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By Suzanne Fischer
Statesville
area leaders have long touted the region's
exceptional business climate and quality of life,
but anyone looking for a more objective source
won't need to look far. Kudos from state and
national press — most recently top honors
from Site Selection magazine —
confirm what locals have been saying for years:
the greater Statesville area, located about
midway between Charlotte and Winston-Salem,
offers some outstanding places to live, work and
grow a business. “We're
pleased to death about this,” says Jeff
McKay, director of economic development at
the Greater Statesville Development Corp. (GSDC),
which serves Statesville, neighboring Troutman
and northern Iredell County. The “this”
he's referring to is Site Selection's
recent announcement that Statesville ranks as the
No. 1 American small town for attracting
corporate facilities over the last decade.
Indeed, since 1989 more
than 100 companies have opened new facilities or
expanded existing ones in the greater Statesville
area. Recent announcements include one by
Oregon-based Tube Specialties, a manufacturer of
heavy truck tubing, to build an $11 million,
109,000-square-foot facility and employ about 100
people in its first phase of development.
Others came from Rene
Composite Materials ($5 million, 56,000 square
feet, 60 jobs), Garden Ridge (268,000 square foot
distribution center), Tubetec (25 new jobs) and
Eclipse Packaging (10 new jobs). In February,
B&B Fabricators held a groundbreaking
ceremony to mark the start of construction on its
new 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.
The company, which has operated in Statesville
for years, is investing $5 million in new
machinery to manufacture equipment that produces
carpet padding.
To understand part of
the area's appeal to business, talk to Rick
Makrickas, plant leader at Goodyear Tire and
Rubber Co., which announced its decision to open
a plant in Statesville in 1995. The location is
home to a tire mold manufacturing group (as well
as some engineers, finance and human resource
specialists) and was the company's first new U.S.
facility in 14 years. Goodyear selected
Statesville from among 20 other sites.
“We judged the
final three locations on nine factors,”
Makrickas explains, “and Statesville placed
first or second in all of them.” Some of
these criteria included availability and quality
of labor, training opportunities, transportation,
cost of utilities, site location and appearance,
taxes and incentives and community appeal.
In addition to the
community's high marks in all these areas,
Makrickas was particularly impressed with the
professionalism of and assistance offered by the
town's leaders. “Jeff (McKay) was
extraordinarily helpful, and Mitchell Community
College President Dr. Douglas Eason did a lot to
support us,” he says. “He set us up in
a building on campus to use as an office for our
first four to six months rent free, and then he
worked with us to set up our initial
training.”
The plant employs 159
people, and since its first mold was created in
August 1996 production has increased eight-fold.
The initial building, at 15,000 square feet, was
a $14 million investment; in 1997 the company
spent $26 million and added another 32,000 square
feet.
“We've got a great
labor force,” Makrickas says. “They've
got a good work ethic and they're interested in
continuous improvement. I highly respect their
abilities.”
On a personal level,
too, Makrickas applauds the company's decision to
locate in Statesville. “I give it a 10. You
won't find any more friendly people in the
country.”
Tom Tisa, director of
human resources at the Dana Spicer off-highway
products division, couldn't agree more.
“I've lived here for five years, and I love
it. The cost of living is friendly, it's a
fantastic climate, and the community works
together.”
Spicer, which employs
about 630 at its 450,000-square-foot facility in
Statesville, manufactures axles and transmissions
for off-highway equipment used in the
mining, forestry and construction industries. The
company moved to Statesville from Michigan 23
years ago when it decided that the South was a
good place to do business.
Manufacturers aren't the only businesses
thriving in the area. Locally owned and operated
Piedmont Bank, which first opened its doors in
July 1997, surpassed $100 million in assets as of
the end of 1999. With branches in Statesville and
nearby Moorseville, the bank has made
unprecedented progress, according to Thad
Woodard, president of the N.C. Bankers
Association. “This growth is a tribute to
Piedmont Bank's solid leadership, its board of
directors and its first-class staff. The bank's
success also demonstrates the vibrancy of Iredell
County,” Woodard said. The bank's president,
Bill Long, said that surpassing the $100 million
mark was a “significant milestone.”
Agriculture, which
remains the No. 1 industry in the county,
according to Danny Hearn, president and CEO of
the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce, will
also receive a boost when a new $8 million
livestock show and sale arena is built in
Statesville. Hearn estimates that the facility
will draw about 250,000 people each year.
The number of new
companies arriving in the area speaks volumes
about Statesville area leaders' commitment to
economic development. But it's the prosperity of
Statesville's long-established businesses that
proves the strength of the area's staying power.
Take L. Gordon Iron and
Metal Co. and its sister, Gordon's Furniture, for
instance. The companies were founded in
Statesville in 1917 by Louie Gordon when he rode
into town from High Point with little more than a
dream and a horse and wagon. Today, with its
fifth generation preparing to enter the business,
the Gordon family has not only built the scrap
metal recycling business, but created and run the
largest home furnishing store in the county.
In addition to being a
stellar corporate citizen, the company also
recently won the 1999 award from the Duke
University Fuqua School of Business as North
Carolina Family Business of the Year in the small
business category. The honor moves the company
into a finalist slot in a national competition
sponsored by Mass Mutual Insurance Co.
“We've got more
Gordons now than ever working in the family
business,” says Craig Gordon, one of Louis'
grandchildren. “We're up to nine, and it
won't be long before the fifth generation, who
are already working part time in the summers,
comes on board.”
Some of Statesville's
other long-time businesses include Statesville
Brick Co., Bartlett Milling Co., and Kewaunee
Scientific Corp., which designs, manufactures and
installs scientific and technical furniture.
Troutman, a town of
about 2,000 just south of Statesville, enjoys
both cooperation and friendly competition with
its neighbor. “We put the `great' in Greater
Statesville,” Town Administrator A.J.
Barghothi says with a chuckle.
McKay enthusiastically
acknowledges that Troutman has “a better
potential for growth in the next five years of
any town in Iredell County. They are positioned
to take off. Their leadership has recognized that
and done a lot of things to prepare for it.”
Some infrastructure
projects in process will go a long way toward
encouraging that growth. A two-mile water and
sewer extension from U.S. 21 to I-77 will
“open up unbelievable amounts of real estate
to commercial and light industrial development,
as well as retail,” Barghothi explains, and
a plan to connect the town's sewer system to
Statesville's will double Troutman's wastewater
treatment capacity. Population and housing have
also increased at a fast clip: the number of
Troutman residents has grown about 15 percent in
three years, and the town board recently approved
development of some 660 new homes.
To put that into
perspective, Troutman's new mayor, Elbert
Richardson, reminds us that currently the town
has 880 households. “Our challenge in the
coming years is to manage the growth and maintain
our friendly, small-town feel.” Toward that
effort, the town is working on developing a
land-use plan.
“Troutman is a
wonderful place to live and raise a family. We're
within 45 minutes of virtually anything you'd
want to do, but at the end of the day you can
come home and hear the crickets chirping,”
Barghothi says. “You can have the advantages
of living in a small town without being in the
middle of nowhere.”
 Unique benefits
Driving around town and
pointing out other recent industrial recruits,
McKay reels off a number of Statesville's unique
benefits.
“We're one of two
or three cities in the state at the intersection
of a major north-south and a major east-west
interstate,” he says. “We like to say
that you can get on an interstate in Statesville
and not hit another red light until you get to
Barstow, Calif.”
Statesville sits near
the intersection of I-77 and I-40, linking the
area with large portions of the eastern U.S. In
fact, McKay points out, transportation studies
have shown that about 60 percent of the U.S.
population resides within one day's drive.
“With the
just-in-time approach that companies are taking
these days, being able to get things out there
quickly is becoming essential to the
manufacturing process,” he adds.
A road improvement
project in the works will further increase access
to the area. Highway 70, Statesville's
fastest-growing industrial corridor, is slated to
be widened to four lanes, connecting I-77 to I-85
outside of Salisbury. “It's a much needed
project,” McKay says. “It'll alleviate
some traffic problems and provide a major
distribution route for a lot of companies, like
Food Lion.”
In addition,
Charlotte-Douglas International and Piedmont
Triad International airports are 45 and 55
minutes away, respectively, and Statesville
Municipal Airport, a general aviation facility,
is just minutes outside of town.
Corporate real estate in
the area is plentiful; 12 business and industrial
parks offer a total of more than 2,300 acres of
land, most of which is zoned for light to heavy
industrial use, warehousing and distribution, and
light to heavy manufacturing. Also slated are two
new speculative buildings: a 56,0000-square-foot
facility in the Sherrill Industrial Park, one
mile from I-77 off US 70, and a
20,000-square-foot building in the East Iredell
Business Park.
“There's lots of
industrial property here,” McKay remarks.
“We've worked just as hard on that as on
recruiting business. Without a place to put them,
there's little point in hunting for
companies.”
The diversity of
business and industry in the area also plays a
part in Statesville's success in attracting
further corporate development.
“People here are
pretty open to new trade and learning new
skills,” McKay says. “It's not like
we've got all one kind of industry, and a
workforce that's only trained in that particular
kind of work, for the past 50 years.”
And despite low
unemployment, employers are able to pull from
numerous neighboring communities. Iredell County
borders nine other counties, and approximately
250,000 people live within a 25-mile radius of
Statesville.
A popular
workforce-related program is JobLink, sponsored
by the Iredell County office of the N.C.
Employment Security Commission. Services offered
at the JobLink center, which aids job seekers and
employers alike, include job placement
assistance, recruitment, information about
education and training opportunities, internet
job search, workforce re-entry assistance, career
change guidance, and use of an on-site
interviewing facility. The county Department of
Social Services, the public school system,
Mitchell Community College, N.C. Vocational
Rehabilitation, and I-Care Inc. all help the ESC
staff the center on a part- or full-time basis.
The Statesville Chamber
of Commerce, too, is heavily involved in
workforce development. “That's one of our
main priorities, definitely,” says chamber
president Hearn. “We feel like rather than
focusing on attracting a workforce from across
the country, we need to recruit people on a
regional basis and get them well trained.”
In pursuit of that goal, chamber staff and
volunteers visit parents in their workplace to
talk to them about educational and job
opportunities from which their children will have
to choose once they graduate from high school.
“Kids decide by the time they're in eighth
grade if they're going to be taking a vo-tech
track,” Hearn explains. “They're our
focus.”
Other education
initiatives spearheaded by the chamber include
educator and student internships, teacher/student
business tours, a teacher and faculty
appreciation banquet, and a speakers bureau that
recruits business and industry leaders to talk to
students in classrooms throughout the school
system.
Education for the
future
It's no surprise, then,
that education and worker training are deciding
factors for many new businesses settling in the
Statesville area. That being the case, Mitchell
Community College has probably helped tip more
than a few scales in Statesville's favor in the
competition for industry.
“We do have an
unusually effective partnership with the chamber,
the economic developers, the city and county
governments, and the Employment Security
folks,” says Dr. Eason, president of the
college. “I've been here 10 years, and I
don't remember any breakdowns in that
partnership. There's a real affability here.
People intuitively move toward finding
solutions.”
The college originally
opened its doors in 1856 as a Presbyterian
women's college, but in 1956 the Mitchell College
Foundation was incorporated and the community
took over the college through the foundation.
Mitchell became the fifty-seventh member of the
state's community college system in 1973 and
remains the only private college admitted.
On a remarkably
beautiful campus that wears its history well,
faculty and administrators employ some of the
newest technology to address adult basic
literacy, continuing education and curriculum
tracks and worker training programs.
“We're aware of the
tremendous needs of the manufacturers in this
area, particularly in view of the less than three
percent unemployment rate,” Eason says. He
often meets with existing and potential employers
to assess the kind of skills they require of
workers. “Then we ask ourselves if we have
it in the inventory of MCC, if it's in our grasp
to develop a program and get it going on a fast
track, or if not, with whom can we broker that
service.”
Partnerships with other
area colleges and universities make the most of
what each of the institutions has to offer.
Mitchell, for example, is a member of the
Charlotte Area Educational Consortium, a group of
22 two- and four-year colleges that allows
students who can't find a course they need at
their home institution to take the class at any
of the participating institutions at no
additional cost. A similar compact holds for
faculty who need to borrow research materials
from a neighboring college library.
Part of the college's
mission is to help its students, and potential
students, make the transition from old to new
manufacturing. “It's shocking for me, being
old enough to have a historical perspective, to
see how much manufacturing has changed,”
Eason says. “Today's factories are modern,
computer driven, and you see people working in
teams with less supervision, employing more
problem-solving skills, doing less rote work.
“We can help people
who are currently making $6 to $8 per hour double
their income in three to four years, if not
quicker. And help them stay here, in the
community, while they're improving their earning
potential at the same time.”
There are at least 16
other two- or four-year institutions of higher
learning within a 50-mile radius of Statesville
— nine community colleges and seven
four-year colleges and universities. Gardner Webb
University, for instance, operates one of its 16
satellite campuses in Statesville, home to the
Davis School of Nursing, as well as some graduate
courses and night classes for adults who are
working toward a bachelors degree.
Dr. Howard Coleman,
superintendent of Iredell-Statesville Public
Schools, concurs with conclusions drawn by Eason
regarding the changing face of employment and
ways in which the school system can prepare
students for the future.
“As we move into
more high-tech sorts of jobs, critical thinking
skills become even more important. We have to get
students to a higher order of thinking, and we
have to start early,” Coleman says.
The school system is
investigating the possibility of starting public
preschool and day care for children up to 4 years
old, an investment that Coleman says will
translate into academic success in a community
that already boasts higher-than-average SAT
scores and in which all schools met or exceeded
state academic achievement growth goals. With
16,800 students (and a growth rate of 600 new
students per year), 31 schools (with three new
schools on the drawing board), and a wealth
of expanded educational services (advanced
placement and enrichment classes and a task force
to focus on the drop out rate, among others), the
Iredell Statesville school district stands as a
real source of pride for the community.
And that shows in the
support the system receives from business and
government. “Chamber and business leaders
have found that 75 to 80 percent of Iredell
students stay in the county, so they are our
future workers and leaders,” Coleman
explains. “It makes good business sense, and
it's important for the community, to have a
well-educated citizenry work and function
here.”
Staying Healthy in
Statesville
The area is served by
two hospitals, Iredell Memorial and Davis Medical
Center. Davis has about 149 beds and 161
physicians representing 28 specialties. Among the
many special services the hospital provides are a
24-hour emergency department, intensive/coronary
care units, sleep diagnostic unit, a
state-certified cardiac rehabilitation program,
sports medicine and psychiatric services. The
center also sponsors community health and
wellness programs like new-parent education and
baby wellness and support groups for patients
with diabetes, arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer
and chronic pain.
Iredell Memorial is a
247-bed, not-for-profit hospital opened in 1954.
Its buildings and grounds are owned by Iredell
County and leased to a board of trustees
comprised of local citizens. The medical staff is
comprised of about 120 physicians representing 24
specialties. An expansion in 1986 added four
patient floors in a new tower, and more recent
additions include a building that houses MRI
facilities as well as The Women's Breast Health
Center, a mammography and education center.
Grants awarded by the Duke Endowment helped the
hospital open a diabetes learning center and an
off-site nursing clinic that serves a neighboring
homeless shelter.
The hospital, which
boasts all private rooms, offers a wide variety
of special services including 24-hour emergency
care, a busy home health agency, radiation
therapy and a cardiac rehabilitation program.
“We operate that at
a loss because we feel it's so important for
people who have had heart attacks to have
supervised activity and guidance with their
diet,” explains Arnold Nunnery, president
and CEO of Iredell Memorial Hospital. “We
don't want to charge for these services or in any
way discourage people from taking advantage of
them.”
Last year, Iredell
Memorial offered some 328 corporate wellness
programs — like smoking cessation,
controlling high blood pressure and flu shots
— at area businesses.
“If there is
something we can do as well as or better than the
larger medical centers, then we'll want to do
it,” Nunnery says. “If they can do it
more efficiently, we'll leave those things to
them. But, for instance, our reputation stands on
quality of care. Our nursing care is something we
can do better than large facilities because,
being smaller, we can be more personal, more
individual.”
Nunnery, who has been
with the hospital for 25 years, takes pride in
the facility's numerous certifications,
many of which the hospital sought voluntarily, as
well as the fact that Iredell Memorial receives
no funding from the city or county.
Putting it all
together
R.B. Sloan, chairman of
the board of the GSDC and CEO of Energy United,
said it's the combination of
quality-of-life-factors and the strong support of
the community that ultimately makes the
Statesville area an attractive place for new
businesses to settle and existing businesses to
grow.
“It's hard to argue
the fact that this is just a great place to
live,” he says. He's right. The city's
thriving downtown is lined with historic
buildings and bustling shops and restaurants. In
fact, 47 of the commercial district's buildings
are listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. Residential neighborhoods, dating back to
the early 1800s, are made up of wide, tree-shaded
streets and graceful Victorian homes.
Lake Norman, with 500
miles of shoreline and beautiful stretches of
open water, lies just a few miles outside of
town. Sailing, fishing and windsurfing are
popular here, and there are numerous beaches and
recreation areas for swimming and picnicking.
Duke Power State Park, located on the shores of
Lake Norman in Troutman, offers more public
beaches, nature trails, and camping and picnic
areas.
Perhaps the special
event for which Statesville is most widely known
is the annual hot air balloon rally traditionally
held the third weekend in September. The oldest
balloon rally on the East Coast, it has been
named by the Southeast Tourism Society as one of
the top 20 events in the Southeast. Spectators
watch as more than 50 huge, colorful balloons
fill the skies above the Statesville and Troutman
areas.
Charlotte, the largest
city in the state, is just a short drive down
I-77, and it has all the entertainment value
you'd expect in a major metropolitan area. The
Queen City is home to NBA basketball with the
Hornets, professional football with the Panthers,
Lowe's Motor Speedway with its NASCAR racing, the
renowned Mint Museum, and numerous other
cultural, entertainment and shopping offerings.
Of course, you don't have
to leave the area for entertainment, particularly
if it's racing you're into. Iredell County is
host to over 40 Busch and NASCAR teams. In
Statesville alone you can get up close and
personal with the race cars of Bill Elliot,
Darrell Waltrip and Jimmy Spencer, watch as the
cars are worked on, and check out NASCAR
memorabilia, awards, trophies and photographs.
Dining options are many
and varied, and accommodations range from
well-known and respected chain hotels to
beautiful historic bed and breakfast inns like
the Kerr House in downtown Statesville. This inn
was originally a private home, built in 1891.
Visitors to the Kerr House, a relative newcomer
to Statesville's lodging scene, enjoy lovely
rooms with private baths, a delicious full
breakfast, and the touring advice of friendly and
knowledgeable hosts.
Tammy Bishop, of the
Statesville Tourism Development Authority,
explains that honoring the past is a real
priority for the area. “A big part of what
we do is preserve our history while welcoming
growth at the same time. It's important to us
that we carve out a place for us and not just be
viewed as a suburb of Charlotte, because we've
got a unique character all our own.”
It's that character and
the community's overall strength that area
leaders believe make an impression on visitors
and prospective businesses.
“Our incentives
aren't a whole heck of a lot compared to some
other areas, although we can develop some good
packages. If it's strictly a financial deal,
though, we wouldn't get it,” says Sloan, the
GSDC board chairman. “But if
financial incentives are all a company is
interested in, frankly, it probably wouldn't be a
good match for us anyway. Bottom line, the best
incentive we can provide is a good business
climate and a great community.”
Suzanne Fischer can be reached at
919-836-1412 or at sfischer@nccbi.org
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. This article
first appeared in the April 2000 issue of North
Carolina magazine.
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