Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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According to a press release issued Monday, the Thomasville-Lexington Micropolitan area finished ahead of the Statesville-Mooresville area by the capture of nine projects. Also, in the top five were Wooster, Ohio, Daphne-Fairhope, Ala. and Tupelo, Miss.
“[The recognition] is certainly a feather in the cap,” City Manager Kelly Craver said. “It will give notoriety [to an area] a lot of the country had written off with the downturn of furniture and textile jobs. It is going to put them on notice that we didn’t roll over and play dead.”
A 54-year-old Atlanta-based publication, Site Selection covers economic development and corporate real estate, while it serves as the official publication of the Industrial Asset Management Council. The magazine has a readership of 44,000 across the nation. Aside from recognizing micropolitan and metropolitan areas, Site Selection awards an annual Governor’s Cup for the state in the U.S. announcing the most new and expanded corporate facilities.
“This recognition will catch the attention of the readers who might have been looking for a location that size,” said Mike Arend, editor in chief of Site Selection. “They might investigate the area more closely and see what the area is offering that makes the area attractive.”
Steve Googe, executive director of the Davidson County Economic Development Commission (EDC), was interviewed by Site Selection Magazine.
“Duke Energy and Norfolk Southern assisted us with time, personnel and money,” Googe said to the magazine. “Initially, we worked with a lot of very small companies to relocate them to 1- million sq ft. of old textile and furniture plants that had been sold to developers.
“Today companies are moving into these spaces and leasing them at rates under $3 per square foot,” Googe continued. “We have been able to occupy these buildings with distribution facilities, small manufactures and incubators. Small businesses can get a very reasonable rate here. Plus, people are looking for skilled labor that’s unemployed.
For a project to be accumulated in a micropolitan’s statistics, it had to meet one of the following criteria: It had to be an investment of $1 million, create 50 or more new jobs and involve new construction of at least 20,000 sq. ft.
To receive the recognition, the Lexington-Thomasville area had to go through some recovery. The community lost about 7,500 jobs, mostly in textile and furniture sector. Helping the area dig themselves out of the hole, according to Site Selection, was the largest capital investment coming from Unilin Flooring, which announced a $30-million factory expansion in the Chair City.
Craver commended Davidson County’s EDC, as well as Davidson County Commissioners, the former City Council’s of Lexington and Thomasville for the recognition.
“This shows that there has been great efforts and strides by our county-wide economic development,” he said. “I think there have been great accomplishments. There is still a lot of work to be done to strengthen our economy to fill in those gaps that economic development doesn’t outreach.”
Staff Writer Darrick Ignasiak can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 231, or ignasiak@tvilletimes.com.