successful is understanding consumers in their 30s shop online, they listen

to podcasts, they do a lot of research online. In Google, they will go to certain types of sites for information, and they'll often go to multiple sites. They'll often combine online research with talking to friends and family who they trust. So if you're in the market for life insurance because you just had a child, odds are you have friends who similarly just had kids. People are in the same stage of life, and you will talk to them: “Hey, do you guys have life insurance? If so, how did you think about it? Where did you go?” So understanding that it's a multitouch journey, and you want to be where your shoppers are at every stage of the journey. That's been a big piece of how we think about our marketing approach, how we deliver content and how we engage shoppers, because it's not an impulse buy. ► WHY DID YOU SELECT DURHAM FOR A MAJOR OFFICE?

We did a very big analysis of potential markets for our second headquarters and did several site visits.

... At the end of the day, what [was appealing about] the Raleigh/Durham area and Durham specifically were a few things. One was proximity and ability to get there easily from New York City. Understanding that we would have leadership traveling there frequently and people traveling to New York frequently, the accessibility was key. The other big thing was the quality of the local talent pools, not just for operational talent, but also tech talent. And Raleigh/Durham is an emerging tech scene. A lot of tech companies have made either their primary or secondary headquarters there. So, the talent pool, the availability of so many local colleges and universities, were a big draw for us. [The deciding factor] was it’s a place where we want to be able to attract and retain talent. ... It’s hugely important. People need to want to live there, like the schools, like the housing options, and quality of life in that area. We've found that to be a big draw, even for some of our New York City employees who have now relocated to Durham. ► WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR STRATEGY IN ATTRACTING MAJOR INVESTORS SUCH AS KKR AND MASSMUTUAL?

The big thing is building a successful business with good metrics. Especially as you get to a later stage, there are things that [investors] look for, such as the fundamentals of the business, your unit of economics, your rate of growth. So those are all things that you need to make sure that you've got for a good foundation for capital raising. And you need to make sure that you're able to tell that story. A big piece of it is just making sure you've got those relationships in the broader equity community so that you understand who the right investors were to talk to. Thankfully, the insurance tech industry has been a hot sector for the last several years. It wasn't when we started, [but it has] since become that. Having those initial conversations and getting that initial audience has gotten increasingly easier for us, especially as we've emerged as one of the biggest leaders in the insurance tech space. ■ N O V E M B E R

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Statewide

SPECIAL DELIVERY B Y DAV I D M I L D E N B E R G

PS is making a record corporate investment in Alamance County with plans for a $262 million distribution and delivery center that will create about 450 jobs over the next few years. It continues the surge in distribution centers across the state as large companies adapt to the shift to online sales that has been hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Triad area is benefiting in particular from the trend, with UPS also planning to add about 140 jobs at its large Greensboro hub. Overall, the Atlanta-based delivery company employs more than 3,200 people in the Triad, including its UPS Freight business, and its Guilford County operation ranks among the company’s five largest centers nationally, according to Greensboro Chamber of Commerce CEO Brent Christensen. The new jobs will average about $65,000 annually, more than 50% higher than Alamance’s average of about $41,600. UPS has long ranked among the nation’s most unionized companies. To entice the expansion, state and local officials offered more than $16 million in incentives that are mostly tied to meeting job and investment targets. UPS chose Alamance despite unsuccessful efforts to relocate a county-owned Confederate statue in downtown Gra-

ham, which is about six miles from the planned distribution center adjacent to interstates 40 and 85. The company had issued a statement in support of the move, but a state law passed in 2015 restricts the county from moving the monument. UPS is a key example of how North Carolina is having a surprisingly strong year from an economic development standpoint despite the pandemic, says Tony Copeland, secretary of the N.C. Department of Commerce. “We’re pretty much on par with where we were last year, which says a lot about the resiliency and attractiveness of our state.”

NC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School wants to boost its undergraduate enrollment by 50%, or about 500 students, with a new building that is part of a $150 million expansion plan. Greensboro developer Steve Bell and his wife, Jackie, are helping make that effort possible by pledging $25 million to the school, prompting a matching donation from an anonymous donor. The funds will also be aimed at improving the school’s graduate programs, which include 400 master’s of accounting, 1,600 MBA and 70 Ph.D. students.

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UNC needs $75 million in private funding by mid-2022 to match a $75 million commitment from state lawmakers that passed in July. With the school achieving $58 million by early October, Bell says he hopes other Tar Heel grads will fill in the remaining hole. “I certainly have benefited from my years at Chapel Hill, and I want others to have similar experiences and opportunities,” he says. The new building will be named after Bell, joining existing business school facilities that honor the Kenan family of the Triangle and eastern North Carolina and Charlotte’s Hugh McColl Jr. While Kenan-Flagler’s graduate business school ranks 20th in U.S. News & World Report’s latest survey, the undergraduate program is rated seventh. Bell is a Raleigh native and 1967 UNC graduate who started Bell Partners in 1976 by buying small apartment complexes and shopping centers. It now owns or manages more than 60,000 apartments nationally and employs about 1,500 people in nine offices. Steve Bell’s son, Jon, became CEO in 2016. “We’ve created a lot of value for our investors, and I think we can do the same thing for the state by investing in the business school.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UPS, UNC CHAPEL HILL

BELL RINGER

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TRIAD WINSTON-SALEM Wake Forest University President Nathan Hatch will retire in June after 15 years. The search for a new president, led by Raleigh lawyer and trustees chairman Gerald Roach, will begin immediately.

WHITSETT Amazon confirmed it will open a third Triad delivery station in 2021. The new station will be 91,719 square feet with 285 employee parking spaces. Similar sites now operate in High Point and Kernersville.

GREENSBORO Jackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Corner Mediterranean Deli is closing after nearly 30 years in business, citing a variety of reasons including the COVID-19 pandemic. The location is available for lease.

EDEN NestlĂŠ Purina PetCare, headquartered in St. Louis, plans a $450 million factory at the site of the former Miller Brewing factory. The plant, set to open in 2022, will employ 300 by 2024. Salaries will average about $42,000 annually.

MOUNT AIRY Insteel Industries appointed Richard Wagner as chief operating officer. Wagner was general manager of the concrete reinforcing products business unit of Insteel Wire Products and a senior vice president since 2007.

TRIANGLE DURHAM Boston-based Fidelity Investments is hiring about 250 employees in the state through its campus here. Fidelity employs 3,000 in the Triangle and is planning to grow its U.S. workforce by 15%. G1 Therapeutics CEO Mark Velleca will step down Jan. 1 and serve as a senior adviser and director. His successor will be former GlaxoSmithKline executive Jack Bailey Jr., a 30-year pharmaceutical industry veteran and company director.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY

Nathan Hatch

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had been CEO of Morrisville-based Relias since 2012 before departing in March. Lipps’ plans weren’t disclosed. Boston private equity group TA Associates controls Insightsoftware. Jason Sandner will succeed Dale Jenkins in June as CEO of Curi, which provides medical-malpractice insurance and other services to its 13,000 physicianmembers. Jenkins has had the job since 1995. Sandner joined Curi in 2011 and became chief operating officer in March. Kane Realty unveiled a $350 million mixed-use development plan in the North Hills neighborhood that will include a 12-story residential tower plus office and retail space. It is expected to be completed over the next few years. Washington, D.C., developer Hoffman and Associates plans the Seaboard Station development in downtown including three apartment buildings with more than 600 units, street-level retail, restaurants,

entertainment concepts and a hotel. First Citizens Bancshares could double in size after agreeing to buy CIT Group for about $2.2 billion. CEO Frank Holding Jr. says owning CIT will enable First Citizens to make more loans to mid-sized and larger businesses more quickly than building up its own team. New York-based CIT is among the biggest U.S. lenders for power and renewable projects, equipment financing and railcar lessors.

FUQUAY-VARINA Cary’s Baker Residential plans 430 single-family and townhomes in the Atwater Station development. Construction for the homes, priced between $200,000 and $300,000, is expected to begin in 2023.

CARY Redevelopment of the Cary Towne

Center, including 4 million square feet of mixed-use space named Carolina Yards, will begin early next year. The changes will include 1.2 million square feet of offices, 360,000 square feet of retail space, 450 hotel rooms, 1,800 multifamily and townhouse units, and more than 10 acres of open space.

CHAPEL HILL The town council approved a land swap with Grubb Properties to begin an $80 million downtown office project and parking deck. Charlotte-based Grubb plans a six-story office building with 200,000 square feet of wet lab and office space that could accommodate as many as 800 jobs.

MORRISVILLE The Chamber of Commerce named Linda Frenette as president. She had a similar post at the Fuquay-Varina Chamber for the last five years.

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Statewide

Cree is selling its LED manufacturing business for as much as $300 million to Newark, Calif.-based Smart Global Holdings. The sale of the business, which has more than 2,000 employees, comes a year after Cree sold a different part of its LED lighting business for $310 million. Duke University will cut 75 jobs starting in January in its Talent Identification Program, a nonprofit organization that serves academically gifted students in elementary and high school. Shattuck Labs, an Austin, Texas-based drug-development company that has its research headquarters here, raised $202 million in an initial public offering. Shattuck develops therapies to target cancer and inflammatory diseases. BioAesthetics, which provides materials for breast cancer reconstruction, raised $4.5 million from 37 investors. The company is seeking to raise an additional $1.7 million.

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RALEIGH Communications-software company Bandwidth agreed to buy Voxbone, a communication as a service company headquartered in Belgium, for $527 million. Voxbone is majority-owned by Vitruvian Partners based in London.

First Flight Venture Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hangar6, a prototyping hub, received $2.6 million in federal grants to help the center create prototypes for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The money will be distributed over two years.

RALEIGH Insightsoftware named Jim Triandiflou as CEO, taking over for Mike Lipps, who held the job for two years. Triandiflou

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FAYETTEVILLE

EAST WILMINGTON The Gorham family trust’s sale of a $5.5 million luxury home on Figure Eight Island represents the region’s most expensive sale recorded in the N.C. Regional Multiple Listing Service. The 5,800-square-foot home has seven bedrooms and seven full bathrooms. LendingTree CEO Doug Lebda of Charlotte sold a nearby home for $5.3 million in September.

SOUTHPORT Dosher Memorial Hospital announced its interim CEO Brad Hilaman and interim President Lynda Stanley would hold the posts permanently. Stanley has worked at the hospital since 1986, while Hilaman is an obstetrician who has been affiliated with the institution since 1995.

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H&H Homes was acquired by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Dream Finders Homes for an undisclosed amount. Ralph Huff, 70, started H&H here in 1991 to build homes for families serving at Fort Bragg and expanded to Charlotte, Raleigh, Triad and coastal markets over the last decade.

CHARLOTTE CHARLOTTE Sonic Automotive CEO David Smith was charged with assault on a female, false imprisonment, interfering with emergency communications and felony assault by strangulation. Smith told Sonic’s board he is innocent and expects exoneration. Industrial component supplier EnPro Industries acquired Alluxa for $255 million. Santa Rosa, Calif.-based

Alluxa is a manufacturer of specialized optical filters and thin-film coatings. Novant Health opened a $166 million, 260,000-square-foot heart and cancer care at its main Charlotte campus after several years of construction. It is expected to serve about 18,000 patients per month. Vannoy Construction was the general contractor and McCulloch England Associations Architects was project architect. Honeywell International acquired assets from Southborough, Mass.-based Ballard Unmanned Systems to expand the company’s unmanned aerial systems business. Honeywell will own intellectual property, inventory and equipment, and Ballard’s fuel-cell team will join the company as part of the acquisition. Truist Financial says it cut a net 769 full-time equivalent job positions during the third quarter with more cost cuts on the way. It eliminated more than 1,500 positions earlier this year.

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Atrium Health broke ground on the Carolinas Rehabilitation hospital on the Carolinas Medical Center campus near downtown. It is planning a 150,000-squarefoot hospital with 70 patient rooms and a 9,300-square-foot outpatient clinic. The hospital is expected to open by late 2022.

KINGS MOUNTAIN Snack food company Benestar Brands will invest $24 million to build a production facility and create 129 jobs. The positions will have an average annual salary of $43,021, compared with Cleveland Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s average of $40,019.

HICKORY Merchants Distributors is making a $120 million expansion at its local wholesale food warehouse in a project that would create 111 jobs. The jobs will pay an average of about $51,600 a year.

WEST ASHEVILLE

PHOTO COURTESY OF ATRIUM HEALTH

Ingles Markets grocery-store chain is providing a third round of cash bonuses to workers in recognition of their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ingles will give $300 to full-time employees and $150 to part-time associates in mid-November, totaling $5 million. Buncombe Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tourism authority named Victoria Isley as CEO of Explore Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, effective Dec. 1. She has been chief sales and marketing officer for Bermuda Tourism Authority and worked at the Durham CVB in the 1990s.

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VIRUS PROTECTION

Businesses and organizations always have to be on their toes when it comes to cybersecurity,

protecting their clients’ data and personal information, along with the computer networks that store them, from a breach. It has become a bigger responsibility as more of our lives — personal and professional — migrate online and to the cloud. The arrival of COVID-19 this past spring made it only more difficult as most people went to work and shopped more often from the protection of their home. Business North Carolina gathered a panel of experts in the field to explain how protecting important information has changed during the pandemic and how business owners need to adapt. PANELISTS

Brooks Raiford (moderator)

Ryan LaSalle

Will Quick

president and CEO,

managing director and North America

partner, Brooks Pierce law firm

North Carolina Technology Association

security lead, Accenture Security

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The event was sponsored by Brooks Pierce law firm and Accenture Security. The transcript was edited for brevity and clarity. THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS FORCED MORE PEOPLE THAN EVER TO WORK REMOTELY. WHAT CYBERSECURITY ISSUES HAS THAT SPAWNED? RAIFORD: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses beyond their bottom line. They have had to change the way that they work and the way that they handle their cybersecurity issues. Many are equipping employees who had used a desktop computer with a laptop and sending them home to work. Some are using their personal devices, which raises many security questions. Depending on the company and its size, along with the role of the employee, that response is handled in different ways.

remote users overnight. We all have had to adapt by expanding or adding services. It has uncovered limitations that before were unknown. Systems have never been stressed to this degree, moving from maybe a couple hundred users to a few thousand quickly. There are studies, on top of plenty of anecdotal evidence, that show employees perceive home and office work environments differently. If you surveyed end users who worked in an office about best practices for cybersecurity, they’d give you different answers than those working from home. Working from home is a different experience; it’s easy to become complacent. There are things that we can do technically to improve security. But we must match all those with policy training and awareness, informing and reminding end users of cybersecurity’s importance. That’s even more vital at home, where they need to be more careful. If an organization or business doesn’t use a virtual private network, for example, and its employees are accessing data in the cloud through a pure internet connection, then any of the protections that come with a corporate network are lacking. We see that with partners and peers. They’re falling victim to malware and ransomware. It’s a real concern.

update on a vaccine, to gain computer or network access. The environment that we are defending has become more complicated. Attackers are focusing on that, too, which only compounds the problem. But there are some good things that have come out of it. More companies and organizations, for example, are embracing cloud technology. There aren’t enough resources in any to scale traditional services. So, they look to the cloud to get it done.

LaSALLE: All of those issues are compounded by how attackers are taking advantage of the crisis. Some recognize that online defenses are weaker for people working remotely, making them easier to target. Others are using the lure of clicking on pertinent information, whether that’s the latest local COVID infection statistics or an

QUICK: I’ve noticed two issues on the back end of systems while helping clients resolve incidents over the past six months. Many companies have furloughed or laid off employees because of the economic slowdown that arrived with the stay-athome orders given to halt COVID’s spread. Some of those unlucky folks were information-technology professionals. That means when I arrive on scene, there might not be anyone available to answer my questions. I’ve seen situations where the most senior IT person was gone, a move made simply because that position had the highest salary in the IT department. So, I ended up talking with a more junior IT employee, who was only there a few months and uncertain about how systems installed before his employment were configured or why they were set up a certain way. That information is vital to successfully responding to a data breach. Breach response is a partnership between those with legal knowledge, those with technical knowledge and company executives. You’ve got to have all three to make it work. I also have encountered challenges with cyber insurance, which companies

Al Roethlisberger

Maria Thompson

Clark Walton

chief information security officer, N.C.

state chief risk officer, N.C. Department of

lead forensic and cybersecurity expert,

Department of Information Technology —

Information Technology

Reliance Forensics LLC

ROETHLISBERGER: I don’t think anyone will be very surprised about which issues have developed. We’ve all had many of these conversations, and the topics were discussed at last month’s two-day virtual North Carolina Cybersecurity Awareness Symposium, which was hosted by the state Department of Information Technology’s Enterprise Security and Risk Management Office. The biggest difference between working in an office and at home is that your security needs to reach further. The end user and his or her home workstation, along with your vendors, expose your periphery more. You have many users who weren’t working remotely before the pandemic arrived in March, which turned them into

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purchase to cover costs associated with a data breach such as notifying customers and monitoring their credit. Some insurers have taken the position that their existing policies don’t cover incidents resulting from work-from-home. I’ve worked with clients whose insurer refused to honor the policy because a breach was initiated from a home network vulnerability. The policy covered the company’s network, not personal devices or home networks. The company had never had employees working remotely before the pandemic, and the situation wasn’t contemplated when the policy was written. It’s one example of something that isn’t thought of until it’s too late. But they do happen, so companies should consider them. WALTON: Many other flaws that were never considered have been exposed by the pandemic. They can be on the business’ or client’s side. Rank and file employees who were just comfortable with technology before March didn’t magically get better in April. So, a lack of investment in training and technology in the past is having negative effects in the present. There has been much talk about moving to cloud services. Our clients don’t have control over all the vendors in that process, who have been experiencing heavy traffic since the pandemic began. We’ve had clients attempt to get large amounts of data out of cloud storage, for example, and we just couldn’t get it. So, when you do move data outside, you must consider how quickly it can be accessed if there is an emergency. THOMPSON: The pandemic has put many constraints on budgets. They have been caused by less revenue to work with and shifting resources to more immediate needs. Add to that the fact that everyone is dealing with more cybersecurity issues, including strengthening their security posture, especially in a busy teleworking environment. That creates a dynamic: More security is needed, but there isn’t always the funding to support it. That’s happening in peer states, and it’s a concern even at the local government level. RAIFORD: That’s probably true across the IT industry, because government is needing to provide many more services remotely, so its residents can take advantage of them without going into an office and risking spreading COVID or being infected. They have to meet that need.

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CONTRACTS WITH OTHER COMPANIES OR VENDORS OFTEN INCLUDE SECURITY ASSURANCES. SHOULD YOU ASK FOR REAFFIRMATIONS OF THOSE POINTS IN LIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC? IF SO, WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO APPROACH THE SUBJECT? THOMPSON: The state’s credit crisis management team actually discussed this when the pandemic first hit. Identify your critical applications and the vendors that support them. You have to ask how they are being secured. Will the vendors validate what they are doing and is there resiliency built into their systems? Do they have the resources needed to surge in order to support your growth? Part of the state’s procurement process is a continuous monitoring program, a risk management process, that requires vendors to attest their compliance, such as following best practices and that they’re meeting our security requirements, once a year. It’s something near and dear to me. Recently, a vendor partner was hit by ransomware, software that locks or exposes data until or unless, respectively, money is paid to the attacker. Its impact was huge, not only because it was statewide, but it was countrywide. And there have been other examples of that happening in North Carolina. In March, the city and county of Durham were hit by hackers using a phishing email. And ransomware set loose on the first day of class caused Haywood County Schools to close for a full week in August. My peers and I have discussed how can we get more transparency from vendors during a ransomware situation. North Carolina isn’t perfect, but something that we are working toward is making the process around how we do our vendor management in situations like that more standard and repetitive. QUICK: It’s important to review your situation, especially when events, such as the pandemic, change the world, to see how your policies are holding up and your vendors are working. Even if you don’t have the bargaining power of the state, for example, which many of the small businesses that I work with lack, it’s worth asking your vendors about security and response. You might not always get the answers that you want, but the fact that you’ve asked and documented that you have asked can be a great defense if a vendor suffers a cybersecurity incident in the future. Even if they

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don’t make a change after you have questioned something, you at least can show that you pointed out the issue and followed a process. That’s important for businesses of all sizes. ROETHLISBERGER: It really comes down to continuous improvement. None of the organizations that we normally deal with are considered ‘greenfield.’ They aren’t starting today, so they can’t make everything perfect. They must deal with the consequences of what they did yesterday. They have vendor and customer contracts, business relationships, connections and data exchanges that have been underway for years if not decades. Some may not know what is happening in the background of their computer systems, to be honest. So, it’s important to be constantly aware. Keep your antenna up, detecting developing challenges, and re-evaluate how you’re handling vendor relationships and find ways to improve them. Never assume that today’s solution will last forever. At the very least, review your policies and procedures, fine tuning and improving what you can, such as language in contracts or requests for proposals, once a year. Keep notes through the year, detailing lessons that you learned and issues encountered. It will make that task easier. HAS THE PANDEMIC RAISED ANY LEGAL QUESTIONS CONNECTED TO CYBERSECURITY AND DIGITAL PRIVACY? WALTON: At the end of many contracts, there are several clauses that are often seen as boilerplate. One of them is usually the force majeure — act of God clause. Are those types of defenses coming up in cybersecurity cases? Is COVID being invoked as an act of God? I’m not currently practicing law, so I don’t see that first hand. It’s an observation. RAIFORD: North Carolina Technology Association signs venue contracts for big events a year in advance. That’s routine business for us. When the pandemic arrived, some that we signed with were flexible, allowing us to push our event to next year. But one, owned by a company that does business worldwide, wasn’t agreeable to a date change. So, there was the force majeure clause. They claimed that COVID was a pre-existing issue, so when we contacted them to cancel or postpone our event, that was used to nulliSPONSORED SECTION

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fy the force majeure clause. The law firm that represents us wrote a letter back, and the venue caved. There was no further pushback. I was shocked. It’s important to have access to legal support. Government agencies have access to attorneys, the attorney general’s office and other resources. In the private sector, larger businesses have inhouse security teams, maybe inhouse counsel, too. They have access to high quality external counsel at the least. QUICK: Force majeure clauses are attracting attention in all types of contracts. I have yet to personally see that standard provision cited in the privacy and cybersecurity arena, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did see it in the context of a company’s unexpected shift to work-from-home resulting in system breach. Everyone is saying we couldn’t have expected that our employees would be sent home in a week’s time as an excuse for failing to maintain appropriate cybersecurity measures. One concern that I have about trying to use that line though is with the timing. It might be reasonable to expect cybersecurity disruptions within the first few weeks of the pandemic, but that likely isn’t the case anymore. We’re six months into this, so companies should be planning and getting a handle on how to secure their systems. I would be more cautious of trying to rely on the unanticipated and swift onset of the pandemic the longer that we’re in this. BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS, REGARDLESS OF SIZE, NEED CYBERSECURITY. WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR SMALL ONES, WHERE RESOURCES ARE OFTEN LIMITED? WALTON: Whenever we’re cold called by a third party, which could be an individual or business, the first question that we ask is if counsel has been contacted. There are reasons that you would want to maintain privilege over communications and other information if an investigation is active. Rightly or not, when there is an issue, especially one that may require disclosures, such as a data breach, or may result in litigation, we are overly cautious. We tell them to call a lawyer, then call us back. Sometimes they choose to move forward with us. And sometimes they pull back on the reins and go through counsel first. QUICK: It’s almost always cheaper to talk

with a lawyer on the front end of an issue than on the back end. We all know small businesses have budgetary limitations, but shoring up issues with someone who has the capabilities to advise on how to set up systems and policies before they happen will put you in a better place for the long run. Many times, you can receive this help through a trade group such as NCTA. They host presentations and webinars that tackle the concerns that you need to ask about. You don’t know what questions to ask if you don’t understand the issues. Clients can be reluctant to have me do a full risk assessment on their company because it comes with a cost that they aren’t willing to bear. They are willing to ask me about certain issues and have them addressed on an individual basis. But they usually only know to ask those questions if they are keeping up on new developments themselves. LaSALLE: I come at this from a service provider’s standpoint. The first thing I’d say to a small business is don’t go it alone. If you’re trying to figure out how to run your network, PCs, cybersecurity and digital footprint, it will be really difficult unless you have the help of specialists or are a company that’s native to the technology industry. So, you should get help. A friend of mine is part of a family medicine practice, which has three doctors, a receptionist and support from an IT team. That team had the practice’s back when it was hit by ransomware. There were clean backups, for example. They had all the rigor that comes with a large enterprise, even though they were a small office. There are some really great groups out there, including NCTA and Cyber Readiness Institute. The latter has a cyber hygiene program that is low cost. It’s about practice not investment in technology. Its recommendations include using the password manager on Google’s Chrome web browser instead of relying on easy to remember — and hack — passwords. After you put that program in place, your people are harder targets, making your entire process more resilient to attacks. All it requires is intention from the business’ leadership to do it right. ROETHLISBERGER: Small businesses should reach out to professional or industry organizations. Many have co-op programs that allow you to share services — legal, cybersecurity and others. And while it may be hard to hear, especially for small businesses,

cybersecurity is a cost of doing business. You have to budget for it. If you can at least install best practices, you’ll be in a better place than reacting after something has happened. And, if something does happen, recovery will be closer at hand. THOMPSON: Small businesses have other options such as a virtual chief information security officer. You get consultation from someone who can come in and help craft your security posture, mapping out a future for your business or organization as it moves to the next level, without having to pay all of that employee’s full-time salary. And take a data-centric approach to your organization or business’ cybersecurity. Focus on the data more than the infrastructure. Identify what needs to be protected, because that’s the bread and butter of your organization. HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC AFFECTED THE COLLECTION AND STORAGE OF DATA? QUICK: I agree; it’s important to take a data-centric approach. Don’t simply ‘Hoover’ up data. That old-school approach was to act like a vacuum, picking up every byte of data that you could. No one knew at the time which data was going to be useful for what, and that’s the heart of the problem. Data can be used for many beneficial things. But there are many bad uses for it, too. You might want to collect highly sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and credit card information. But there’s risk with that, because it’s the data that makes you the most susceptible to data-breach laws throughout the country. And in almost every state and country that has any sort of privacy effort, most people agree that top-level data needs to be tightly protected. There are more issues coming down the pike. We’re looking at changes in laws that govern biometric data, those behaviors or physical traits that can be used to identify an individual. If you have clients in California, for example, and you meet certain thresholds, a new law there — California Consumer Privacy Act — will apply to almost every level of data that you collect. If you have a customer’s name and address, which is data that won’t be a problem in most states, it could be an issue in California. Conforming to new regulations can be easier for a new business that integrates data planning from the start. It can be much N O V E M B E R

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harder for one that’s been around for 50 or 100 years and never thought about these issues before. If you’ve been storing client data in printouts in a backroom file cabinet for 50 years, then you probably don’t need it. Take time to find it, remove it if possible and secure it if not. Maybe all your employees aren’t engaged in their normal tasks because of the pandemic, so maybe they have time for this work. WALTON: Our clients fall into one of two groups. Those in the first are taking advantage of the pause created by the pandemic to do data analysis. The others are struggling to survive on at least some level. So, identifying the data that is collected, or which dormant server it has resided on the past five years, isn’t a top priority for the latter. And it won’t be until they have a breach. We also see the other side, where privacy is always a concern, but it’s not the most important. One of the top things that we tell clients is dispose of any data that you aren’t using. It could be a spreadsheet full of numbers or data stored on an older server that’s accessed maybe once a year on a whim. And many people have been laid off recently. Some of them are starting new jobs. Employers need to be mindful of what their new hires are bringing into their business. We’re seeing litigation on that issue, where the old employer’s confidential or proprietary information makes its way into the former employee’s new company. And like COVID, once it’s there, it’s very hard to get it out. LaSALLE: If you don’t need the data to run your business, then don’t collect it in the first place. That goes hand in hand with getting rid of what you don’t use. In many small businesses there are enclaves of data, such as when an employee carves off some of a spreadsheet to do his or her job and leaves it, or the rest of the spreadsheet, sitting on their computer’s desktop. It goes everywhere, and it’s on everyone’s desktop computer or it’s on their laptops. It requires a little attention, education and uplift of your people to make sure they recognize potential issues and eliminate them. A lot of privacy regulation is tied to a customer’s or employee’s location, not where the business is located. So, if you’re doing more digital commerce because no one is coming into your brick-and-mortar store anymore,

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and you create an online footprint that extends out of state, you’re now collecting data that is subject to somebody else’s privacy regulations. Privacy regulations in more than 25 states nationwide are in the works right now. It’s not the job of a small business to adapt to all of them. But if you can restrict data collection to only what’s needed to service your customers, then you’re going to be better off when different values are applied to your data in different places. Some data records might cost you a couple hundred dollars if you lose them. Others will cost much more. Health records, for example, have an open-market value of a thousand dollars per record. You may become more of an interesting target to a criminal because of the data you possess. You have to be cognizant of that, too. And that may give you a target of where to focus your protection resources. THOMPSON: Think about data disposal. Data ages out at some point, so what does your data retention schedule look like. It’s a journey into the world of privacy. We will see the adoption of more privacy rules. There are a bunch of them already in the works, including in North Carolina. Some may adopt more of the flavor of the General Data Protection Requirements, which governs the collection and use of personal information in the European Union, depending on the state or states that you’re working in. That will create more and more issues for small businesses. How do you allow someone to opt out of having their data collected? If you can’t answer that question, you might not want to collect the data in the first place. RAIFORD: Even my organization outsources its IT management. We have a rule that nothing is saved to a work laptop, which all of our employees use. They can’t download even something as simple as a recipe list, Word document — nothing. And we have two good reasons. If that laptop goes missing or an employee leaves under bad circumstances and you don’t get that person’s laptop back, the policy eliminates any chance for data escape. We continuously monitor for policy adherence and remind our staff of it. Our employees are of different ages, from their 20s to their 60s and every decade in between. Each has a different level of knowledge and comfort with technology. Often a younger person is more OK

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with giving up data or personal information than someone from an older generation. We see that variation elsewhere, such as knowing what happens when a document is downloaded. Some never look in a download folder, failing to realize how much data is there, even if they have saved or used the wanted information elsewhere. Having clarity among employees about what they can save, how to save it and how to get rid of it, especially in a remote working environment, where it may be tempting to quickly save items to the clipboard or desktop, is an important message, especially right now. ROETHLISBERGER: While many states and countries are developing privacy legislation, it’s unknown if the federal government will create some. That’s probably likely at some point. The real question is which of the ones that are enacted will be considered the high watermark, the one all others are measured against. No one has a crystal ball to see that future, so small businesses need to leverage their memberships in professional or cyber organizations, asking their professionals for guidance. If you review five that are now law, a cybersecurity professional should be able to tell you, based on the type of data that you use, what would be the most likely worst-case scenario as far as classification and handling. That will give you something to shoot for, putting you in a good position, at least for the foreseeable future. Some of that might be superseded by compliance for such things as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — HIPAA — or IRS Publication 1075, which lists requirements for keeping safe federal tax information. So, you really have to pick the ones that make the most sense for your business. And remember that some of the definitions or even the industry best practices can vary, depending on the legislation. DOES MOVING THE DATA THAT YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR INTO THE CLOUD KEEP IT SAFER, ESPECIALLY WHEN SO MUCH OF IT IS CURRENTLY BEING ACCESSED REMOTELY? LaSALLE: One thing that many businesses can do, regardless of size or resources, is move to the cloud. It offers many controls that help with security and data protection. But they have to be correctly configured, or it’s a great opportunity to let data get out the SPONSORED SECTION

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front door. We’ve seen that in health care, for example, where 51% of organizations don’t follow FDA guidance on even the simplest things that will make their data more secure. And they’re moving it to the cloud at a rapid pace. That’s the one thing a small business can’t do alone. It needs help. And make sure you give appropriate notice to your clients if you move your data or functions to the cloud. Review your existing contracts to see if that runs afoul of any of them. THOMPSON: When I discuss cybersecurity and privacy, one of the things that I caution state agencies, local governments and others is don’t consider the cloud as a way of transferring your risk. That risk still resides with you as a business owner. That data is yours regardless of where you put it, and you are liable for it. Make sure that if you are taking it to the cloud that you do so in a secure way that you understand. You need to know who’s looking at that data, who’s monitoring it and if something goes bump in the night, who’s going to be called to fix it. You still need to ensure that you’re doing the same

things that you would if your system was on premises, which is to make sure it’s patched and make sure that you know that you have security and oversight. ROETHLISBERGER: When a company or organization moves its data to the cloud, sometimes it overestimates the security that comes with it. This gets missed more often than you would think, even though we call it out all the time. A vendor may tell the customer that it meets a long list of criteria, and it’s doing all the right things. But what it’s talking about is its environment, not what the client deploys within that environment. That’s an important distinction. You can’t assume that just because your cloud vendor is doing the right things that what you move into the cloud is appropriately configured for it. It’s a double-edged sword. I believe that for small businesses and organizations, which typically don’t have deep IT experience, the cloud is probably a safe choice from a foundational perspective. But you still have to do the right things with your systems that are moving into the cloud.

QUICK: I don’t have an opinion one way or the other on the security of cloud versus more traditional systems — both have their positives and negatives for different types of companies. The process of reviewing and updating practices is great no matter what a company selects, especially when it comes to strengthening cybersecurity, because it means that you’re doing something. But anytime you make a change, you need to ensure that your policies and procedures support what you did and what you are trying to accomplish. It’s a mismatch that’s always visible when you’re looking into a system’s back end. The IT department will tell you that they did one thing, but the move isn’t appropriately reflected in governing documents. Or the privacy policy wasn’t updated to indicate that a vendor is now being used for a certain task. It’s vital to make sure that your externally facing and internally facing documents match the changes that you’re making from a technical standpoint.

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new, sprawling multiuse space in the Queen City’s trendy South End neighborhood. A 22-story tower in downtown Raleigh that boasts the title of “most green” high-rise in the U.S. A 3,023-seat performing arts center in Greensboro that will soon host some of the world’s top entertainment and musical acts. The seventh annual Building North Carolina awards highlight some of the state’s most impressive commercial real estate projects completed between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, based on design, innovation and impact on their communities.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF KANE REALTY

BY MEGAN BIRD, DAVID MILDENBERG AND TAYLOR WANBAUGH

10/21/20 8:48 AM

OVERALL DESIGN

THE RAILYARD SOUTH END CHARLOTTE

DEVELOPER: BEACON PARTNERS, CHARLOTTE CONTRACTOR: EDIFICE, CHARLOTTE ARCHITECT: RBA GROUP, CHARLOTTE COST: NOT DISCLOSED SIZE: 326,000 SQUARE FEET OF OFFICE AND RETAIL SPACE; 91 APARTMENTS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BEACON PARTNERS

eacon Partners and RBA Group considered 30 different plans before settling on the design of the RailYard mixed-use project, says Beacon Senior Partner Mike Harrell. “We wanted to try to do something with a new development that also honored the neighborhood’s history.” The area, just south of downtown Charlotte, was mostly industrial historically but has been dominated in the last decade by new apartment complexes filled with bankers, lawyers and accountants with centercity jobs. The resulting RailYard emerged as the South End neighborhood’s first major multitenant office project following the East Coast headquarters of Dimensional Fund Advisors and, within the next year, major installations for LendingTree and Lowe’s. The dual eight-story buildings feature unobstructed views of downtown and lots of common areas with standing desks and communal tables. The RailYard leased up quickly, with insurer Allstate filling the north building as it expanded with a pledge for as many as 2,000 new jobs. The south building’s major tenants include accounting giant EY, the Parsons engineering firm and coworking leader WeWork, which Harrell says is doing fine despite its struggles in other markets. “There’s not much other coworking space in South End.” The RailYard is up for sale, a Beacon official said at a real estate conference in early October. A few blocks away, the firm has another 10-story mixed-use project under construction, scheduled to be completed in mid-2021. The RailYard also includes restaurants, boutique shops and 91 apartments that range from about 400 to 1,000 square feet with monthly rents of about $1,000 to $2,400. N O V E M B E R

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COMMERCIAL PROJECT

FNB TOWER RALEIGH

CONTRACTOR: CHOATE CONSTRUCTION, ATLANTA ARCHITECT: JDAVIS ARCHITECTS, RALEIGH DEVELOPER: DOMINION REALTY PARTNERS, RALEIGH COST: $120 MILLION SIZE: 326,000 SQUARE FEET OF OFFICE SPACE; 239 APARTMENTS

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOMINION REALTY PARTNERS

eveloper Andy Andrews says the 22-story tower is the most “green” high-rise in the U.S. based on certifications from the Green Building Initiative, which rated its fresh air ventilation, air filtration and other technology. The environmental improvements won’t result in higher rental rates, he says, but there are other advantages. “With the pandemic, being green is better than ever because when people go back to work, these are the things that really matter,” Andrews says. It also increases the price that potential buyers might pay because of the increasing popularity of environmentally friendly structures, he adds. The tower is adjacent to the Raleigh Convention Center and the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, giving it what Andrews calls the city’s best downtown location. It’s also the first N.C. combo officeresidential high-rise, a property type that is common in many bigger cities. As of early October, the apartments were 70% leased, and 60% of the office space was taken. Key tenants include McGuireWoods law firm and FNB, the Pittsburgh-based bank that Andrews credits with making the project a reality. New York Life is Dominion Realty’s investment partner.

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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT PROJECT

STEVEN TANGER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS GREENSBORO CONTRACTOR: BARNHILL CONTRACTING, ROCKY MOUNT ARCHITECT: H3 HARDY COLLABORATION ARCHITECTURE, NEW YORK; OSSER INTERNATIONAL, ATLANTA OWNER: CITY OF GREENSBORO

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOEY KIRKMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

COST: $85 MILLION

bout eight years after the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro kicked off a task force to consider a performing-arts center, the city was ready for a grand opening of the 3,023-seat venue in late March with events featuring Josh Groban, Tony Bennett and Jay Leno. Unfortunately, the pandemic upended those appearances and plans for a big first year of productions, including a touring Broadway series that has sold 16,100 season memberships. Once the crisis concludes, the center is poised to become one of North Carolina’s most popular live-entertainment operators. About $45 million in public funds and $42 million in private funds was raised for the center, including a $7.5 million pledge from the name sponsor, who is stepping down as CEO of Greensboro-based Tanger Factory Outlet Centers in January. The city’s contribution includes ticket fees, parking revenue and a tax on hotel rooms. The building’s exterior is made of limestone, glass and stucco, and it’s near LeBauer Park in downtown Greensboro.

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RENOVATION PROJECT

OPTIMIST HALL CHARLOTTE

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: BARNHILL CONTRACTING, ROCKY MOUNT ARCHITECT: PERKINS & WILL, ATLANTA DEVELOPERS: WHITE POINT PARTNERS, CHARLOTTE; PACES PROPERTIES, ATLANTA; CONFLUENCE REAL ESTATE, ATLANTA COST: $60 MILLION SIZE: 147,000 SQUARE FEET

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE PLAID PENGUIN

harlotte’s first food hall has given new life to the former Highland Park Gingham Mill, which once shined as the Queen City’s largest textile mill. Optimist Hall opened in August 2019 a mile north of downtown. It’s home to Duke Energy’s 83,000-square-foot office space and more than 20 local food, beverage and retail vendors, including Archer Paper, Dumpling Lady, El Thrifty Social Club, Felix Empanadas, Fonta Flora Brewery, Papi Queso, Spindle Bar and Suárez Bakery & Barra. The mixed-use development has an industrial feel with brick and beam interiors and includes the mill’s hardwood floors and 14-foot ceilings dating from 1892. “When COVID hit in March, the developers behind Optimist Hall quickly adjusted their business model and launched a drive-thru only operation, keeping their many small-business tenants in operation while also ensuring the safety of the employees and guests,” says Anna Mintz, the project’s spokesperson. “Once given the green light to reopen for on-site dining, Optimist Hall implemented a comprehensive six-point plan to keep tenants and guests safe, which included enhanced cleaning measures, social distancing guides, modified seating indoors and expanded seating outdoors, and limited interaction between customers and tenants inside the hall.”

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PUBLIC PROJECT

WINSTON-SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY SCIENCES BUILDING WINSTON-SALEM GENERAL CONTRACTOR: RODGERS DAVIS II, A JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN RODGERS BUILDERS AND WALTER B. DAVIS, CHARLOTTE ARCHITECT: DESIGN COLLECTIVE, BALTIMORE OWNER: THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH WINSTON-SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY COST: $53 MILLION PHOTOS COURTESY OF WINSTON-SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY

SIZE: 102,000 SQUARE FEET

he five-story Sciences Building at the historically Black university includes additional laboratories and support spaces, a makerspace, classrooms, a divisible 240-person lecture room, conference rooms, student study areas, faculty offices, an IT data center, and a three-story central atrium. The new building will serve multiple science focus areas, including microbiology and biohazard, bioinformatics and molecular genetics, synthetics and medicinal, and bioanalytical. Winston-Salem State ranks as one of the top 50 producers in the U.S. of Black graduates with bachelor’s degrees in physical science. “We’ve been waiting for this building for a very long time,” said Elwood L. Robinson, WSSU’s chancellor, in a release. “I know many of our science faculty have been waiting for it, and they are elated and delighted because they know that it will set a new standard for science, give our students an opportunity to have wonderful experiences in the laboratory and give our professors an opportunity to have state-of the-art facilities where they can continue to do their research.” N O V E M B E R

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RESIDENTIAL PROJECT

PEACE RALEIGH APARTMENTS RALEIGH GENERAL CONTRACTOR: CLANCY & THEYS, RALEIGH ARCHITECT: CLINE DESIGN, RALEIGH OWNERS: KANE REALTY, RALEIGH; WILLIAMS REALTY & BUILDING, RALEIGH COST: $192 MILLION SIZE: 400,000 SQUARE FEET

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF KANE REALTY

ositioned in the heart of downtown Raleigh’s old Smokey Hollow neighborhood, the 11-story, mixed-use Peace Raleigh Apartments is anchored by a Publix, the capital city’s first full-size downtown supermarket. The complex boasts 417 apartments with quartz counters, plank flooring, stainless steel appliances and balconies with city views. Residents enjoy a pool deck with outdoor lounges and grilling stations, a sky terrace overlooking downtown, a two-story indoor/outdoor fitness center and other amenities. About 40% of the apartments are leased, with the first residents taking occupancy in May. The project includes retail and office space, an 83,000-square-foot underground parking garage and a seven-level parking deck. It’s among several big downtown developments of Kane Realty, including The Dillon mixed-use project that opened in 2018. Adding a downtown supermarket “is major for our city and this sub market,” says CEO John Kane. “This fills a need for downtown that positions the city for future growth to fuel more street retail, residential, office and hotels.”

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HONORABLE MENTIONS CAMP NORTH END GAMA GOAT BUILDING C H A R L OT T E

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SONYA ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY, WAKE COUNTY GOVERNMENT

General contractor: ATCO Properties & Management, New York Architect: BB+M Architecture, Charlotte Owner: Atco Properties & Management, New York; Shorenstein Properties, San Francisco Estimated cost: $15.6 million for the land Size: 1.3 million square feet

Camp North End is Charlotte’s largest assemblage of renovated and repurposed historic buildings. Plans call for the 76-acre site, located a mile north of the city’s central business district, to offer offices, retail, restaurants, hotels and residential development. Ford Motor operated the plant until World War II, when it was repurposed into a U.S. Army warehouse. New York-based Atco Properties & Management bought the property for $15.6 million in December 2016, then opened the first phase a year later by completing the 3,000-squarefoot Raceway Building. The most recent development is the Gama Goat Building, named after six-wheel Army vehicles that were once assembled there. It features 140,000 square feet of office space and an outdoor area designed for “walking meetings” and recreational use. Camp North End hosts more than 40 office and retail tenants.

UNION STATION W I N S TO N - S A L E M

General contractor: New Atlantic Contracting, Winston-Salem

Architect: Walter Robbs Callahan & Pierce Architects, WinstonSalem Owner: City of Winston-Salem Cost: $11.5 million Size: 33,714 square feet

The Union Station is going back to its roots. Built in 1926 as a collaboration among three railroad companies to bring passenger train service to Winston-Salem, the station was a transportation hub for what was then the state’s biggest city. Train service stopped in 1970 and the property was repurposed into an auto repair service. The city bought the property in 2012 and renovated it to house office and retail tenants. Although it is no longer a working train station, the project team restored the building’s distinctive elements while integrating them with modern amenities through a two-year, $11.5 million renovation. The original Beaux Arts train station was filled with high-end finishes and materials such as ornate cast-iron entrances, wood pivot doors, marble wainscot and quarry and porcelain tiles. Crews restored the original window frames, tile and cabinetry.

OSCAR N. HARRIS STUDENT UNION AT CAMPBELL UNIVERSITY BUIES CREEK General contractor: TA Loving, Goldsboro Architect: Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, Charlotte Owner: Campbell University Cost: $35 million Size: 110,000 square feet

The Oscar N. Harris Student Union is a culmination of decades of planning, donations and growth at the university. The multipurpose student hub is 10 times the size of the old Wallace Student Center, built in 1978. The 110,000-square-foot facility opened in May with a virtual tour and physically opened this fall. The building offers multiple dining options, lounge areas, study and meeting spaces, a two-story fitness and wellness center, a student store, offices for student organizations, a multipurpose theater that

seats more than 200, and an 800-seat banquet hall. The theater is the first of its kind in Harnett County, where Campbell University is one of the biggest employers and the only higher education institute. The facility was funded by alumni donations, fundraising and a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded grant. It is named for the late Oscar Harris, a Campbell alumnus and longtime mayor of Dunn.

CARY REGIONAL LIBRARY CARY

General contractor: Clearscapes, Raleigh Architect: Balfour Beatty, London Owner: Wake County General Services Administration Estimated cost: $23.7 million Size: 23,450 square feet

After 43 years of operating out of a single-story brick building on Academy Street, the library has relocated to its new 23,450-square-foot downtown home. The space houses 90,000 books, expanded programming, 32 public computers and free Wi-Fi. The first floor includes the children’s collection and a large activities room, and the second floor features the adult services collection, a community meeting room and study area. The project was a partnership with the town of Cary and included construction of a parking deck. The town plans to redevelop the library’s old location.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS BROUGHTON HOSPITAL

CORNING OPTICAL HEADQUARTERS

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EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY DOWDYFICKLEN STADIUM RENOVATION GREENVILLE

After seven years of construction, patients moved into this state-funded psychiatric hospital in September 2019, five years later than initially expected. It replaces a historic building that opened in 1883 and once housed 4,000 patients. The new site includes 382 beds, plus classrooms and clinical facilities. Internal courtyards provide space for small group therapy and give the feeling of an apartment complex. The hospital employs more than 1,000 people. Construction began in January 2012 and was originally slated for completion in September 2014, but the project encountered myriad design and engineering problems that delayed its opening for years. The state fired Archer Western Contractors in April 2017, citing delays and a loss of trust. Travelers Casualty & Surety of America, the insurance company that took over the build, hired the contractor back with the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s permission. Archer Western then completed the project.

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General contractor: Balfour Beatty, London Architect: Gensler, San Francisco Owner: Crown Realty & Development, Costa Mesa, Calif. Estimated cost: $38 million Size: 182,170 square feet

Corning Optical Communications, a fast-growing division of New York-based fiber-optics giant Corning, announced in 2015 that it planned to relocate its headquarters from Hickory to Charlotte, citing an improved ability to recruit top talent. Located in the Riverbend Village development in northwest Charlotte, the 650-employee headquarters has smart window technology, indoor and outdoor lounges, a cafe, on-site walking trails and a rooftop seating area. Original developer Beacon Capital Partners sold the building for $58.5 million to Crown Realty & Development less than a year after its opening. There were more than 30 bids for the property, which sold for $321 per square foot. Corning Optical, which was offered $2.35 million in state and local incentives as part of the move, has a lease through 2034.

General contractors: T.A. Loving, Goldsboro; Frank L. Blum, Winston-Salem Architects: LS3P, Charlotte; AECOM, Los Angeles Owner: UNC System Cost: $60 million Size: 93,000 square feet

East Carolina University is investing $60 million in renovations to its football stadium as part of its ongoing initiative to modernize and expand its athletic facilities. Since opening in 1963, the stadium has increased its capacity from 10,000 seats to 50,000. The latest improvements to the stadium include the TowneBank Tower, Ward Sports Medicine Building, and the Walter and Marie Williams Baseball Hitting Facility. The four-story tower is named for Portsmouth, Va.-based TowneBank, which donated $3 million to the effort. It has floor-level ticketing and concessions and premium seating on the upper levels, including 22 lodge boxes, 24 suites, 550 Trade Club seats and a press box with more than 100 seats.The Trade Club also doubles as a banquet and event space.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KEITH ISAACS, BEACON PARTNERS, EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

General contractor: Archer Western Contractors, Atlanta Architect: The Freelon Group, Durham; Perkins & Will, Chicago Owners: State of North Carolina (administered by the Department of Health and Human Services) Cost: $154.7 million Size: 480,000 square feet

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HONORABLE MENTIONS WEGMANS FOOD MARKETS RALEIGH

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WEGMANS FOOD MARKETS, UNC CHARLOTTE, ELON UNIVERSITY

General contractor: Williams Company Southeast, Orlando, Fla. Architect: Gensler, San Francisco Owner: Wegmans Food Markets Cost: Did not disclose Size: 104,000 square feet

The Wegmans Raleigh location is the supermarket chain’s 100th store and first in North Carolina. Anchoring the $20 millionplus Midtown East shopping center near downtown Raleigh, the facility is smaller than an average Wegmans but features a casual family-friendly restaurant, a bakery, and a food court with indoor and outdoor seating. The store has a cult-like following in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts. A second unit opened in Cary in July, while four more stores are planned for the Triangle area at sites in Cary, Chapel Hill, Wake Forest and Holly Springs. The Raleigh location has 475 employees. The family-owned business has been named one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For by Fortune magazine for 21 consecutive years.

BROADSTONE QUEEN CITY APARTMENTS C H A R L OT T E General contractor: Crescent Multifamily Construction, Charlotte Architect: Cline Design, Raleigh Owner: Alliance Residential, Phoenix Cost: Did not disclose Size: 391,200 square feet

Alliance Residential’s eight-floor apartment complex in downtown Charlotte boasts 260

one- and two-bedroom units with monthly rents ranging from $1,340 to $2,900. It features a saltwater rooftop pool, sky lounge with views of downtown Charlotte, a courtyard, coworking space, coffee shop, pet spa and gym. It also has a robust arts program curated by Hope Cohn Projects, including commissioned works from local artists such as Matt Moore’s mural RIDE and Jourdan Joly’s purple gradient Crown Installation. Alliance is among the nation’s largest multifamily developers with 15 regional offices overseeing projects in more than 20 states. It delivered projects with 690 units in Charlotte and Durham last year.

THE INN AT ELON

UNC CHARLOTTE RECREATION CENTER

General contractor: The Christman Co., Lansing, Mich. Architect: LS3P Associates, Charleston, S.C. Owner: Elon University; operated by Charlestowne Hotels, Charleston, S.C. Cost: $31 million Size: 80,000 square feet

C H A R L OT T E

General contractor: Edifice, Charlotte Architects: Jenkins Peer Architects, Charlotte; CannonDesign, New York Owner: UNC System Cost: $66 million Size: 148,000 square feet

UNC Charlotte’s Recreation Center officially opened in January, but was closed most of the year because of the pandemic, then reopened with limited capacity in the fall. The massive facility includes four multipurpose courts for basketball, volleyball, badminton and pickleball; outdoor basketball, pickleball and sand volleyball courts; indoor and outdoor pools featuring a four-lane lap swimming pool; more than 30,000 square feet of fitness equipment space; and three outdoor terraces. The new facility replaces two older recreation buildings that totaled a combined 10,000 square feet of recreation space. The design team drew inspiration from athletic complexes at James Madison University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Old Dominion University.

ELON

The boutique hotel opened in January on Elon University’s campus, with 70 rooms and 10 suites, a restaurant and lounge, fitness center, outdoor courtyard and firepits, indoor and outdoor event space, on-site parking, a gift shop, and complimentary bicycles. The university says the hotel will employ about 50 people and is intended to attract both university guests and the general public, while offering space for weddings, reunions, business meetings and other events. The 5,200-square-foot multipurpose ballroom accommodates as many as 340 people, and the outdoor lawn provides space for 440. Its restaurant, The Mark at Elon, serves upscale American cuisine “with a Southern twist.” All revenue beyond operating costs from the hotel will go toward student scholarships at the private university, which enrolled more than 6,000 students this fall.

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CENTER FIELD

AMONG THE LATEST NICHES OF DURHAM ARCHITECTS TURAN DUDA AND JEFFREY PAINE ARE HIGH-TRAFFIC UNIVERSITY STUDENT UNION BUILDINGS THAT CONNECT TOWN AND GOWN.

BY DAVID MILDENBERG

he 118,000-square-foot student center that opened at Atlanta’s Emory University in September 2019 won a trade association national award for Duda Paine Architects. It’s the latest honor for the Durham-based firm formed in 1997. Its current projects include a student center being built at N.C. Central University in Durham and the new N.C. School of Science and Mathematics campus in Morganton. Founders Turan Duda and Jeffrey Paine discussed the history of their 60-employee firm in an interview edited for clarity and brevity. ► WHAT ARE THE KEY DISTINCTIONS OF THE EMORY UNIVERSITY PROJECT? Duda: The Emory Student Center has done exactly what we hoped: taken what was there — basically a hermetically sealed box — and broken it open to establish a new campus heart and primary crossroads for campus life. Students have told me, “I’m so thrilled with this building, because I can see — and feel engaged with — the entire campus.” Paine: I’m most satisfied with our original placement of the building, its scale, our breaking the massive program of the center into smaller pavilions so we could tuck into a hillside. The completed buildings fit into the campus extremely well, which is a true success for me. ► IS THERE A KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES SITUATION IN STUDENT CENTERS? Paine: The competition from one school to the next will only be more intense. Having great facilities is part of that dynamic. Student unions have become an important tool for a university to show off their culture by having a place where students can gather and study. We believe student centers don’t necessarily need to be enormous, expensive buildings. For example, at N.C. Central [University], the program is modest, and they’ve been very thoughtful about what to include. About 50% of the space is for gathering and large meetings. These spaces are designed to be divided into multiple spaces for smaller meetings. The result will be a very impressive building but also appropriate for the budget. Duda: More universities are realizing a student center is a recruiting tool. When parents and their kids tour a prospective school, the student center is the launching point. It’s the place students can imagine themselves being — it’s not going to be their dorm room or a classroom.

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At N.C. State [University], the [Duda Paine-designed] Talley Student Union has become a symbol of the university’s community outreach. N.C. Central noted that they’d picked the site because they didn’t want to be embedded in the middle of campus. They wanted to be on the edge, between the community that supports the university and life on campus. ► HOW IS COVID-19 AFFECTING YOUR WORK? Duda: There is hesitancy and anxiety not knowing where the virus will go, which is why having a pause button to push before going full speed ahead is helpful. Jeff and I have been through economic cycles before — not a pandemic, of course — but we try diversifying our portfolio so if one sector is suffering, another may not be. That way, we can be ready when the project comes back. Right now, everyone is retrenching and waiting to see how things unfold. ► WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON THE PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION IN YOUR PRINCIPAL MARKETS IN 2020-21? Paine: This is an unprecedented event with no contemporary reference point. Neither 2008 nor the Great Depression are applicable. What’s different today is that the underlying business denominators are healthy. We have a strong economy in the U.S. and, to a certain degree, globally. Clearly, a piece of metal has been stuck in the gears and stopped everything in its track. But there’s no reason to believe that the basic parameters of a good economic climate are somehow at risk. In Raleigh, there’s probably close to a dozen speculative commercial office buildings ready to go from one phase to the next. It will be interesting to see who is ready to say, “If the economy is healthy, not only are we going to prepare to build, we’re going to start addressing the concerns tenants might have in their space post-COVID and accommodate them.” I would like to believe that once treatments and a vaccine are found, we will be at least as healthy, maybe even more healthy, afterward.

of work, but diversity in the scale and geography that has helped us immensely. Too many of the local firms we used to compete with are now under the umbrella of a larger, multioffice firm because they couldn’t do the larger projects. We’ve been able to do both. It’s an advantage. ► WHAT PROJECT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? Duda: I’m really, really proud of our firm’s very first project, Gateway Village Technology Center in Charlotte, which was also our first project in North Carolina and our first of that scale. I feel we broke new ground with a response to urban design that I hadn’t seen in the state before. It may not be a skyscraper signature building, but it’s a signature space with a signature environment that engages the neighborhood on the cusp of becoming something more than it had been. If you look at our work, you recognize our belief that every building has the potential to be a private/public entity. The Dillon [in Raleigh] is the latest iteration of that idea: It bridges the private and public divide by creating a public terrace on top of its parking structure. At Gateway, we took the space between the buildings to create that public domain, which sits in a highly secured, very private work environment. That’s quite an accomplishment. Paine: The Duke Student Wellness Center has been very meaningful to me for a couple of reasons. One, I believe it’s truly an iconic building. Second, the building program addresses student wellness. When you consider that 60% of college and university students today will suffer from stress or depression, a facility like this helps to turn that tide. At Duke, we had the opportunity both to serve students in terms of their immediate need to go to a doctor or therapist. But the building is about the students learning a new way of living. It’s about helping them answer questions like: Where do we want to work; how do we want to live; and are we going to learn how to think of ourselves in a healthy way to be our best selves physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually? ■

Duda: I believe there will be pent-up demand: demand from people who want to get out of their homes and who want to go back to the office. I don’t think the office environment is going away. I read an interesting article by someone who predicts that we’re actually going to need more office space, not less. Because if your business model is dependent on people being able to be at the office, you’re not going to be able to populate the space the way you used to; you might only be able to occupy half of it, which means you need twice as much space. ► WHAT IS YOUR GOAL IN TERMS OF COMPANY SIZE? Paine: We’ve never been a company that expanded and contracted with its workload. Instead, we’ve always hired people who are right for the firm and our culture. We’ve stuck to that approach over the years to ensure we’re building a group who will work together as a team, support one another, generate great ideas, and complete the work well. We’re also at an ideal size to design buildings within our region as well as much farther afield. Duda: We never had a goal of being a certain size. What’s interesting about our current size is we’re able to do the same work as a megafirm with a thousand people, while also doing the scale of project a five-person firm does. Again, it’s diversity not just [in] the type

▲ Duda Paine Architects won the Association of College Unions International 2020 Facility Design Award for its work on Emory University’s student center, which opened in September 2019.

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Lisa Callaghan is pressing ahead with the opening of her Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar in Durham.

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ou may not have to be crazy to start a new restaurant these days, but it probably helps. The truth is, being a restaurateur has never been easy. Cornell University research has found that about a quarter of new restaurants fail in the first year; after five years, as many as six in 10 are out of business. About 16,000 U.S. restaurants were estimated to have closed permanently through July as a result of the coronavirus, according to business review website Yelp. Still, the three clear-eyed entrepreneurs who share their stories below are convinced they can make it work, even in a time of pandemic. “I know the human instinct is to share time with friends, to be around people you care about and to do it with food,” says Lisa Callaghan, founder of Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar in Durham. “That hasn’t changed.”

Callaghan is a recent transplant to Durham and founder of the soon-to-open Plum. The 62-year-old daughter of the late Jack Callaghan, a Charlotte television executive from 1958 to 1995, she spent many years in New York City’s restaurant scene, working as director of culinary relations for cookware company All-Clad during the 1980s and, with her late husband, Patrick, starting a cafe on Long Island. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, Callaghan always considered North Carolina home and in 2017, she returned, attracted to Durham by what she describes as “the energy, the diversity, the rough around the edges” nature of the city. It was a place in transition, and the neighborhood where she chose to live, known as Central Park, was in the middle of it, with a growing food scene. She leased an apartment on Foster Street, built on the site of the old Liberty tobacco warehouse. “Downtown had this great activity,” she says. “It felt like things were happening here.” The idea for Plum had been bouncing around her head for many years. Five years before she left New York, in 2012, her husband died, turning her life upside down. “I was suddenly thrust into this world where I was alone,” she says. This experience was still fresh in her mind as the plans for her new restaurant began to take shape. “I knew I wanted a place where women could feel comfortable,” she says. When Callaghan began work on what would be Plum in May 2019, it seemed like another age. The economy was humming along, the stock market was hitting record highs, and unemployment was at historical lows. Durham’s skyline was dotted with construction cranes. It looked like a great time to start a restaurant. Callaghan signed a lease for space on Washington Street and hired an architect to design the new site. Demolition began just after Christmas and was done by January. Her dream was rapidly assuming a brick-and-mortar reality.

In February, there were rumblings of a virus but in the U.S., there was still a sense it was all somebody else’s problem. Then came March. On the 17th, Gov. Roy Cooper announced he was shutting down the state’s bars and restaurants. “It was kind of surreal,” Callaghan says. By then, she was sitting on a space that was still more construction site than restaurant, and a sunk cost equal to roughly two-thirds of the total budget. “I thought, ‘I can pull out now and cut my losses,’” Callaghan says. She stopped construction in May, but she didn’t fold. Instead, she began to pivot and to reimagine what the opening of Plum might look like. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant is located in what was Durham’s old municipal garage, built in 1927. It sits across from a six-story fire-drill tower, erected in 1928 and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a hundred yards or so from the original Durham Bulls baseball park. It features large eastfacing bay windows and 20-foot ceilings supported by a trusswork of steel girders. One wall is dominated by an 18-foot-long bar made of wormy maple. The seating arrangement will now be significantly different from what Callaghan originally envisioned, as circumstances forced a shift from indoor dining to takeout. She plans to turn what would have been an 1,100-square-foot event space with its own bar into a series of pop-up retail stores featuring local artists and artisans starting in late fall. “We’ll have some tables inside where people can sit, but the emphasis initially will be on takeout and familysized meals,” she says. One thing that hasn’t changed: the kitchen, the heart and soul of the restaurant. Representing nearly 25% of the total cost, it was an obvious place to cut but without it, Callaghan knew that Plum wouldn’t be the restaurant she envisioned, now or in the future. The initial menu will be built around an offering of Southern tapas, sourced locally and inspired by traditional regional recipes. The cooking will be done in a low-temperature, slow-cook Old Hickory Pit smoker oven, likely a Durham first, according to Callaghan. “My brother [who founded and runs Carrboro restaurant Acme] says that Southern food has been given the gift of poverty. Because the region was historically poor, we’ve had to be inventive. That’s what we’re doing here.” To bring the menu to life, Callaghan imported a chef from California, 26-year-old Trenton Shank, who most recently worked as both the farmer and chef at the Fess Parker Farm in California’s Santa Barbara County. Shank came to Durham sight unseen; his parents drove up from Georgia to scope out the house where he and his new wife will live. Shank had been looking for an opportunity to come east. “It was the love of the food and the camaraderie that convinced me to come to N O V E M B E R

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF HUDSON HOWER WITH UNIFY, REMY THURSTON

Plum and Durham,” Shank says. The pace of work is accelerating as an opening in November nears, with Callaghan both directing the tradesmen and taking a hand in various tasks like painting. Surprisingly, she professes to have experienced few sleepless nights after the initial shock back in the spring. She is firmly convinced that restaurants have a future and that one of these will be Plum.

If one were inclined to wordplay, it would be tempting to note that Vana, a new restaurant from Charlotte’s Jayson Whiteside and Michael Noll, was nearly caught in the “Bardo” by the advent of the nationwide shutdown. Not Bardo, the highly regarded restaurant the pair launched in May 2018, but the between-worlds purgatory as understood by the Buddhists and popularized in the best-selling 2017 novel by George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo. But that wouldn’t be quite right. In truth, Vana, which can be translated as a “wood” or “thicket,” opened for business in late August in the city’s South End neighborhood. The space is defined by a fire hearth and wood-fired pizza oven, an open architectural style with exposed infrastructure, and two garage doors that can be raised to soak in the energy from the street outside. Bardo, which offers a more formal dining experience, sits a few blocks away. “A broker showed us the space in April last year and by May, we were working on the new restaurant,” Whiteside says. The 40-year-old Whiteside and Noll, 38, converged on Charlotte from Phoenix and Chicago, respectively, though Whiteside grew up in Marion in western North Carolina. Whiteside and Noll’s wife attended Appalachian State University, but the two men met for the first time in Chicago, where Noll was honing his craft at Moto, Schwa and other restaurants. Arriving in the Queen City, they recognized that the restaurant scene was “on the rise, but there were a couple of holes in the market,” as Whiteside puts it. Both Bardo and Vana reflect the culinary vision of Noll, whom Whiteside describes as exhibiting “OCD [tendencies] about food and plating and sourcing.” Noll had been catapulted into the restaurant business two decades prior when, as a teenager, he broke a bone in his wrist in a skateboard accident. He didn’t have it set, and a few years later, it came back to haunt him. He kept skateboarding and ended up having multiple surgeries, after which his mother suggested that it was time to find a “real job.” He started washing dishes in a Pittsburgh restaurant, a real enough task where he was first exposed to the camaraderie of the kitchen and fell in love with food. Noll decided to hang up the skateboard and began working his way up the culinary ladder. Now, with Vana, Noll is looking to return to “root cooking — no gas, all wood fire, local ingredients done well.”

Jayson Whiteside, center left, and Chef Michael Noll, center right, opened Charlotte’s Vana in mid-August after the successful launch of their restaurant Bardo in 2018. The setting is more casual than Bardo, dominated by the hearth. “It’s the focal point, for sure,” Noll says. “When you’re sitting there eating, that’s all you see: the fire.” As with Callaghan and Plum, Vana’s owners entered the new year full of optimism. Because they were already running a restaurant, they were a little more sensitive to the shift in the winds. “In February, we started to see things happen and were a little nervous,” Whiteside says. “We knew by the beginning of March that we weren’t going to be able to open. We stopped everything.” Their reaction to the government-mandated closure mirrored Callaghan’s. “We were scared to death,” Whiteside says. They had planned to fund Vana in part from cash flow from Bardo, but suddenly both were in trouble. “I was in shock,” Noll says. “I was in a very dark place.” Noll wanted to shut down everything for a few months and regroup, but Whiteside was having none of that. “Jayson said to me, ‘People who stop, fail,’” Noll says. “He brought me back into the light.” They didn’t stop, but they did shift gears, suspending hiring at Vana and opening negotiations with the landlord over the rent. They moved to takeout at Bardo and reconfigured the menu, offering among other things to-go cocktail kits — ultimately selling about 4,000. With some cash still coming in, they believed they could keep going. “We weren’t making much money, but we were able to keep the lights on,” Whiteside says. “We knew this shutdown couldn’t go on forever.” With Bardo, which was running, they were able to apply for a PPP loan and received $90,000. There was no such opportunity with Vana, then in startup mode. But with $498,000 of a $525,000 budget already invested, they were all in. Vana opened on Aug. 13 with 36 dine-in seats, half of capacity, and a small takeout business. Whiteside describes the response so far as “surprising. We definitely did not expect the turnout we’ve seen so far.” He has no doubt they did the right thing. “We put too much work into the space not to open,” he says. N O V E M B E R

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Mindi and Owen McGlynn opened Asheville Proper in early August, about six months later than originally anticipated and at limited capacity because of pandemic restrictions. The Argentinian-style eatery focuses on a locally sourced, meat-heavy menu.

The Grove Arcade is indeed a proper space, occupying a full block in downtown Asheville. Originally conceived as the base of a never-finished 14-story high-rise, the building was constructed in the mid-1920s and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Its builder, the tonic magnate E.W. Grove, relocated to Asheville from St. Louis for health reasons and was also responsible for the nearby Grove Park Inn. In November 2019, husband-and-wife team Mindi and Owen McGlynn signed a lease for a previously occupied restaurant space in the Grove, along with partners Russell and Mercy Joseph. The planned restaurant, called Asheville Proper, expected to launch in the first quarter of 2020. The concept: an open-fire Argentinian-style grill and a “live-fire” dining experience based on a locally sourced, meat-centric menu. Demolition began in early

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January with an anticipated six-week build-out. They called it ”Asheville Proper” Mindi says, because “we are truly trying to be proper in the way we are doing things in both food and service.” Plus, she adds, “it’s located in Asheville proper,” meaning the heart of the city. Mindi, 32, and Owen, 42, arrived in Asheville in 2011. Prior to the move, Owen spent several years as sous chef at High Cotton in Charleston, S.C., where he had attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales University. Mindi, a native of Greenville, S.C., was staying at home, looking after the couple’s four kids. Owen learned his way around the Asheville restaurant scene during eight years working as executive chef at the Storm Rhum Bar, which he helped launch. In a statement announcing the planned launch of Asheville Proper, they described cooking over a wood fire as “an art form that deserves to be shared.” But as the project moved into early February, the shadow of COVID-19 started to loom. “We watched the

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF ASHEVILLE PROPER

first case of the virus emerge in Washington, and then there was another one and another one,” Mindi says. “By early February, it was showing up in Buncombe County.” Everything slowed down. Work crews were staggered to limit the number of people in the space. The opening date slipped back, and construction costs grew by about 30% as a result of the delays. But quitting wasn’t really an option. They were 75% invested when things shut down. To walk away would mean losing that money and giving up on the dream. “We were so far in that it didn’t cross our minds [to stop],” Mindi says. “We realized this was just one more thing we would have to get through. We were confident that the restaurant business would return.” The restaurant opened for friends and family in early August and to the public on Aug. 6, about six months later than originally envisioned and at 50% capacity for indoor seating (44 of 88 seats), plus a large outdoor patio space. While they are all about the food, the McGlynns have worked hard to make diners feel comfortable in the art deco space. “We want people to feel and to be safe,” Mindi says. That’s important, according to Jane Anderson, the executive director of the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association, which represents about 150 local restaurants. She says that she hears from a lot of diners who want an outdoor eating option. She is certain that most

restaurant owners will adapt. “I am constantly amazed when I see what these restaurateurs are doing in the face of everything that’s been thrown their way.” So far, there have been remarkably few permanent shutdowns in Asheville, according to Anderson, who says “about six” restaurants have closed so far, some of those “second locations.” The fallout has been more severe among the chain operators and those not owned locally. “No one thought the restrictions imposed in March would still be in place six months later. ” says Mindi, adding that, going forward, “no one knows what the restaurant business will look like.” But at least they are no longer staring into the abyss.

Launching a new restaurant in the face of a pandemic requires a bit of magical thinking, but that’s nothing new for committed entrepreneurs. For many in the food industry, it’s about more than just the money. “I think about my grandparents, how I felt when I sat at the table with them as a child,” says Plum’s Callaghan. “If I can recreate that feeling here, I would be so happy. I’ll spend every last penny I have to make it work.” ■ N O V E M B E R

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MEASURING THE MID-MARKET THAD WALTON

ZEB HADLEY JOHN GONELLA

GREG MARSHALL JOE DELPAPA JOHN TREECE

FORMER MID-MARKET FAST 40 WINNERS GATHERED VIRTUALLY TO DISCUSS HOW THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC HAS AFFECTED THEIR RESPECTIVE INDUSTRIES AND THE FUTURE OF THE MIDDLE-MARKET ECONOMY. ► John Gonella, CPA, tax partner, Cherry Bekaert, Raleigh

► Zeb Hadley, president and CEO, National Coatings, Raleigh

► Thad Walton, senior vice president & commercial banking leader, Regions Bank, Charlotte

► John Treece, president and CEO, DMA Sales, Tabor City

► Joe DelPapa, attorney, Ward and Smith, PA, Raleigh

► Greg Marshall, CFO, Omega Construction, Winston-Salem

he COVID-19 crisis upended the business world in myriad ways. Business North Carolina assembled three veteran executives of fast-growing businesses and three service professionals to analyze the impact of the unexpected pandemic. Comments were edited for brevity and clarity. See a video of the round table at businessnc.com.

► What’s your sense of the middlemarket economy? WALTON: It’s across the board. Folks are feel-

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ing like they’re getting to the “new normal,” but I think they’re still a little nebulous about what that exactly is. A big question for a lot of people who received [Paycheck Protection Program] funding was: “Did it cover up a wound that’s healed, or is it getting infected and delaying the inevitable?” I think we’ve seen a lot of businesses scrap and adapt. But people who have really changed their business models, or had the foresight early on to make some big decisions, whether it was hoard inventory or opening up different supply chains, have shown a lot of resiliency.

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► Has transaction work shut down in the last six months? DELPAPA: We were roaring hot all the way through the middle of March. We couldn’t keep up with the amount of deals. When March 15 hit and we had to lock down, everything stopped. It came to a screeching halt from March to the reopening sometime in May or June. There was a lot of activity in businesses getting ready for sale. When July came around, and in the last couple months, the activities really picked up. We’re really starting to see a lot of companies get interested. We were concerned that valuations would be depressed, and there’s going to be a lot of uncertainty from an acquisition standpoint. But over the last few months, it’s been positive to see good signs of [mergers and acquisitions] activity picking up. It’s not like the first quarter, but it’s certainly coming back to an optimistic level.

► Were you poised for this crisis? TREECE: About 65% of our business was already in the e-commerce and big-box world. From that standpoint, I guess you would say we were poised. But we had supply chain issues because most of our product comes from offshore. So our emphasis very early on was trying to get our supply chain stabilized.

► How was the construction market affected?

MARSHALL: The impact on the construction industry varies by market type. If you’re doing a lot of university work and public and office and medical and hospitality work, that has slowed way down. We’ve always tried to not over-focus on any market when it’s hot. Thank goodness we built our resume and reputation over the last couple of years, and now it’s paying off. We do industrial work and also a lot of retail ► What’s happening in the automotive in terms of big boxes and grocery store remodels. They sector? aren’t exciting projects in the sense that they get headlines, but it’s really good work. Remodels and new grocery TREECE: There has been an explosion of internet stores are not going away. sales. There’s definitely what we’re characterizing as Some competitors that are more a shift in consumer purchase focused on commercial office and behavior. A large portion of hospitality projects are laying folks business has now shifted to the off and cutting salaries. e-commerce sector, and that’s Thank goodness we We’re actually doing the oppogoing to remain there. site. We’re using this as an opThen there are companies built our resume and portunity to go out and find good that have supported the big-box people and do some promotions retailers or doing internet fulfillreputation over the within our company to strengthen ment business — they have had ourselves going forward. surprisingly fantastic years. Their last couple of years, In the last two years, we’ve comnumbers are over budget. We’re and now it’s paying off. pleted almost 4 million square feet fortunate to be in that bucket. of industrial work, mainly distribuUsed car prices have dramatition centers. And we’ve got about cally risen. Carvana and the folks - GREG MARSHALL 3 million square feet of distribution that are in the e-commerce space centers under contract. selling cars have been doing fanThe grocery-store chains are dotastic. So there’s folks that have ing really well. done quite well. A couple years ago, we got into building some car Yet, there’s still pieces of our business that are doing washes and convenience stores. They seem to be doing rather poorly. really well right now. Companies on the original equipment side of the autoWe had initially about 15% of our projects that were motive sector have been decimated when [automakers] put on hold. In the end, we’re going to lose about 6% of decided to shut down production. our backlog either permanently put on hold or pushed The biggest impact is on the smaller regional parts and into the next year. Most of that was hospitality projects. repair operations. We’ve seen a significant number of But we made a conscious decision that we were not garages go out of business. When you drive through the going to lay off workers, before a PPP loan was out there. rural cities of North Carolina and South Carolina, you’re We added our own costs, not the cost to the project owngoing to see garages that are closed, and they’re not ers. We actually put extra personnel on jobs to keep our coming back. Maybe they were already on the borderline people busy. financially and this has put them over the edge.

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► Zeb, you operate in more than 30 states. What has been your experience? HADLEY: We were shut down in Michigan for two months after the governor shut down everything except for construction projects that were specifically deemed essential. We had a hospital project and a wastewatertreatment plant there but no revenue for two months. And we had a retail project in Pennsylvania that was shut down. We also do a lot of work for Walmart and different retailers, and they shut down for two months. Things are now slowly trickling back to normal. But our HR department had a nightmare for many, many months. We were sending employees or subcontractors to different states, and we have to be very cognizant of entry into that state and then re-entry back into North Carolina or into another state. That was a logistical nightmare.

► How did you respond? HADLEY: Our general administrative expenses were about $550,000 a month. In early March, we started to analyze how to cut these expenses back. In Phase 1, we cut all nonessential spending. In Phase 2, we scaled back our administrative staff. PPP funding allowed us to keep our staff at full capacity for a period. But then, we saw the writing on the wall, and we’ve cut our burn rate to about $320,000 a month. We have basically prepared ourselves to break even through the rest of this year. Our revenue projections are $17.5 million this year, compared with $25 million last year. We can’t scale back any further because our backlog is about 20% higher than our estimated revenue. If we scale back too much, then when we start ramping up in the first quarter, we will be underwater. We are focusing on being profitable next year, because the work is there for us, fortunately.

► Has working remotely been effective? GONELLA: Remote auditing has been amazingly successful. We’ve been able to see how much clients will need us in the field other than those things that had to be done in person such as inventory counts. Everyone has a different situation of their comfort level with coming back into the workplace. We have certain people that could not wait to get back because it’s difficult to get work done uninterrupted. Some single people who are living alone quite honestly were starting to go a little bit stir crazy working from home. The firm has spent a lot of time focusing on how do we keep people engaged, making sure that those people who are working remotely don’t end up feeling disconnected from the organization and their teams as we try to service our clients.

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DELPAPA: Retention of key employees has become a big, big topic because how do we incentivize these folks when they can do the same job for another company? What if I can sit at my house and I can get paid by another company an extra five or ten thousand dollars or whatever the number is? You’re not coming into the office, you’re not developing that loyalty. Retention is going to be a big topic. WALTON: I think it’s very difficult to lead people remotely and incentivize them and train them and build a relationship. This telepresence capability is a tool in the toolbox. It’s something that we need to be good at just like managing a conference call or a roomful of people. But it’s very tough remotely to really lock arms with somebody and motivate them while we’re sitting across from a computer.

► What are the keys to growing your businesses? TREECE: We’ve adapted to the new opportunities that have opened up on the internet side of the business, so we’ve realigned and shifted resources. We see an opportunity to gain share where that wasn’t potentially there pre-pandemic. We have about 98 employees, and we have 76 open positions that we’re trying to fill. Forty percent are salaried jobs, and 60% are hourly associates. It is very difficult right now to fill those associate-level roles. That’s going to be a challenge for us.

► Why is it hard to attract workers? TREECE: Distribution is tough. There’s a couple of big gorillas in our business, the Amazons of the world. There’s more and more opportunities for people. We’ve done all the things that you can think of: incentives, hiring bonuses, signing bonuses, retention bonuses. It’s counterintuitive because the news says we still have an unemployment problem.

► What else is needed to get the economy moving? GONELLA: It would be good to get some clarification from Congress regarding the nontaxability of the forgiveness portion of the PPP. Initially, the guidance was that the forgiveness would not be taxable. But the IRS came out and said, “We’re not going to allow you to deduct the payroll costs associated with that forgiveness portion,” which is a backhanded way of making it taxable, which I don’t think was Congress’ intention. We need both parties to get together and get some clarity.

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SHIFTING STRATEGIES

he pandemic has proved an unprecedented challenge for the business community. Companies both big and small have had to pivot and think creatively in order to thrive or, in some cases, survive. As the coronavirus took hold of the U.S. in March, business in North Carolina came to a halt with the governor’s shutdown and stay-at-home order. The state saw an unemployment rate of 12.9% in April, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce. Business North Carolina checked in with some of the leaders from our previous Mid-Market Fast 40 lists to learn about their strategies for sustaining their workforce and revenue. Greensboro-based construction company Samet Corp., Rocky Mount’s First Carolina Bank and Mako Medical in Raleigh have been among some of the state’s fastest-growing middle-market companies over the last decade. The executives shared views on the status of their businesses, how to manage through this difficult period and what lies ahead.

ARTHUR SAMET, PRESIDENT AND CEO Samet Corp., Greensboro

amet’s father, Norman, started the business in 1961, with Arthur becoming CEO in 2000. It opened a Savannah, Ga., office this summer, joining sites in Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh and Charleston, S.C. Engineering News Record ranks the company among the nation’s 300 largest general contractors with annual revenue topping $300 million. Continuing to execute with a focus on the health and well-being of our customers, associates and trade partners. As an essential industry, we continued to provide construction activities on all job sites.

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Our primary moves as a result of COVID were: ► Shifting all office-based associates to remote work — which our ongoing IT strategies of ubiquity, redundancy, reliability, efficiency and security allowed us to accomplish practically overnight. ► Extensive focus on customer, associate and subcontractor/trade partner well-being — finding ways to maintain safety and health, address/ mitigate family and personal needs and support associates through the crisis. Our success in these things are all a result of our Big 4 strategies — Promoting our Culture, Developing Organizational Depth, Delivering Operating Excellence, Leveraging Competitive Advantages.

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RONALD DAY, PRESIDENT AND CEO First Carolina Bank and First Carolina Financial Services, Rocky Mount

ay runs one of the Southeast’s fastestgrowing community banks with assets of $907 million as of June 30, according to a federal filing. A former RBC Bank executive in Raleigh, Day led an investor group that acquired a small Rocky Mount bank in 2012. Since then it has expanded First Carolina into Cary, Raleigh, Wilmington and Virginia Beach, Va. Its stock is closely held.

For us, the pandemic has created additional growth opportunities for the bank, given the very resilient markets in which we operate. As well, because our market development plans tend to require significant advance planning, we have opened two new full-service offices this year in both Cary and Wilmington over the summer that have further bolstered the growth of the bank in an otherwise disruptive time. The reality is that our good business customers have adapted during COVID-19 and thus because we are an agile and skilled financial-services firm, we have

had significant opportunities during this period and expect them to continue. Customer adoption of digital/remote channels has accelerated and our technology platform has enabled us to execute very seamlessly with them as well. Our holding company, First Carolina Financial Services, is in the process of completing a significant space expansion in our Glenwood Avenue office [in Raleigh], and we are also finishing a new bank headquarters building to house expanded operations in Rocky Mount in October. We are doing all of this while experiencing record earnings and continued No. 1 asset quality and operating efficiency compared to our N.C.-based bank peers. In conclusion, it’s been less of a pivot for us than it has been a continued focus on doing what we do best. Given the disruption so many others in our space have experienced, we have been able to benefit and take away market share in the process. We expect this door to remain open as competitors grapple with internal issues created by changing customer behavior and how to best deal with the additional government involvement in their businesses with the massive, and certainly necessary, government stimulus programs.

JOSH ARANT, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Mako Medical, Raleigh

had Price and Arant started a lab testing company in 2014, thinking they could compete with industry giants Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp. Mako has become one of the state’s fastest-growing companies, expanding at a former printing plant in Henderson with support from state and local incentive programs. Mako lost nearly 40% of its business earlier this year when hospitals and clinics stopped offering many medical services to focus on the coronavirus. It has since rebounded by boosting its virus-related testing efforts.

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When COVID-19 hit our country in March, Mako immediately began developing a COVID-19 [polymerase chain reaction] assay alongside [medical-services giant] ThermoFisher Scientific. Since April, Mako has scaled its capacity to be able to perform over 75,000 COVID-19 PCR specimens per day and 20,000 COVID-19 antibody specimens per day. MAKO has performed over 1.5 million COVID-19 PCR tests and is supporting over 15 state health departments in their testing response. Additionally, Mako’s COVID response is supporting over a thousand medical practices and senior care facilities, multiple athletic conferences, and numerous colleges and universities. Mako has added over 500 team members and performed three expansion projects in our Henderson facility. Ultimately, Mako is here to serve and continues to provide solutions to all clients and help assist in the fight against the pandemic.

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SURVEY SAYS… Business North Carolina surveyed past Mid-Market Fast 40 winners to see what key factors they used to retain staff and continue growing in 2020. Here’s a sampling of their comments. Stepping up digital efforts was vital. “Operationally, we have relied on video conferencing for both internal and external meetings. We have encouraged videoconferencing as a substitute for a conference call to increase the level of engagement. Marketing and sales have relied on digital efforts to reach clients/prospects in lieu of on-site visits and trade shows. For instance, we have entertained via chefinars (virtual cooking sessions) in what used to take place in a restaurant or sports venue.” Operations director, logistics company “We have reduced all marketing [spending] but are ramping up digital [spending] at a faster clip than other expenses.” CEO, database-technology company “[We] transitioned to a work-from-home environment and expedited a move to cloud-based technology.” Chief financial officer, construction-supply company

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“We provided more digital marketing materials to our sales force.” Chief financial officer, biotechnology company “[We are] developing [and] offering more online, virtual, webinar-type of events for customers. [We are] also adjusting to having more remote workers.” Chief financial officer, engineering-services company “Our drive-thrus are open for deposits. However, we realize many people have health issues and are not comfortable being in public, even with masks. We made some changes to our online and mobile banking to make it more user-friendly and more interactive. Our customers can deposit checks from the comfort of their home. We also expanded the services that our commercial customers can do online. We have also been more active on social media so we can stay in contact with our customers.” Chief financial officer, community bank “We have to a point. Because COVID-19 and [the Black Lives Matter movement] dominated the news cycle (and they should), it did make us take pause and post less. We are starting to regain that momentum.” Facility manager, medical-services company

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Flexibility, communication, safety and thinking about the future of the company are all focuses when it comes to adjusting to the new “normal.” Other keys to success include:

“Continue to develop innovative products.” Executive vice president, sign manufacturer

“Learn to adapt to the new normal. Implement strategies that redefine success in the new reality.” CEO, auto-parts distributor

“Focus on client needs and requests.” President, schedule-software provider

“Thinking outside the box and changing quickly.” CEO, retail company “Continued close communication with our clients, employees and prospective employees. There will be opportunities as things continue to open up and we are working diligently to be prepared.” Chief financial officer, staffing company “To continue to work closely with our vetted carrier (trucking) partners. There is 50% more freight on the road compared to this same time last year. Therefore, there is a truck shortage causing a huge strain on supply and demand. We are upgrading our technology and have hired additional team members to keep up our customer service during this new normal.” CEO, logistics company

Not all companies lost momentum during the pandemic. Rather some saw increasing demand. “Our company was prepared and [has] been unaffected. In fact, the demand for new construction homes has increased significantly this year.” President, homebuilding company “We are fortunate that our industry did not suffer greatly in the pandemic. We hope to maintain and grow rather than rebound.” Chief financial officer, irrigation-equipment supplier

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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

TRAINING N.C.

BACK TO SCHOOL Economic downturns send many North Carolina workers and small-business owners to the state’s community colleges, where training and programs prepare them for a strong rebound. The COVID-19 pandemic has been no different. The COVID-19 pandemic has made for a tough year. In an attempt to slow its spread across North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper issued statewide stayat-home orders in late March. The restrictions had many effects, from canceling family celebrations to stopping sporting events, including the always popular ACC and NCAA men’s basketball tournaments. Cooper’s orders didn’t spare the state’s economy or workers. Many businesses began operating remotely. Others simply closed. In April, North Carolina’s unemployment rate surged to 12.5%, compared with 3.6% one year earlier, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce. Buncombe County saw a similar trend. Its April unemployment rate was 17.7%, up from 2.7% in April 2019. Buncombe’s unemployment rate is improving, falling to 7.5% in August.

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While that is good news, it isn’t pointing toward a return to prepandemic life for many of its residents. Instead, they’re preparing for new careers, says Deborah Wright, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College’s vice president of continuing education and economic and workforce development. Besides sharing the finer points of videoconference calls and online instruction, training for high-demand career fields, such as certified nursing assistants, HVAC and construction, is expanding at A-B Tech. “We have been steering people toward our Small Business Center,” she says. “Now is a great opportunity to start a new business.” Economic downturns historically coincide with enrollment upturns at North Carolina’s 58 community colleges. Workers turn to these institutions for training and certifications that qualify

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them for better jobs that are more resilient to economic upheaval. Business owners also find help, adapting their operations to changing times. The colleges are meeting this increased demand, in part, with an infusion of funding. The State Board of Community Colleges recently directed $15 million from the governor’s Emergency Education Fund toward financial aid and scholarships for North Carolinians seeking short-term workforce training in high-demand sectors. Communitycollege system spokeswoman Jane Stancill says those include aircraft maintenance, construction, criminal justice, emergency medical services, health care, manufacturing and information technology. In addition, Rocky Mount-based Golden LEAF Foundation, which funds economic-development

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projects with the state’s share of the national tobacco settlement, provided $500,000 for community-college scholarships for rural students. “We see this investment as critical to the success of our rural communities,” foundation CEO and President Scott T. Hamilton said in a news release. Few workforce-development programs are as robust as the community-college system’s Small Business Centers. A statewide network of 60, they focus on entrepreneurship, small businesses and economic development. They offer free confidential one-on-one counseling for business owners, who also can enroll in SBC seminars and classes, most at no cost. Local service providers, retail outlets and mom-and-pop restaurants have been counted among 2020’s most vulnerable businesses. So, the N.C. General Assembly allocated about $3 million to SBCs —

$51,724 per center — for additional counseling in May. That money has been put to good use at Pitt Community College in Winterville, where 33 retailers and restaurants had been helped by the end of September. “We know how important small-business owners are in our community,” Pitt SBC Director Jim Ensor says. “They create jobs and opportunities for our local residents, and it’s important they stay afloat.” He and two counselors work morning to night, helping business owners apply for federal funding and connect with private-sector mentors, who’ve reworked business models, for example, to incorporate e-commerce. That is vital to business survival in an increasingly touchless economy. Entrepreneurs received help getting their businesses off the ground from Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem. It spearheaded

Launch Challenge, which has helped more than 50 startups, thanks to a partnership with the L. David Mounts Foundation. “Through the Launch Challenge, we literally take small startups from idea to launch,” says Jennifer Coulombe, Forsyth Tech’s associate vice president for business partnerships and process improvement. The program, which is in its final year, had education and mentorship components and offered intensive business coaching. “It has been exciting to see the small businesses come to fruition,” she says. “You literally can drive through town and see new signs on their doors.” Growing demand from small businesses hasn’t stifled community colleges’ traditional roles of industry partnerships and workforce development. Guilford Technical Community College, for example, is expanding its role in the aviation industry. Its aviation

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TRAINING N.C. program is the largest in North Carolina and among the East Coast’s top three. Its newest training center — Caesar Cone II Aviation Building, home to the college’s aviation electronics program — sits on 20 acres at Piedmont Triad International Airport next to Greensborobased Honda Aircraft, which has hired the college’s graduates. GTCC teaches a robust aviation systems technology curriculum, too. “The program is FAA-certified, and students who complete it can become FAA-certified aviation technicians,” says GTCC President Anthony Clarke. “We have added a new cohort of 29 students to that program, and we continue to grow in the aviation sector.” Wake Technical Community College is moving ground to expand its offerings. It recently purchased 106 acres in Wendell, where it will build Eastern Wake 4.0, its seventh campus. Funded by a $349 million bond approved by Wake County voters in 2018, its programs will train workers in cutting-edge information and communication technology such as 5G, big data and cloud computing, says college President Scott Ralls. Wake Tech’s advanced electronics and biopharmaceutical manufacturing programs will be there, too. “The new facility is close to East Wake High School and Knightdale High School, and that will help build dual enrollment opportunities with Wake County Public Schools,” he says. Workforce development starts early at Pitt Community College in Winterville. Steven Mathews, Pitt’s dean of construction and industrial technology, says Technical Academy, a partnership with the county school system, allows high school students to train on the college’s state-of-the-art equipment each morning, learning a trade before their graduation. Each year, Technical Academy accepts 40 students who study computerintegrated machining, air conditioning, heating and refrigeration, electrical systems and industrial systems. Participants complete valuable appren-

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ticeships and earn an associate degree. “Most of them have gone straight into jobs, and others have chosen to enroll in a four-year university,” Mathews says. Technical Academy plans to add architecture to its curriculum, which he predicts will open its door to more students. Fayetteville Technical Community College’s mission includes helping some of nearby Fort Bragg’s 57,000 soldiers prepare for the civilian workforce. The college’s Transition Tech provides training, certificates and credentials in a variety of fields, including IT, engineering, applied technology and health care, in addition to resume assistance and interview preparation. One of Fayetteville Tech’s fastest-growing niches is health care education, says Mark Sorrells, senior vice president for academic and student services. That includes its school of nursing. “We typically have from 185 to 200 nursing students in our pro-

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gram, but over the next two or three years, we hope to grow it to 280.” The expanded program will be in space that was dedicated to the college’s Early Childhood Education Center, which closed in May, partly because of the pandemic. Online communication, learning and commerce surged as people navigated stay-at-home orders, and completing those tasks safely and securely is becoming more important daily. “Prior to COVID-19, North Carolina was ranked as one of the top five cybersecurity employers in the nation, with over 19,000 jobs available,” Sorrell says. “But since the pandemic started, cyberattacks have escalated, and we anticipate a growing need for cybersecurity experts as our economy continues to migrate to virtual applications and teleworking.” The recently launched Carolina Cyber Network, a consortium of community colleges, including Fay-

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ADVANCING APPRENTICESHIPS Gaston College was the first community college in North Carolina to obtain the sponsorship for a Registered Apprenticeship program. This allowed companies of all sizes to have an apprenticeship program while utilizing Gaston College resources to support and coordinate all aspects of an apprenticeship program. Launched in 2015 with five employers and 23 apprentices, Apprenticeship 321 has grown to a dozen employers with 46 apprentices seeking credentials in thirteen pathways in both advanced manufacturing and medical services. Forty-eight apprentices have completed their program and received their certification plus credential. In 2018, a youth apprenticeship for rising high school juniors and seniors was launched in collaboration with Lincoln and Gaston County school systems to further assist employers in filling their advanced manufacturing and paramedic medicine talent pipelines while providing an opportunity to the students that will culminate in a well-paying career, a college credential and no college debt.

What sets Gaston College’s apprenticeship programs apart: • Apprenticeship 321 employs a success coach who ensures the apprentices are successful by removing any roadblocks to education and providing resources if there are issues with work or personal life. • Gaston College offers nontraditional pathways other than the traditionally thought of manufacturing programs with training in the CNA-II and paramedic medicine program and a CNAI and shift supervisor program. • The apprenticeship program receives a high level of support from the colleges faculty and staff, ApprenticeshipNC, and employer and community partners. • Gaston College was able to secure the Duke Foundation Grant which currently pays for all tuition, books and fees for all pathways in advanced manufacturing. For its medical pathways, it utilizes the education assistance grant offered through ApprenticeshipNC. Each semester, what is covered varies, but it still allows financial assistance for companies and equalizes the “playing field” for companies of all sizes to participate and provide excellent related education.

For additional information, please contact us at apprenticeships@gaston.edu or visit gaston.edu/economic-workforce-development/services-business-industry/apprenticeship-321/

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TRAINING N.C. etteville Tech, is supplying workers with the needed skills and professionalism that is required to handle sensitive personal data. Community-based programs are key to students’ success at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. Its Workplace Learning Program, for example, placed more than 700 students from 42 different study programs with 365 different employers in 2019. Director Ed Injaychock says they represented many fields, including IT, automotive technicians and biomedical equipment technology. CPCC’s Computer Technology Institute uses classroom time, hands-on training and structured apprenticeships to prepare students for IT-consulting careers. “This is a great opportunity for people who are interested in getting into technology and becoming developers and consultants,” says Karla

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Shields, the institute’s executive director. “Every company I talk to needs that type of talent.” Sheena Ashley, director of CPCC’s career development program, helps students access the college’s training programs. Serving about 150 students annually, the program secures paid internships and scholarships for short-term workforce training, along with other forms of support such as bus passes and assistance purchasing vehicle fuel or work uniforms. The students who need this extra help come from different walks of life and pursue a variety of careers. “What links them together is the high level of support our team provides to enable them to be successful,” she says. George Henderson, CPCC’s associate vice president of applied programs, says workforce-develop-

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ment initiatives fulfill the colleges’ traditional mission: connecting the local business community’s needs to students’ professional goals. And despite the challenges inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, these efforts have neither slowed nor stopped. As a system, we have been able to pivot and address economic development across the state, especially when businesses and industries come to us and ask us for help. These COVID challenges have positioned us to think more strategically about how we can put our programs into play quickly, engage the right people at the right time, provide our citizens what they need, and then move on to the next goal.” — Teri Saylor is a freelance writer from Raleigh.

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CULTIVATING VARIETY Nash County Economic Development debuted a yearlong digital marketing campaign in October. Each month it features a local business, promoting the local workforce, educational opportunities, industrial parks and lifestyle amenities. It draws a complete picture, framing Nash County as a place where workers and companies can prosper. John Judd shares his story in the campaign. “I chose a career locally because Cummins Inc. was located in the county,” he says. Working his way up, he’s now plant manager at Cummins-Rocky Mount, a manufacturer of diesel and natural-gas powered engines. It’s on U.S. 301, just north of its namesake city, which straddles the line between Edgecombe and Nash counties. The manufacturer — whose

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global headquarters is in Indiana and was ranked 128th on the 2019 Fortune 500 list, with $23.8 billion in revenue — employs 1,800 people. Judd goes on to discuss finding and retaining local workers. “One of the things that we found out recently is, as we were recruiting people out of different states, it was hard to keep them here for two or three years,” he says. “So, several years ago, we made a decision that we were going to tap into the local schools and colleges, and we were going to put everything we had into preparing people within a hundred-mile radius of this plant. These jobs are not factory jobs like they were 20 or 30 years ago. And one of the things that we wanted to make sure of was that young students understood that they could stick around the county

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and still have a good career.” Nash and neighboring Edgecombe County, which are east of Raleigh, were built on agriculture, which continues to be a strong contributor. Nash’s 425 farms, for example, compiled a market value of products sold of almost $192 million in 2017, up from $184 million in 2012, according to USDA National Agricultural Statistic Service’s Census of Agriculture. The trend was the same in Edgecombe, where market value for products sold grew to more than $176 million in 2017 from about $156 million in 2012. Edgecombe and Nash are planting a diverse future. New businesses, workforce training, housing options and urban amenities, including a yoga studio, are homegrown now. “We are still kind of country folks, but with a SPONSORED SECTION

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PHOTOS ON BOTH PAGES BY CARL LEWIS

Businesses are sprouting up in Nash and Edgecombe counties, where agriculture was once the top economic producer. Reaping that bounty took a lot of sowing, including workforce training, small-business assistance and some urban amenities.

PHOTOS ON BOTH PAGES BY CARL LEWIS

city flair,” says Norris Tolson, president and CEO of Rocky Mount-based Carolinas Gateway Partnership, an economicdevelopment booster for Edgecombe County, the city of Rocky Mount and the towns of Nashville and Tarboro. “City flair meaning we know how to get things done. One of the advantages that rural North Carolina has is we have tons of good land available and, in our case, we have a lot of land that is now prepared for industrial growth. It increases the tax base and gives our communities good jobs.” Tolson can rattle off the names of businesses that have recently arrived or expanded. There’s Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Sara Lee Frozen Bakery. It announced earlier this year that it will make more of its tasty treats near Tarboro, where it’s investing $19.8 million in a bakery expansion, adding 108 jobs to the more than 650 that are already there. And thanks to Rocky Mount’s proximity to Interstate 95, Dallas-based Frozen Foods Express Industries is investing $4.7 million and hiring 96 people to work at its new truck-service center. Also in Rocky Mount, the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles is moving into its new headquarters. The largest jobs announcement came in 2017, when China-based Triangle Tyre announced its subsidiary — Triangle Tyre USA — would build a factory to eventually employ about 800 people at the 1,449-acre Kingsboro CSX Select Site. Tolson says there’s a good reason to remember those announcements. “Each of them brings new investment and new jobs to our communities,” he says. “And more are coming in the months ahead. Even with the COVID-19 [pandemic], the business potential in Rocky Mount, Tarboro, Nashville and Edgecombe County has never been better. Our area has been ‘discovered’ by investors, and the activity and interest level are extremely high.” Both counties have room to grow more businesses. Nash’s economicdevelopment department lists space at

30 industrial sites and business parks. Next door in Edgecombe, there are 18, including Kingsboro, the megasite prepped for construction that’s often mentioned when large manufacturers are searching for land. “One thing driving us is we have sold out all of our building inventory,” Tolson says. “But we are in the process of beginning four new shell buildings. We’re getting them out of the ground, so people can either lease them or buy them. We have one in Rocky Mount, one in Kingsboro and one in Tarboro, and we’re maybe looking at two in Nashville, all by the end of 2020. So, at year’s end, we’ll have 350,000 to 400,000 square feet of shell-building space coming out of the ground. As we speak, we’re actually working 59 projects in the territory that we’re responsible for. We’re going heavy in Nashville, have about 15 to 18 in Rocky Mount and have announced three projects since Jan. 1.” Nash County discontinued its association with Carolinas Gateway Partnership in April 2019, and Andy Hagy became its economic director

in January. About six months later, it aligned with Raleigh-based Research Triangle Regional Partnership, joining 11 other counties in economic-development efforts. Hagy has been busy ever since. “I immediately began building department of economic development staffing, putting the budget together and putting together a strategic marketing plan, then putting it into action,” he says. “My main objective was to bring Nash County to the forefront of business, new business, especially in the Research Triangle Park region and introduce everybody to the low cost of living and doing business in Nash County. I basically was hanging out our ‘open for business’ sign.” There is more on Hagy’s to-do list, including marketing a 62,500-squarefoot shell building in the Middlesex Corporate Center. It’s expandable to 100,000 square feet and located on U.S. 264, about 25 minutes from Raleigh. “The thing I envision is the increase in our business investment and marketing and deal closing, and creating high-quality jobs such as in advanced

Tar River Trail in Rocky Mount, part of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, runs along the Tar River and links five city parks.

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manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceuticals and existing businesses,” he says. Hagy works with local colleges, not only to market Nash’s benefits to businesses but to prepare a workforce. “We work closely with [Nash Community College],” he says. “They are part of our visitation team when we do have a company visit the county and look at properties.” Cummins-Rocky Mount, for example, partners with Nash Community College on its advanced-manufacturing program, which covers topics such as blueprint reading, machining and industrial safety and supports prospective employers with a work-study program scholarship. As the plant grows over the next decade, plant manager Judd says it will add as many as 700 jobs. He says the program helps make Nash County “a hot spot for the industry.” Nash Community College, whose Rocky Mount campus is centrally

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located within the two counties, isn’t working alone. It’s part of a team of several higher education institutions in the region, including North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount. Their game plan revolves around preparing local students for careers that pay well and are found right outside their front door. Gena Messer-Knode is dean of Wesleyan’s career services and business innovation, and she teaches courses in the college’s undergraduate business degree and MBA programs. In support of local businesses, Wesleyan offers study options in pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, leadership training and networking. “And it’s not just for our students here,” she says. “It also is people coming to the school for our seminars as well as our programs. We have companies that take advantage of the courses. Community partnership has been my goal. I just think it’s so very important. I want our students to

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have realistic job prospects.” Wesleyan offers a four-year degree in logistics, for example, which was designed with staffing the Carolina Connector, a 330-acre intermodal hub in Edgecombe County that will move raw materials and finished goods between trucks and trains starting early next year, in mind. “We are always in the process of looking for new curriculums and new collaborations with commercial partners and programs to develop our goal of producing graduates that would find employment in Rocky Mount and the surrounding area,” Messer-Knode says. “I want people to know that we’re real people, and we’re right here on campus. We have a tremendous nighttime program for adults, and we partner heavily with the employers. If you need us, we’re right here.”

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Nash Community College offers more than training for workers. It helps entrepreneurs and small-business owners, too. Tierra Norwood is director of its Small Business Center. “We take entrepreneurs that would like to start a business in Rocky Mount and small-business owners that have a business in Rocky Mount and give them the framework and curriculum that talks about every aspect of business, from pricing strategies to loans to how to access capital,” she says. SBC’s support includes more than teaching. It has a counselor for Spanish-speaking clients, and it partners with San Francisco-based nonprofit microfinance company Kiva for crowdfunding for minority businesses. Ones that qualify can obtain a $15,000 loan without interest and no payments for six months. Funding comes from other sources, too. Norwood says a small-business allocation from the state in June is

helping small-business owners overcome challenges after their momentum was halted or altered because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We received an additional $10,000 [in September], and we have a Small Business Clinic, where owners can assess the health of their business and have a treatment plan for their issues, like bookkeeping, marketing, finding grants, and I can

hire specialists in that field,” she says. “Right now, we’re seeing a lot of businesses who are moving to mobile, like food trucks, or lately I’ve seen a lot of e-commerce [from] people wanting to do mobile retail.” While Nash and Edgecombe counties are becoming better places to work, they also offer new reasons to call them home. Michael Hicks, 37,

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grew up in Rocky Mount. His wife, Jessica, 30, is a Bristol, Tenn., native who attended East Tennessee State University on a tennis scholarship. They worked in Johnson City, Tenn., but moved to Rocky Mount about five years ago, when Michael became the fourth generation of his family to operate a veterinary practice in the region. He and his dad, Stuart, run Hicks Animal Clinic. Michael and Jessica are putting

down roots. They bought the Bel Air Chevrolet building on Church Street in downtown Rocky Mount. It’s a two-story building built in the early 1900s that started its life as a funeral home. Now, after the Hickses’ renovations, it is the 18,000-squarefoot Bel Air Art Center, which Jessica operates. The center is home to an arts studio, whose 10 spaces are rented to local artists. The center also sells

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work from 70 to 80 more. The Hickses’ Willow Tree Yoga studio covers 700 square feet of the lower level. In October, Spaceway Brewing opened, relocating from Rocky Mount Mills, a 200-year-old former textile mill that has been renovated into residential, office and event space. “Diversity is very important to us, because if you make a place that is diverse with all different kinds of people, they feel comfortable,” Jessica says. “You can find a commonality and likeness. And at the end of the day, you’re your own boss and can make people happy and create this mood that’s very enlightened.” The Hickses’ story is representative of downtown Rocky Mountain’s evolution. “With women in the working world, sometimes we have to fight for everything, and I wanted something no one could take away from me,” Jessica says. “Now I’m understanding property taxes and fixing things and at the end of the day, we own our own businesses and can make people happy.” That change also can be seen at Rocky Mount Mills, a 150-acre site that includes 67 apartments and River & Twine, a hotel with 20 tiny homes, on the banks of the Tar River. “Residential is all fully leased and stays leased, with a waitlist between mill loft and village homes,” says development manager Evan Covington Chavez. “The total is 100 units. Businesses are all doing well. We still have some office to lease, but otherwise everything is doing great.”

— Kathy Blake is a writer from eastern North Carolina.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF BEL AIR ART CENTER

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Q&A

Mayor: Good times ahead for Rocky Mount

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Va., it and Interstate 95 put us within about a four-hour drive of five major East Coast ports: Norfolk, Charleston, S.C., Wilmington, Morehead City and Baltimore. And Rocky Mount-Wilson Regional Airport, whose runway is 7,099 feet long, gives us the ability to handle air cargo.

What attracts businesses to Rocky Mount?

Sandy Roberson believes Rocky Mount is the “greatest place in America to live.” While that label may be expected from its mayor, which he is, it’s a more personal conclusion of the city that’s shared by Edgecombe and Nash counties. “I was born in Greenville, but I have lived here the entirety of my life, with the exception of a few years while I was at [Hampden-Sydney College] in Virginia.” Roberson, whose day job is managing partner of Rocky Mount-based Healthview Capital Partners, admits that he has witnessed bad times for the community. But he sees good ones ahead. Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Farris agrees. “We continue to see more development coming into the Rocky Mount area,” he says. “Our director of economic development — Alan Matthews — has more projects in the works today than perhaps any time.” Those include the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles’ move to the city and the soon-to-be-completed Carolina Connector intermodal hub. Roberson sat down with Business North Carolina Publisher Ben Kinney to discuss Rocky Mount’s business climate and where it’s headed. His answers were edited for clarity and brevity.

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North Carolina’s economy has evolved over the years. How did those changes affect Rocky Mount, and what was its response? Roberson: Agriculture always has been a big part of our economy. There are train tracks nearby, so we’ve been a railroad town, too. And Rocky Mount Mills — the state’s second-oldest cotton mill — was founded here. Then manufacturers began leaving for lower labor costs under the North American Free Trade Agreement, and not long after Hurricane Floyd brought catastrophic flooding to the region in 1999. Our local economy was devastated as businesses and jobs disappeared. Our population shrunk — 57,685 in 2010 to 54,644 in 2018, according to N.C. Office of State Budget and Management. But there are exciting things happening in Rocky Mount. For example, we’re becoming a logistics hub again. Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp. is developing its $158 million intermodal hub — the Carolina Connector — which is expected to be done early next year. Its three cranes are expected to move more than 100,000 shipping containers between trains and trucks every year. And after Interstate 87 is complete between Rocky Mount and Norfolk,

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Roberson: Many people sit down and try to figure out how to recruit industry to their town. And many times, they fail to fully appreciate the attributes that they have. We look at what Rocky Mount has historically had and ask how do we build on it. Maybe it takes a slightly different direction than in the past. We’re playing to our strengths, and we’re perfectly positioned for growth. I sit on the board of Rocky Mountbased Carolinas Gateway Partnership, which handles economic-development efforts in the city and several nearby communities. Its president and CEO, Norris Tolson, says for every piece and parcel of available land in Nash County, including Whitaker Business and Industry Center, he has three inquiries. There is a tremendous amount of interest. Corning, N.Y.-based Corning Inc., for example, recently spent $89 million to develop an 800,000-square-foot distribution center at the Kingsboro Business Park, which is about 7 miles east of Rocky Mount. It will handle Corning Valor glass, which is used in pharmaceutical packaging. [The plant will] employ about 100 people. We’ve been mentioned among possible relocation sites for large manufacturers, such as automakers, for many years because of our proximity to the 1,449-acre Kingsboro CSX Select Site. That finally got some traction in 2017, when China-based Triangle Tyre

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announced its subsidiary — Triangle Tyre USA — was building a factory that would eventually employ about 800 people there. While that project was kind of our first big win, it unfortunately has stalled because of the current trade dispute. But we hear over and over that it will happen.

Interest is growing in Rocky Mount’s downtown. How has the city’s new event center helped? Roberson: We opened the 165,000-square-foot Rocky Mount Event Center in 2018. It can host a variety of functions, including sports, music, entertainment, weddings and special events. It was gaining traction before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. That put the brakes on it and other downtown developments, including a possible hotel. We’re seeing more investors from outside the region come and buy property. I believe, as time goes on, that we’ll see a complete downtown revitalization, especially once we figure out how to deal with COVID-19, so we can have lives that are closer to the way they were prepandemic. Take youth sports, for example. The event center’s general manager, David Joyner, says most of those tournaments were canceled this spring, especially up and down the East Coast. And while they wait for a safe return to play, their organizers are rewriting their plans, not only how they run their events but where they are held, too. More people are looking at Rocky Mount as a destination. David said we would be almost completely booked, if it was safe to do so, based on the number of recent inquiries from event organizers. That’s exciting to hear.

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TOWNSQUARE

Mount Pleasant

PLEASANT DREAMS

+ TALKING POINTS

A community-minded doctor invests in a vision to light a spark under a quaint Cabarrus County town.

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1,911

POPULATION

MOUNT COMFORT NAME OF CAMPSITE THAT STOOD AT THE TOWN SITE IN THE MID-1700S

▲ Moose Pharmacy opened in downtown Mount Pleasant in 1882. The fourth-generation business has grown to five independently owned locations in the Charlotte region.

1859

TOWN IS INCORPORATED

SITE OF FIRST DOCUMENTED U.S. GOLD DISCOVERY

MILES NORTHEAST OF CHARLOTTE

THE AVETT BROTHERS FOLK BAND MEMBERS SCOTT AND SETH AVETT GREW UP HERE

sources: mountpleasant.org, N.C. Historic Sites

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he place where Jessica Shockley clocks in every day — where she pours bourbons named Larceny and Conviction and serves a martini named Cell Block 73 — looked much like a prison to her as a little girl. It was a windowless, brick building smack in the middle of Mount Pleasant, where her grandma helped make socks, leggings, pantyhose and the like. “I thought it was an eyesore forever,” says Shockley, 39. “And my grandma would have to come to work, and I would just cry. All I saw was her walking into a bricked-up building, no windows. This was a scary place.” Despite its austere aura, the mill provided livelihoods for generations and was the centerpiece of town. The building opened in 1911 as a general store and livery before resurfacing as Mount Pleasant Hosiery Mill in 1932. The knitting machines shut down in 2009. Shockley, with short, blond, stylishly messy hair, would fit right in serving the hipsters of Asheville or Charlotte. But she’s a hometown girl, having grown up in this Cabarrus County town nine miles east of Concord. It’s named for the picturesque countryside and relatively high elevation between Adams and Buffalo creeks. She left Mount Pleasant for 10 years to join the Marines but returned home to provide a different kind of service. The former mill is now 73 & Main, a restaurant with one of North Carolina’s largest bourbon selections. Some of those spirits are refined down the road at Southern Grace Distilleries, located inside a former prison that housed as many as 400 inmates. The Cabarrus Correctional Center closed in 2011 after more than 80 years in operation. In 2016, Southern Grace began leasing some of the site to make its perfectly legal moonshine, freeing up cellblocks to be barrel houses for aging whiskey. The prison and mill found a new life, thanks mostly to a longtime local physician, Allen Dobson, who’s known as a bourbon connoisseur. He and two fellow doctors formed Mount Pleasant Properties, buying and renovating the prison before acquiring the mill. Robin Hayes, a former U.S. congressman and heir to the Cannon textile family, owned the property before donating it to the town in 2016. Dobson and his partners had a vision for what Shockley and others had viewed as an eyesore. “I always

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REED GOLD MINE

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CABARRUS COUNTY CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

▲ Main Street is home to restaurant 73 & Main, which serves locally sourced food and spirits from nearby Southern Grace Distilleries, and wine and coffee bar Café Lentz. thought they should bulldoze the place down,” Shockley says. “Little did I know this is what was behind those bricks.” Mount Pleasant Properties bought the mill from the town in early 2017 and began refurbishing it to its original glory. Using old photos, workers rebuilt the window casings to the exact specs as its general store days. (The textile mill bricked the windows because sunlight made the inside unbearably hot.) Workers restored the ceiling moldings and replicated what they couldn’t save. They preserved the original hardwood floors. The project had its naysayers, as the restaurant’s general manager, Jody Stratcham, 27, is quick to point out. “I can’t tell you, when this was underway, how many people approached us saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this will never work,’” she says. “But the people who were telling us this would never work, they’re some of our regulars now. They are some of the people that still come in and say, ‘Oh my gosh, wow, this worked.’” The restaurant, named for its spot on the corner of N.C. 73 and Main Street, opened in December 2017. Its menu includes at least 10 kinds of steak, seared duck breast and crab-stuffed trout, some of it regionally sourced. On a weeknight, 73 & Main is a lively scene. Families, couples and friends gather at tables well spread out. Patrons nurse cocktails at the bar, called the Hosiery Mill Pub. Flatscreen TVs glow with the game. Dobson, 68, emerges just off the bar, as if to savor the scene like a smoky bourbon on the rocks. “We decided we were going to give back to the community by restoring some buildings,” he says. By giving back, he wanted to show appreciation to a town that welcomed him as a young doctor in 1983, when he opened Mount Pleasant Family Physicians. He and his wife, Martha, raised three kids in the town that he will always call home. “I think it’s becoming evident now with COVID that it’s more important than ever that where you live has all the things you need,” he says. Dobson thinks back to a few years ago, back before the distillery and 73 & Main. Mount Pleasant lived up to its name as a pleasant place to live with a historic district full of homes with rocking chairs and porch swings. But dining-out options and cool places to hang were sparse. It had no real nightlife, and while Charlotte is only 34 miles away, Dobson yearned to see Mount Pleasant become more

self-sufficient. “This is a great little community. It’s got a lot of people living around here,” says Dobson, who is well known in N.C. health care circles as the founder of the 3,200-member Community Care Physician Network based in Cary. “But everybody’s driving to Charlotte for dinner, driving to Charlotte to work. If we really want to rebuild the town and create economic development, we need to have people come here because it’s a nice town.”

Bourbon, barbecue and baristas Right across Main Street from 73 & Main, Dobson and his partners opened a wine and coffee bar called Café Lentz. Its decor is splashed with art, including a mural of leaves and fronds covering an entire wall that creates the feel of being lost in a giant’s garden. The menu drips with Tiger Spice Chai lattes (the signature coffee), along with regional wines, craft beer and paninis. Next door, The Bakery at Mount Pleasant is a wonderland of cakes, cookies and brownies and maker of 73 & Main’s famous bread pudding that’s steeped in the local Conviction bourbon. The doctors brought a dose of urbanity to Mount Pleasant, but the town has its old standbys that locals love. What-A-Burger #13 still looks like it did in the 1960s when it became the go-to for burgers, fries and milkshakes, the classic small-town hamburger joint. Buddy’s Place, on the corner diagonal from 73 & Main, still dishes up its stuffed bell peppers, baked spaghetti and sweet potato casserole. A newer eatery already looks like an old favorite: the Mount Pleasant Smokehouse. Its slogan is “low and slow,” but its business is good and brisk. It opened in February, a month before the coronavirus pandemic began, forcing the smokehouse to rely solely on takeout orders. Nicole Brafford, who’s lived in Mount Pleasant all her 40 years, is N O V E M B E R

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one of the managers. “The virus has not really slowed us down,” she says, tending to the small bar where bottles of sauces wait to douse the next heap of smoked pork or brisket. A chalkboard announces the beer and wine offerings. “People here are good. We’re like family because it’s such a small town. When I was a kid growing up here, I hated it because my parents knew everything that I did. Now that I’m a parent, I love it because we all watch out for each other.” Comparing such a tidy small town to Andy Griffith’s Mayberry is an overused metaphor, but it’s irresistible in Mount Pleasant. Neighborhoods look like art settings in the Saturday Evening Post. The Mount Pleasant Barber Shop has only three chairs on a black-and-white checkered floor, the striped barber’s pole serving as a sidewalk beacon. The town encourages folks to get out and walk: In 2017, it spent $400,000 to pave over a dirt lot with 55 free parking spaces. Such a town, no matter how much nostalgia it evokes, could dry up if not given shots of ambition. Just as some doctors injected a tonic into an abandoned hosiery mill, Southern Grace Distilleries generated buzz at a dormant prison. “We’re kind of off the beaten path, but the unique nature of the facility, I think, has served as a drawing point for folks,” says Thomas Thacker, the co-founder and chief operating officer. Everything Southern Grace sells is distilled and aged on the site. Former inmate dorms now house 53-gallon barrels made of American white oak. Its trademarked and award-winning spirit is Conviction, a 105-proof, sour mash whiskey aged for at least two years. It’s described as having a “smooth, sweet finish with strong vanilla, clove and honey notes.” The distillery ended up in this prison because the company founder, Leanne Powell, “fell in love with the facility and saw potential in it for tourism,” Thacker says. The granddaughter of bootleggers, she started Southern Grace in 2014. She died of a

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stroke last year at age 51. Conviction, as friends and co-workers say, was her passion. The onset of the novel coronavirus inspired a side business of making hand sanitizer. Tours are still offered of the so-called Whiskey Prison, but they’re smaller in scale. “There was a time we were running tours that consisted of 20 or 25 people, and we’ve been basically running them at six to eight people since March,” Thacker says. “But we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to stay afloat.” Locals, even those who once might have felt imprisoned by their small-town existence, want to stick around. Sitting on the patio of the Café Lentz long after closing time, Jannette Kluttz is soaking in the cool night air with a couple of friends. At 57, she’s never lived anywhere else. She married a man from Mount Pleasant, too. “We bought one of the older homes here on Main Street, did a restoration and [have] called it home ever since.” It’s an everybody-knows-your-name kind of place. From the patio to the pub to the prison, Mount Pleasant will readily drink to that. ■

Bryan Mims is a writer and reporter at WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CABARRUS COUNTY CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU, TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT

▲Southern Grace Distilleries distills and ages its spirits in 53-gallon barrels in the former Cabarrus Correctional Center, which closed in 2011.

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