Market voices: Mayor’s corner

Jacques Gilbert

Mayor Town of Apex

In terms of economic diversity, we’re about 80% residential and 20% nonresidential and within nonresidential you can have everything from restaurants and retail to industry and professional services. We recognize that diversification is key to our economy. We have done studies to see what kinds of industries and businesses would thrive in our community. We know that those are things like life sciences, IT, advanced manufacturing, research and development, office headquarters, data centers, and clean tech industries. We know those are good for this area because of our tier 1 research universities. To attract those types of companies we do have targeted marketing messages and we try to be very strategic about that to attract the industries that fit in our community.

The fact that we are located in the Triangle, so very close to Downtown Raleigh — a seven-mile commute — is a strong advantage for us. For years, Garner was known as a bedroom community and a blue-collar town. In the 30 or so years that I’ve lived here, it really has changed. It has become more affluent. We’re interested in growing in various sectors. We have some distribution centers. We also have an industrial park. We would like to see some different growth too. Life sciences is a big interest and some of our surrounding municipalities have been able to entice those companies to come to them. We’d like to see how we can do better in that regard.

Ken Marshburn

Mayor Town of Garner

Steve Schewel

Mayor City of Durham

Both residential and commercial private development are pouring into Durham. There are two main reasons people want to come here. First is our quality of life: we are a wonderful, livable, walkable, green city and we are not seeing many of the urban problems that bigger cities experience. About 7,000 people move here each year, and that trend has increased during the pandemic. Second, we are a city that genuinely welcomes all people. We embrace diversity in race, religion, language, documentation status or orientation. Durham’s reputation for diversity and inclusion has been a boon for us. One example is Google. Recently, the company announced that it would bring an engineering hub to Durham. They specifically cited Durham’s inclusiveness and our attitude of truly making everybody feel at home.

( ) The eventual annual economic impact from the move is expected to total $1.5 billion.

Fellow Silicon Valley behemoth Google was ahead of Apple in announcing its own engineering hub in Durham in March, with the aim of creating 1,000 jobs. The company cited the pipeline of human talent in the region for selecting the city.

It’s not only technology companies that see value in the fast-growing region, with biotechnology businesses such as Fujifilm also pledging major investments. In March, the group announced it would create 725 new jobs in North Carolina through the creation of a biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Wake County.

Fujifilm already has a campus in Research Triangle Park and employs more than 600 people. The minimum average wage for the new positions, which would include engineers, scientists, manufacturing personnel, is almost $100,000. All in all, Wake County alone has 41 potential projects in the pipeline that could add up to $2.3 billion in investment and nearly 13,000 potential jobs.

Not only is the Triangle region attracting new talent due to company relocations, it is also one of the most attractive nationally for remote working, according to North Carolina State University’s Economy & Business 2021 report. The region has become attractive for its live-work-play balance and its strategic location along the Sun Belt. Wake County also boasts a public school system that has excelled in the last year, with a 90.8% graduation rate and many schools registering 100%. Numbeo.com voted Raleigh the third-best city in the world for quality of life in 2019.

Wake County has 41 potential projects that could add $2.3 billion in investment and about 13,000 jobs

According to Wake County Economic Development, more and more major companies are expected to relocate to midsized markets like Raleigh. In a report, the organization projects population growth of 11.1% from 2019 to 2029. The city’s population over 25 with a post-secondary education also outstrips both San Francisco and New York at 73.2%. Raleigh is No. 1 in the business cost ranking, No. 13 in the legal climate index and it boasts a low crime rate, the report said.

Raleigh is also ranked as a Top 20 city for entrepreneurship, thanks in part to its cultivation of small and minority enterprises. In addition to sponsoring the Downtown Raleigh Alliance (DRA) popup space for minority and female-owned businesses, the city launched the Building Up-fit small-business grant and allocated $1 million to the Raleigh Small Business Relief Fund during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) Program also advocates for business growth and along with the Office of Economic Development (Raleigh ED&I) supported the 22nd Annual Raleigh Small Business Expo, which attracted over 275 participants and 64 vendors. The city was voted No. 5 Best City for Female Entrepreneurs in the United States in 2019 and North Carolina was voted No. 5 Best State for Black Entrepreneurs in 2020.

COVID-19 Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, North Carolina and the Triangle area are in good shape. In fact, according to Moody’s Analytics and Forbes, Raleigh and Durham made the Top 10 list of cities best positioned to recover from the pandemic. After the first few months of the crisis passed, Gov. Roy Cooper was eager to reopen

The Research Triangle proved its resiliency through the pandemic and continues to be in the best position for recovery.