The Piedmont Triad offers an interesting economic development story. While there's an organization that touts the region there's also competition between Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point (and Forsyth and Guilford counties). Winston-Salem/Forsyth probably overpaid in incentives to get Dell because they wanted to make sure that they got the plant and not Greensboro/Guilford. Well, the plant ended up near the county border so the folks in Guilford get the benefit of jobs and didn't have to provide infrastructure while giving up tax revenue in the incentives deal. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the municipalities had cooperated rather than competed.
Now comes word of a bio-tech company in High Point that might be lured to Virginia or South Carolina, and one factor is that the owner feels that the regional bio-tech industry is too focused on Winston-Salem. From a Biz Journal article:
On the one hand, TransTech, which last fall signed a licensing
agreement with Pfizer potentially worth $2 billion, needs to expand its
research capacity for treating diseases such as nervous system
disorders, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity. Mjalli fully
occupies the 43,000 square feet he now leases for TransTech and its 85
employees.
He is interested in buying 50 acres, building a 100,000-square-foot
R&D and headquarters operation and having room for future expansion
in a campus-like setting. He intends to hire more than 100 additional
employees within the next five years. He also needs more space for his
biotech subsidiary, Pharmacore, and its 40 employees. He will likely
add 30 employees there in the coming years.
"We will start with one building, but the growth could be huge for
TransTech in the future," says Mjalli, who estimates a move could cost
$50 million to acquire land, build, upfit labs and relocate.
On the other hand, Mjalli appears disappointed with the state of
the Triad's biotech effort, arguing that it is not truly regional in
nature and perhaps too focused on Winston-Salem. A bothersome example
of that, he says, was when no company or individual achievements from
High Point were recognized at the second Triad BioNight in March.
"High Point has a much bigger health care (R&D) cluster than
any other city in the region, with (companies like) Banner Pharmacaps
and Merz and Ciba," Mjalli says. "By not recognizing not just TransTech
but any biotech company in High Point, it just does this community and
the Triad a disservice."
Mjalli has not yet decided to leave High Point. But his decision to
contact neighboring states and suggest that he is willing to move has
set off alarm bells in the Triad and in Raleigh, where Secretary of
Commerce Jim Fain has gotten involved.
So here we have a company, already proven to be on the fast track in an industry that has been identified as a major engine for economic growth in the Triad, and with roots here in the Triad being treated like Cinderella before the ball. If we're going to play the incentives game (and until the rules change we're going to have to) then let's hope that we are equally aggressive with keeping our existing companies as we are with luring new companies. And since recognition costs nothing let's do a better job of pulling together the players in each city and building a united force. The folks promoting the bio-tech industry need to recognize that they'll be getting enough competition from the folks in Kannapolis without stabbing each other in the back.
Hat tip to Ed Cone for covering this and rightly questioning the Greensboro News & Record's lack of coverage.