CABARRUS COUNTY:
GOLD RUSH TO NEW ECONOMY

People may think of Cabarrus County as Charlotte-Mecklenburg's sleepy neighbor, but radical change is nothing new for the county north of the Queen City.

In 1799, 12 year old Conrad Reed made the first documented discovery of gold in the United States in the quiet, rural southern tip of Cabarrus County. Reed Gold Mine launched America's first gold rush, beginning a cycle of change that continues today.

Cabarrus County may have seemed thoroughly rural, but it was never destined to survive purely on the basis of an agricultural economy. "It was hardscrabble farming here," says Maurice Ewing, president of the Cabarrus County Economic Development Corp. By the middle of the 19th century, the county had a large enough population to man machines and was ripe for change. One of North Carolina's most successful entrepreneurs, Charles A. Cannon, created an entire town-which he names Kannapolis-to support his textile mills in the early 1900s. In Concord, Warren Coleman opened the first mill in the state to be owned and operated by African Americans.

Cabarrus County has always had to perform a balancing act between its rural and industrial worlds. The struggle has intensified over the last 30 years, and many rural vistas have become nostalgia-fillled memories. "If you don't recruit industry and embrace the future, where will you be?" Ewing asks. "Do you want your grandchildren to move to Atlanta?".

Given the growth of Cabarrus County's economy and the diverse nature of industry and business headed the county's way, that's an unlikely prospect. In the late 1970s, the county faced a crucial turning point with the arrival of tobacco giant Philip Morris, Inc. Residents were forced to decide whether an economy built largely around the textile industry would survive and prosper. After a contentious debate, the county decided on diversification, and community leaders have pursued that road ever since.

Though development and diversification are never easy, no one can deny that the county is booming. Economic developers have worked on some 50 projects in the last seven years alone-including the much-publicized opening of the Corning fiber-optic plant in southern Cabarrus County and Concord Mills mall, but also less-publicized relocations and expansions. And each economic development impacts the county as a whole.

The growth of NorthEast Medical Center over the last decade has brought technology and jobs to the area. Once a mill hospital named after the area's most prominent family, the Cannons, NorthEast has become "a regional medical center that is competitive with Charlotte hospitals as far as the scope and breadth of services and facilities," says Carol Lovin, vice president for strategic planning and market development. In the early 1990s, NorthEast added to and refurbished its facilities, including the Surgery Center, the Charles A. Cannon Hayes Family Center, the Women's Center, the George A. Batte Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and the Emergency Care Center. The hospital is now a 60-acre medical campus. "The No. 1 priority," Lovin says, is "to house the best doctors, house the best technology and to offer the best facilities."

Having a medical center that provides everything from open-heart surgery to a cancer center that includes the R-2 imager, which provides a second, computerized analysis for mammograms, helps recruit new industries to the area. The hospital also attracts industry-companies to sterilize and treat medical waste, for example.

No wonder economic development is proceeding apace, bringing the sort of growth needed to sustain the county's changing economy. The International Business Park has welcomed Toledo, Ohio-based Owens Corning Corp., which builds components for fiber-optic technology; Tokyo-based Dai Nippon IMS Corp., which ranks as the largest printer in Fortune's Global 500; Syracuse, NY based Pass & Seymour/Legrande Inc., which builds electrical-wiring components; and Houston-based food supplier Sysco Corp.

Michael Schneider, vice president of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Nolim Group Inc., which owns and develops the business park, expects office development to continue. "Demographics and strength of household income will facilitate office growth to the outer sections of Charlotte, "he says. "With the university and Mallard Creek areas saturated, we're at the forefront of office demand." The only limitation on access and growth in the park is transportation-the section of I-85 between Concord and the university area of Charlotte is a congested four lanes. That, he insists, "will address itself in the future."

Given recent declines in the traditional manufacturing sector, Cabarrus County is positioning itself as the right place for technology companies to relocate or expand. The city of Kannapolis is developing the Kannapolis Gateway Business Park off Highway 73 near I-85.

There's the nearby airport, too. Concord Regional Airport is the fourth-busiest in North Carolina, behind Charlotte Douglas International, Raleigh-Durham International and Piedmont Triad International. In only its sixth year, the airport will approach 100,000 take-offs and landings in 2001. It is designated as a reliever airport, one that functions partly to relieve larger commercial airports of smaller business and recreational traffic. But Concord Regional isn't around just to provide a place to park a Cessna-80% of flights at the airport are business-related. Of 750 available acres, the airport has developed 400, the Aviation Director John Crosby says improvements are on the way. The runway will soon be extended. The Concord Regional Airport Business Park, which houses Roush Racing and MB2 Motor Sports, will expand soon. "We have a waiting list for space at the airport here," Crosby says.

Certainly, growth in one sector of the area's economy has spilled over into development elsewhere. Nowhere else has this been more obvious than in Cabarrus County's travel and tourism industry. Last year, local tourist expenditures amounted to $146 million. Those numbers pushed Cabarrus County up from 17th to 15th of the 100 North Carolina counties. That $146 million provided $2.6 million in local taxes. Residents have been able to reap a number of benefits: tourism dollars help pay for schools, roads, parks and services.

Concord Mills mall and Lowe's Motor Speedway have spearheaded growth, expanding their offerings and acting as a magnet for further development with the help and encouragement of city and county leaders. "The city and county have been extremely supportive and very easy to work with," says Concord Mills General Manager Ray Soporowski. "I know that we are a destination for the group that comes from the Northeast and is heading south," he says. "And because of our presence here, we have actually become a magnet for additional growth. All four corners of the interstate are being developed." Development includes five hotels, more retail shopping and an apartment complex.

Some of the shopping experience in the Concord Mills area is related to NASCAR activities and the nearby Lowe's Motor Speedway. The speedway once was, Executive Vice President Doug Stafford says, the only tourist draw in Cabarrus County. Over the years, that draw has developed a momentum no one could have predicted; now visitors are traveling to the area not just for race weekends but for a number of other events that range from major auto shows to concerts to driving schools for would-be racers. "We have something going on 200 days a year," Stafford says. "Take all those activities together and they generate visitor traffic and overnight stays throughout the year. Cabarrus County has now become like other tourism destinations-like the mountains and the beaches. We are the only market in the greater Charlotte area that has that particular attribute."

Indeed, inquiries at the Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau suggest that the county has developed its own profile for tourists and shoppers alike. Mark Shore, the bureau's executive director, points out that the CVB was, just four years ago, housed in a few rooms up a narrow hallway in a Cannon Village building and got only about 1,200 phone calls a year. In 2000, the bureau received 40,000 inquiries-by phone, letter, e-mail and direct response to CVB'S advertising campaigns. That number doe not include peole who visited the CVB'S Web site. Four years ago, the bureau had no walk-in traffic to speak of. Now? "We've gone to have 18,000 visitors this year," Shore says.

Cabarrus County will, of course, find that the going has its rough spots. The county is playing catch-up on roads and water, and Ewing points out that he could not, in good conscience, encourage a heavy water user to relocate to Cabarrus County. And the county's local community college feels the frustration. "Our most pressing challenge," says Tim Foley, vice president of the south campus of Rowan-Cabarrus Community Colldge, "is just keeping pace with the growth in enrollment and with the maddening speed of technology changing. We ought to be able to offer labs in the classrooms with the same equipment someone might use in the workplace. But all of that means money. It's not that colleges and schools are greedy," Foley adds. "It's not like we want to buy the bells and whistles. But we ought to have the same generation software and computers and equipment that are reasonably current."

Still, Foley says that the college is well aware of the changing face of the Cabarrus area. And it's not just a matter or new, high-tech companies moving in. Local companies with as much as a century's worth of experience have helped spearhead change in and around the region. CT Communications Inc. was founded in 1897 as Concord Telephone Co. and served Cabarrus and Stanly counties. L.D. Coltrane, the company's founder, was the present CEO's great grandfather. Since the name change in 1992, CT Communications has expanded into Salisbury, Charlotte and Greensboro. According to Mary Jean King, director of investor relations, CT Communications may have moved outside its traditional territory-but the company is "doing the same thing we have done for over 100 plus years," and that means making sure local presence and customer service remain priorities.

Cabarrus County's Fist Charter Bank has made similar strides. The bank's roots in the county are equally deep, extending 113 years. All the bank's sales offices remain in Cabarrus County. Until last year, the bank had 75,000 customers in 10 cities, then added 15 cities and about 50,000 new customers. "How do we grow without losing sight of how
Important each of our communities is to us?" asks Kevin Toomb, senior vice president and director of marketing. Partly by reorganizing into six regional areas whose executives are advised by a regional advisory board that consists of business, education and community leaders. "You're faced all the time with change," Toomb says, "but this helps us keep a pulse on the changes that are taking place in this specific community."

If Cabarrus County faces substantial challenges in the near future, if roads and water lines and population growth have strained the county's ability to keep up with the pace of change, leaders have made sure to develop what the county will need to accomplish many of its future tasks. Cabarrus County has a diverse economy that will continue to be attractive to companies interested in relocating or expanding. The county, its seems is still a gold mine.

© 2003 BUSINESSNC-Barbara Thiede is a Concord-based free-lance writer.