Attracting Top Employers and Paving the Way for Future Success

The past decade has seen North Carolina redouble its persistence in the game of interstate economic competition. The state’s business and political leaders are relentlessly forward-looking, and that’s part of the reason North Carolina has enjoyed so much success.

But from time to time it’s worthwhile to look behind us and see what the road we’ve built looks like.

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Just a few years ago, North Carolina was awash in megasites – 1,000+ acres of contiguous property that can accommodate a large employer. Other states had worked harder and faster over previous decades to prepare and market their megasites, so we were behind as our neighbors recruited automakers and other major industries.

But, as Business NC reported in 2022, “North Carolina’s approach shifted in the past decade as state officials and lawmakers worked with private developers to organize megasites stretching across the state’s eastern and central regions.”

The legislature funded megasite preparation and marketing, and well-organized private sector initiatives like the Piedmont Triangle Partnership’s “Carolina Core” added yet more heft to the offensive.

The change in strategy paid off. North Carolina made international headlines attracting blue bloods like Toyota, Lilly, Microsoft, and Wolfspeed. And Greensboro’s Boom Supersonic may one day join the ranks of the world’s blue bloods, perhaps one day soon.

It bears repeating, over and over and over again, the symbiotic effects these era-defining projects have on their surroundings. The mega-development Chatham Park, for instance, will of course benefit from Wolfspeed’s proximity, but the existence of Chatham Park also helps recruit big companies like Wolfspeed, and countless others, to the area.

The state now has only one remaining shovel-ready megasite. The issue several years ago was finding more employers for all the megasites. Today it’s finding more megasites for all the employers.

The megasite boom coincided with the “All in NC” marketing campaign funded by the General Assembly and executed by the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC). North Carolina has an enviable business climate, and business leaders in other states ought to hear about it. As we wrote in March of this year, “The campaign showcases the most convincing arguments for businesses to relocate to North Carolina, from its climate – business and natural – to its tax environment.”

All of these items feed off of and improve one another: marketing campaigns; site preparation; thoughtful real estate developments; economic development recruiting. Each separate item becomes possible, and finds success, because of the success of the others. That virtuous cycle exists because North Carolina’s political and business leaders have the same forward-looking persistence and mission clarity that has defined North Carolina for many years.

Plans to double down on the past decade of success are already underway. The state legislature allocated funding to prepare and market new megasites as well as “selectsites,” which are tracts smaller than 1,000 acres.

So, what does the road behind us look like? It’s wide, sturdy, and ready for many miles yet to come.

We’re hopeful for what 2025 will bring, in more ways than one.