Wilkes Economic Development Corporation

Wilkes

Economic Development Corporation

Special Advertising Section

Wilkes Economic Development Corporation

The Deal Closer Privately raised fund helps Wilkes EDC leverage state incentives

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operates on Roaring River near North Wilkesboro. The expansion will add a paint line that allows the company to turn out pre-finished exterior fiber cement siding – and hire 29 additional workers.

In this case, the One North Carolina Fund pitched in $98,000, but Wilkes County needed to match the amount in loans or other incentives. The county came up with $58,000 in tax incentives, and LEAP 2016 financed the remaining $40,000.

“We were able to step in with a quick promise and said we can do that,” says Jeff Garstka, president of the Wilkes Economic Development Commission.

“We try to be really flexible, and we’ve had some opportunities early on to test it.”

The investor list cuts across the community, with big names such as Lowe’s, Wilkes Telecommunications, Wachovia/Wells Fargo, Interflex Group,

Duke Energy Carolinas and Tar Heel Oil Co., as well as multiple local banks and businesses, from pharmacies to textile mills, law firms and the Wilkes Journal Patriot, the local newspaper. Every member of the EDC board contributed personally, as did other individuals in the community, Garstka says.

As of mid-November 2011, Wilkes LEAP 2016 had raised $600,000 in cash and five-year pledges. The “soft” fundraising began in November 2011; one campaign component targets five sectors for growth: agribusiness/food processing, advanced manufacturing, mobile entrepreneurs, aviation and administrative support services.

“The private sector invested and it has morphed into an opportunity fund,” he says. “We stepped out there in a pretty tough time and did pretty well.”

“I think it does set us apart,” Garstka says.

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n the competition to attract new businesses and help existing ones expand, Wilkes County boasts a powerful asset – a fund of private money that can help close deals.

Wilkes LEAP 2016 is a five-year, $750,000 campaign aimed at adding or retaining 750 Wilkes County jobs that pay an annual average salary of about $29,500, significantly above the county average per capita income of about $21,000.

Within weeks of its public launch, LEAP 2016 in August 2011 loaned $27,500 to Hinson & Hale Medical Technologies, a new venture, to buy equipment from a former glove-making factory. The company set up at the same plant and retained its workers.

In October, the fund provided part of a local match that helped sway CertainTeed to invest $2.7 million in a building materials plant it already

WILKES COUNTY ADVANTAGES • Served by US 421, a major four-lane highway connecting Wilkes to I-77 in 15 minutes and to I-40 in 45 minutes • Creative and aggressive incentive packages • Quality workforce drawn from 10-county area

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Special Advertising Section

Commitment Cemented Cooperation across agencies helps CertainTeed to expand locally ilkes County won out over an Oregon Community in October 2011 when CertainTeed, a manufacturer of building products, announced a $2.7 million capital expansion that will add at least 29 new jobs that pay well over the county average.

A combination of state, county and local incentives paved the way and signaled to site selectors, as well as local companies, that Wilkes County can do business and help close deals.

“We wanted to get together the best package we could,” says Jeff Garstka, president of the Wilkes Economic Development Commission. “These are really good manufacturing jobs.”

CertainTeed’s operation in Roaring River produces exterior cement siding.

The expansion brings in equipment and retools the plant, adding a painting line so the siding is pre-finished. Previously, CertainTeed outsourced that work to a third-party vendor.

Salaries will vary, but the average annual wage for the new jobs will be about $43,000 not including benefits – more than 40 percent above the county’s average annual wage.

Pennsylvania-based CertainTeed is a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, headquartered in France and one of the top 100 industrial companies in the world. The company already has a significant footprint in North Carolina, including a massive roofing plant in Oxford, a wallboard facility under construction in Roxboro and a second siding plant in Claremont. Painting the siding products in house should boost efficiency and save money, CertainTeed officials say.

The announcement itself brought North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue to North Wilkesboro to drive home both statelocal cooperation and the availability of flexible workforce. “North Carolina’s workforce has the knowledge and skills that companies like CertainTeed demand,” Perdue says.

A $98,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund helped open the door, but

local government needed to match it.

Wilkes County pitched in $58,000, and Wilkes LEAP 2016, a new opportunity fund the EDC is raising from private sources, contributed $40,000 to close the deal. To receive the funds, CertainTeed companies must meet job creation and investment performance standards.

The Roaring River plant received International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification for sustainability in February 2011; sustainable exterior fiber cement siding products, called WeatherBoards, are resistant to rot, impact, wood-boring insects and UV rays. They also are non-combustible.

CertainTeed also is eligible for community college training money and additional state tax credits. The new jobs will boost the company’s local workforce to about 110.

“They expect to fill 75 percent of the jobs in Year No. 1,” Garstka says. www.wilkesedc.com

PHOTOS BY Todd Bennett

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This special section is published for Wilkes Economic Development Corporation Sponsor by Journal Communications Inc.

For more information, contact: Wilkes Economic Development Corporation 213 Ninth St. • North Wilkesboro, NC 28659 Phone: (336) 838-1501 • Fax: (336) 838-1693 Email: jgarstka@wilkesedc.com • www.wilkesedc.com ©Copyright 2012 Journal Communications Inc., 725 Cool Springs Blvd., Suite 400, Franklin, TN 37067, (615) 771-0080.

All rights reserved. No portion of this special advertising section may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent.

On the cover: Key City Furniture • Photo by Todd Bennett

Wilkes Economic Development Corporation

Target Growth Data centers find reliable, redundant power “The more ready a site is, the more likely you are to win a project.”

The program pinpoints site strengths and weaknesses, and helps get them ready with utilities, site design and redundant power, a must-have for data centers.

Because McCallum Sweeney evaluates sites as it would for commercial clients, the rigorous process puts Brushy

Mountain Road and other sites on companies’ radar.

“Low power costs and a good climate make this an attractive area,” Broome says. “With Google, Apple and Facebook nearby, once one of them has vetted an area you get a clustering effect.

“With the Site Readiness Program, all the risks have been taken away,” he says.

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With Google, Apple and Facebook finding the region a good home for data centers, Wilkes County is identifying and evaluating sites of its own for when the next company knocks.

McCallum Sweeney Consulting, a site selection firm based in Greenville, S.C., analyzed one 69-acre site and recommended target industries of data centers for Internet-based companies, “back office” operations, light industrial and assembly firms.

The site is on Brushy Mountain Road near U.S. 421 and Wilkesboro. Duke Energy, as part of its regional economic development efforts, paid for the evaluation to jump-start site readiness.

“These projects move fast,” says Randolph Broome, a retired Duke director of business development engineer who heads up the utility’s Energy Site Readiness Program in the Carolinas.

The Wilkes County Brushy Mountain Road Site

Wiring Wilkes Staff photo

Wilkes Telecommunications running 1,200 miles of cable gives homes, businesses, schools, churches fast Internet access More than 1,200 miles of fiber-optic cable means a high-tech boost for existing and potential businesses in Wilkes County – and residents who like the rural life but need to stay connected.

With more than $21.6 million in federal stimulus grants and loans, Wilkes Telecom is placing 1,248.3 miles of fiber optic cable. The project will boost the region’s profile among site selectors and companies of all kinds, especially data centers and similar operations that need reliable, fast broadband service.

“Most businesses looking to relocate will not just look for dial tone, but will

look at broadband and how they can connect to the world,” says Eric Cramer, the cooperative’s CEO and general manager. “This project will offer all existing and potential businesses access to ample bandwidth to supply any need they might have.”

The infrastructure program targets areas in Wilkes Telecom’s service territory that don’t have broadband Internet service. The expansion will make broadband available to about 8,500 people, 300 businesses and 45 churches, schools, fire stations and other public institutions.

“Fiber [optic] will offer home stock traders the broadband speeds that could make or break the transaction,” Cramer says. “Fiber [optic] also gives businesses the option of allowing workers to VPN and work from home, saving office space for the business, and saving the worker driving time and costs on dress clothes, gas, tires and other expenses.”

As of November 2011, nearly 200 miles of fiber optic were in place, serving 2,533 customers. The remaining line is either completed or heading into construction or design phases. The project should wrap up in 2015.

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Special Advertising Section

Legacy Industry Takes New Shape New Ralph Lauren contract boosts one manufacturer, high-tech fabric launches another ne of the signature industries in Wilkes County is getting a facelift with big contracts for special-order furniture, upholstery and high-tech fabrics aimed at the huge medical market.

Textiles have a rich tradition in this northwest corner of North Carolina, and the projects are welcome news to a region that has lost many manufacturing jobs to overseas competition. In fact, Key City Furniture’s arrangement Schnadig International, based in High Point, is part of a new trend that uses skilled workers in North Carolina to do custom work that manufacturing plants in China are not equipped to handle.

“When they make a sofa, they make 100 of them,” says Chris Reavis, chief operating officer of Key City, a fourth generation, family-owned company in Wilkesboro. “We are geared for special orders.”

Key City will produce all domestic and international special orders for Schnadig’s licensed Ralph Lauren furniture line and a new line, Caracole

Light. Customers will have their choice of about 125 special-order fabrics, and Key City also can modify the size of any piece in addition to handling the upholstery.

Shipping of the Ralph Lauren pieces started in fall 2011 after Key City, Wilkes County’s oldest and largest furniture manufacturer, beat out three other North Carolina companies for the contract.

“There is a huge push for specialorder business,” Reavis says. “We are definitely an upper-end manufacturer, and people buying such furniture want to make it unique to themselves.”

Schnadig now can offer Ralph Lauren furniture dealers far more upholstery choices. Buying direct from China remains an option, though fabric choices will be limited.

With 800 accounts, Key City already produces furniture for Neiman Marcus, Horchow and other big retail names. At the outset, Key City can absorb some of the new work but expects to add

Workers assemble a chair (above) and sew fabric (top right) at Key City Furniture.

www.wilkesedc.com

employees as furniture dealers roll out the new Ralph Lauren options, Reavis says.

Special-order furniture and upholstery is a niche business, and Hinson & Hale Medical Technologies, a new company, is targeting a niche market of its own.

Founded by Rea Hinson Jr. of Pittsboro, a textile industry veteran, Hinson & Hale is working with infused process technology and advanced polyester for the medical market. The material has a long lifespan; in one trial run, it saved a hospital $1 million in a year because surgical room products could be washed, sterilized and reused rather than tossed away.

The company is leasing part of the Maine Brands building on Industrial Drive in Wilkesboro and retained workers from the former glove manufacturer to start production.

It also received a loan from Wilkes LEAP 2016 to buy a piece of equipment for industrial sewing.

photos by Todd Bennett

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Wilkes Economic Development Corporation

Runway Ready With pad-ready sites, utilities and a growing general aviation business, new Wilkes County Airpark can accommodate diverse needs he Wilkes County Airport has one asset that many small general aviation facilities do not – space.

The new Wilkes County Airpark has the capacity for three additional large hangars; MX Aircraft, a specialty manufacturer of monoplanes, has claimed two of the spots as part of an ongoing expansion.

MX Aircraft’s new manufacturing facility is taking shape on 27 acres that Wilkes County bought to boost the airport’s profile and attractiveness to aviation-related businesses. Three “pad-ready” sites are available for hangars at least 100-by-100 feet, says Airport Director David Prevette.

By January 2012, sewer lines, fire suppression lines and power to the site will be done, he says.

Grants paid for much of the infrastructure improvements, including a booster pump station and 100,000gallon water storage tank. Contributors included the Appalachian Regional Commission, the state Department of Commerce-Industrial Development Fund, the North Carolina Golden LEAF Foundation, the North Carolina Rural Center and the U.S. Department of Commerce – Economic Development Administration.

Wilkes County Airport has diverse users. The runway, at 6,200 feet long, can accommodate a jet the size of a 727 or MD 87. The county airport handles corporate aircraft and personal planes, often with vacationers heading to second homes in the mountains.

“We are the closest airport to handle corporate planes to the mountains in the Boone area,” Prevette says. “We have many people who come in and get dropped off to head toward their summer homes or winter homes.”

MX, founded in 2001, designs and builds high-performance aircraft used by veteran race, air show and aerobatic pilots. The company builds planes with an advanced aerospace material called Toray carbon fiber, which enhances structural strength, fit and finish. Its

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A worker at MX Aircraft builds a canopy for MXs.

expansion in the airpark is expected to add 35 to 50 jobs.

Samaritan’s Purse houses its fleet of planes for disaster relief, humanitarian missions and other charitable trips at the Wilkes Airport. The nonprofit group, based nearby in Boone, N.C., is building a second hangar for a Falcon 900 corporate jet to move staff and leadership on longer nonstop flights.

The agency, led by Franklin Graham, the Rev. Billy Graham’s eldest son, takes supplies, food, doctors and emergency equipment to help victims of wars,

disasters and famines across the globe.

When a powerful earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, Samaritan’s Purse had staff providing aid within 24 hours and continues to maintain a full-time staff in the country.

Even with big customers and a new airpark, the Wilkes aviation facility still has room to grow. Space exists for small hangars in the revamped General Aviation area, and the airport wants to attract businesses that need jobs with skills in aviation and advanced manufacturing.

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Special Advertising Section

Tech Skills Taught Here WCC tailors training for specific businesses, launches new Rapid Readiness program ilkes Community College has designed workforce training programs for local employers that include Gardner Glass, Louisiana Pacific and Interflex, and it offers “occupational extension” classes to upgrade workers’ skills.

In January 2012, the college added another workforce prep program to its arsenal – an intense “rapid readiness” effort to give green job seekers industryspecific skills in 16 weeks.

Students in the new program choose one of several areas: heating and air conditioning, industrial electricity, machining, electronics, drafting design and mechatronics. Classes run six hours a day, five days a week.

“My honest assessment is that anyone in Wilkes County who has skills can get a job,” says Mike Pierce, chairman of the

Industrial and Workforce Development Division. “The idea is to turn out a person who has the skills a company needs in a short period of time.”

Workforce readiness is serious business at WCC; 76 percent of its 13,000 students are enrolled in career and technical programs. The college has credit programs, continuing education offerings, a Small Business Development Center, and both the staff and equipment to tailor training for employers’ needs.

Occupational extension classes for existing employees cover everything from shop math, blueprint reading, electrical circuit analysis, welding, fluid power, pneumatic power, motor controls, machining, heating and air conditioning, and workplace communication in English and Spanish.

WCC also creates specialty courses as

needed, such as color theory for Interflex and ammonia-based refrigeration for Tyson Foods.

“Being all for all is sometimes difficult but is very satisfying when you see when you make a difference,” Pierce says.

For more information, visit www.wilkescc.edu/default2. aspx?id=46].

Todd Bennett

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Students work with robots at Wilkes Community College

More Than Music W

ilkes may be a rural North Carolina county, but it puts on a sophisticated show.

MerleFest marks its 25th year in April 2012, growing from a small event with modest goals to the biggest annual fundraiser for Wilkes Community College and a high-profile event that contributed $10.2 million to the regional economy in 2011 alone. More than half of that was spent in Wilkes County, according to the College of Business at Appalachian State University.

Held on the campus of Wilkes Community College, MerleFest, billed as “traditional-plus” music, unfolds on 14 stages and includes 90 performers.

The four-day event relies on nearly 4,900 local volunteers and showcases Wilkes County at its best. “It is a great way to show our community spirit,” says Ted

Hagaman, festival director and executive director of special events and hospitality at WCC. “Our goal is to make sure we provide the best quality event we possibly can,” he says. In recent years, that’s meant fanfriendly changes such as limiting cars on campus, keeping more green space open, offering a wider range of food and providing more opportunities for shopping. More than 100 artists and crafters emerge from an application and jury process to populate The Shoppes at MerleFest.

The festival is named for Merle Watson, son of the legendary Doc Watson, who still performs every year.

Doc wanted to honor his son, a talented blues musician in his own right who died in 1985, and coined the description “traditional-plus” music. The familywww.wilkesedc.com

Staff photo

MerleFest marks 25th year and brings big economic impact

friendly event has raised more than $10 million in scholarships, capital projects and other educational needs since it began in 1987 as a fundraiser for the college gardens.

More than 70 college, civic and community groups whose members work also benefit – in 2011 alone, these groups earned more than $420,000.

MerleFest also gives economic development officials another recruiting tool. They plan to use this year’s festival to entertain representatives of companies considering relocating to Wilkes County.

MerleFest 25 April 26-29, 2012 www.merlefest.org

Wilkes Economic Development Corporation

Downtown Delights Cities create family-friendly downtowns for shopping, working, living and playing

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designation on the National Register of Historic Places.

An aggressive overhaul of a 29-acre site known as Block 46, home of the former Drew Manufacturing complex, involves demolishing all but one building to make way for mixed-use residential and retail development. Main Street itself will be extended into the site, nearly doubling the length of the corridor, says North Wilkesboro Mayor Robert Johnson.

The building on the former furniture plant site that remains has 100,000 square feet over three floors, “perfect for mixed use,” Johnson says.

“For 10 years this site has been a blight on the downtown and the community as a whole,” he says.

“This really will be a renewal area.”

The public-private project also will extend bike paths and existing greenways – the two cities share 5.1 miles of pathways that connect them and each other to the county park system – and the city is working with state transportation officials to return

Main Street to a two-way thoroughfare to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers and foster the smallcity feel.

North Wilkesboro hosts the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival every October, drawing more than 50,000 people; the Shine to Wine festival in May; and First Friday evenings downtown with an art crawl, concerts and craft vendors. Next up may be a “chicken-que” festival to recognize the region’s contribution to the poultry industry – Tyson Foods is a large local employer – and its residents’ love of barbecued chicken.

Mixed-use downtowns are part of the big picture. “We are looking to attract small-business owners who can live and work downtown,” Johnson says. “It is perfect for today’s mobile entrepreneurs.”

Collaboration is not just a catchphrase in Wilkes County.

Check out this video to see how the two cities cooperate: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rByyuKATZ6o

photos by Todd Bennett

bridge across the Yadkin River separates downtown Wilkesboro from downtown North Wilkesboro, but the two small cities are united in purpose – creating vibrant business districts with charm, distinctive shops, special events and family-friendly appeal.

Wilkesboro in 2011 launched a Friday evening market series, with a farmers market, arts and crafts vendors, and music. “It created a nice little buzz,” says Wilkesboro Town Manager Ken Noland.

With grants from the Main Street program, the city has a master plan for downtown and wants to move power lines underground, work on pedestrian walkways and othefar aesthetic touches.

A few businesses have received grants for façade improvements, and the city re-zoned one block to allow apartments in older buildings and help foster multiuse development.

Wilkesboro has been in the Main Street program for two years; North Wilkesboro joined the program in 2000.

In 2003, a 3-acre area received

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