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B R I N G I T ! If you belong to a group that holds

conventions somewhere else, help us bring it home! Give us the contact information for the decision maker or meeting planner and you will be entered in drawings for a night on the town!

Send your group contact information to Marva Wells, High Point Convention & Visitors

Bureau, 300 S. Main St., High Point, NC 27260, or call 336.884.5255 or visit bringithomehighpoint.org.

The Bring it Home, High Point! Campaign is conducted by the High Point Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Get involved.

Once a pastoral landing field, PTIA has come a long way

By Paul B. JohnsonENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

TRIaD – It’s not often you can point to one mo-ment in time and say that the fate of a facility or area changed in an in-stant, but April 13, 1998, is such a day for Pied-mont Triad International Airport and the region around it.

That morning, execu-tives with FedEx Corp. traveled from Memphis, Tenn., to PTIA and an-nounced that FedEx had picked the airport for its latest national cargo hub. As The High Point Enter-prise reported in its edi-tion the day after the an-nouncement, “Piedmont Triad International Air-port’s ship finally came in, via cargo.”

FedEx picked PTIA after a recruiting battle among five other airports in North and South Caro-lina. The project for the hub, which opened in the summer of 2009 after a lengthy environmental review by government agencies and years of grading and construc-tion, involved an invest-ment of more than $500 million. The state of North Carolina recruited FedEx with a $115.5 mil-lion incentives package, to be paid over a 25-year period, that still ranks among the top 10 incen-tives packages offered in state history.

The hub was announced during one of the longest economic expansions in American history in the 1990s. But it has opened as the Great Recession stymies both the local economy and the devel-

opment of the hub. The projected benefits of the hub haven’t materialized as economic recruiters envisioned 13 years ago, but FedEx kept its pledge to open the hub by the middle of 2009 despite trying economic times.

As the overall national and regional economy recovers, so should the FedEx hub expand its operations as workers there sort more pack-ages in better times, said Mike McCully, associate professor of economics at High Point University.

FedEx recently pro-jected that the company expects its demand to im-prove during the second half of this year, McCully said. But having the hub in the Triad will position the region for growth as some type of recovery takes hold, he said.

“They are a very strong company, constantly in-vesting for the future,” McCully said.

The recruitment of FedEx and expansion of PTIA to accommodate the hub adds to the heri-tage of an airport that got its start in the early 20th century as a landing field in a pasture.

What has become PTIA dates from 1927 when Lindley Field was opened on property that at the time was eight miles west of the Greensboro city limit. From its incep-tion, though, the airport sported a regional tie, as it was referred to as Tri-City Airport because of its proximity among High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

One step that airport leaders took in the 1950s

cleared the way for fu-ture growth of PTIA. The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, the airport’s governing board, pur-chased more than 900 acres of land around the airport to secure space for growth.

The airport continued to grow over the decades, reflecting population increases and business growth in the Triad. An-other key point in the air-port’s history happened about 30 years ago.

In 1982, the new pas-senger terminal opened at PTIA, and the airport’s main runway was extend-ed to 10,000 feet in length to handle larger jets. At the time, PTIA’s main runway was the longest in the state, according to the airport’s historical records.

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HPE | FILE

The runways of PTIA are shown in this April 1998 file photograph.

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on the airport property, a hotel that continues to serve travelers today.

Another major de-velopment at PTIA be-gan 11 years ago when Honda Aircraft Co. es-tablished research and development opera-tions. Since then the company has estab-lished a manufactur-

ing facility at PTIA for its small jet targeted for corporate markets.

The biggest challenge today facing PTIA, as ac-knowledged by members of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, is coping with competition from nearby Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and Raleigh-Dur-

ham International Air-port. Those two larger airports offer more daily flights and, because of economies of scale, gen-erally lower fares than PTIA. Airport officials have made recruiting more discount carriers to PTIA a priority.

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As predicted, FedEx spurs other growthBY JORDAN HOWSE

ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

TRIAD — Not only has the FedEx hub at Pied-mont Triad International Airport provided direct jobs to the Triad re-gion, it also has spurred growth surrounding its operation.

Less than one mile out-side the High Point city limits, the hub has proved a bonus for businesses looking to move to the re-gion.

Being close to the FedEx hub provides huge advan-tages for businesses want-ing to locate here. It gives them the ability to meet higher customer service expectations, focus more on supply chain optimiza-tion and have a more am-bitious inventory strategy. It allows companies easy shipping to and from a va-riety of domestic or world-wide locations and to have more shipping flexibility overall.

Polo Ralph Lauren has had a distribution center in High Point since 1991 and added the ralphlauren.com apparel fulfillment/contact center facility in

2007. It recently opened its third major facility in High Point that will operate as distribution/logistics facil-ity.

“Our primary shipper is FedEx,” said David Rush, Polo Ralph Lauren’s vice president of supply chain. “Being close to a FedEx hub is very important to us.”

Other companies that have expanded or come to the region since the an-nouncement of the hub in 1998 are Baltek, a Swiss light manufacturer; Ban-ner Pharmacaps, which produces softgel capsules; and TE Connectivity, for-mally Tyco Electronics.

An economic impact study estimated the hub will create 19,800 jobs and have a total value-added impact of $9.3 billion on the Piedmont Triad’s economy over a 16-year period.

It is anticipated that $703 million in new state tax revenues and $236 million in new local tax revenues could be generated during that time frame.

And the hub itself is poised for growth.

Currently, 65 flights are operating and an addi-tional 75 to 100 flights per week will be added. FedEx will operate 26 aircraft at the new facility with more than 60 aircraft projected within the next 10 years.

A 9,000-foot runway was built at PTIA to accommo-date the additional flight traffic. Packages origi-nating on the East Coast for East Coast delivery will be handled through the Piedmont Triad hub. Other FedEx hubs are lo-cated in Memphis, Tenn., Indianapolis, Anchorage, Alaska, and Fort Worth, Texas.

[email protected] | 888-3517HPE | FILE

Aircraft are shown at the FedEx terminal at PTIA.

‘Our primary shipper is FedEx. Being close to a FedEx hub is very important to us.’ David RushPolo Ralph Lauren

�� www.hpe.com Sunday, JuLy 24, 2011 THE HIGH POInT EnTERPRISE

Reviving Uptowne

Leaders set ambitious goals for reshaping city

BY PAT KIMBROUGHENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

HIGH POINT – When the Uptowne High Point Asso-ciation formed in October 2008, the group of business and civic leaders, property owners and others had an ambitious task.

The area around N. Main Street and Lexington Avenue had long been busy with traffi c, with several well-estab-lished businesses in the vicinity, but it didn’t have much of an identi-ty as a destination for High Pointers beyond that.

The group’s task boiled down to some basic ideas: How to improve business in the area and how to get business owners to

work together.“The whole point

of that was to get people used to the idea of coming up here and walking around – chang-ing the mindset,” said Jay Wagner, president of the as-sociation and an attorney with an offi ce in the heart of Uptowne. “One of the fi rst things we had to do was create a name. The Core City plan rec-ommended use of name ‘Uptowne.’ It kind of implies that it’s upscale, that it’s not down-town, so we settled on it.”

Since then, the group, assisted by many others who want to see Up-towne thrive, be-gan to market the area, successfully

petitioned the city for some ordinance changes, held spe-cial events like periodic sidewalk strolls and ob-tained a grant that paid for banners that are on display in Uptowne.

“One of the fi rst steps we took was to defi ne the area,” Wagner said. “Once you’ve got a name, then you’ve got something you can sell. We feel like we’ve had some success so far – some small steps – and if we can get a little more help, we feel like we can make some bigger steps. Business or investment in

SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE

Wendy Fuscoe, executive director of The City Project, looks over a map of High Point.

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a place tends to snowball. It starts out small, but once people see some vis-ible successes, and they see some enthusiasm for a place, it begins to build on itself.”

The group has created an inventory of all avail-able property in Uptowne for sale or lease, so that prospects can be informed immediately about the broker in charge, square footage, parking spaces and other particulars in looking at a site. The City Project, with which it works closely, provides step-by-step assistance with the permitting pro-cess if a prospect decides to lease or purchase a property.

Since the association began its work, several businesses have opened in Uptowne: the Golden B restaurant, a cloth-ing store called Collared Greens, Char-Grill, Blue Bourbon Jacks, Just

Priceless and Wicked Purple, to name some of them.

“There’s still too many places empty. There’s plenty of places to move into, but we’ve got to help them bridge that gap to get in there,” Wagner said. “With the economy the way it is, it’s that much worse. It’s that much harder.”

The retail incentive policy pending before the City Council could be the way to “bridge that gap,” in Wagner’s estimation. If the city awarded cash grants to small business projects in key areas of town, the money would give them a leg up get-ting some of the available space in the proper con-dition.

Landlords are gener-ally willing to work with tenants looking to start a business in Uptowne, but it can be prohibitively ex-pensive to convert a bare

building to accommodate a restaurant, bakery or coffee shop.

“There needs to be some upfitting done with each of these buildings,” Wagner said. “They’re primarily built to be re-tail shops or offices, and if we’re going to convert them to other things, like restaurants, there’s go-ing to be some upfitting cost to that.”

Allowing retail incen-tives is the major local government action need-ed to benefit Uptowne, Wagner argues, but the City Council has taken action on a couple of smaller matters that has helped.

One was an ordinance change that allowed Up-towne businesses to use A-frame signs for ad-vertisement purposes on sidewalks in front of their property. The other was the adoption of an or-dinance to allow restau-

rants to feature sidewalk dining.

Wagner said these are positive steps, but Up-towne is still a tough sell for some clients.

“It’s hard to sell your vi-sion when we take them up and down the street,” Wagner said. “You can show them pictures and say, ‘This is what we want it to look like one day, and we want this area to be walkable and we want this to be a des-tination where people in High Point can come and walk and see their friends and sit outside and eat dinner.’ But when you walk out on Main Street and look up and down the street, you just can’t see that. It’s a leap to get from where Main Street is now to what we would like it to be one day.”

In the meantime, the Uptowne Association has a business recruit-ment committee to help

market Uptowne. Its role is to solicit types of busi-nesses that aren’t there. One thing it’s been con-centrating on is finding a local or regional coffee chain to locate there.

The Uptowne Associ-ation’s work often over-laps with that of The City Project, which has reached out to establish-ments like the Fresh Market and Mellow Mushroom restaurant. The Ilderton Beach Blast series of concerts in the heart of Uptowne has

been dubbed a success, and both organizations have lent their support to all manner of ambi-tious ideas circulating in the community, from an International Amphithe-ater and Market to an Up-towne Farmers Market.

Nothing concrete has come of either such pro-posal as of yet, but Wag-ner and other Uptowne advocates say they don’t plan to go away anytime soon.


Jay Wagner is shown in Up-towne High Point area.

HPE | FILE

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Aaron Clinard is shown on a vacant lot in front of GTCC-High Point campus on S. Main Street, a section of the city that’s being targeted for revitalization.

Despite economic constraints, City Project leaders keep eye on the prize

by pat kimbroughenterprise staff writer

high poiNt – When she was appointed executive director of what is now The City Project nearly three years ago, Wendy Fuscoe was charged with the task of helping to re-vitalize inner-city High Point.

A nonprofit corpora-tion that receives city funding and is guided by a 20-member board, The City Project’s mission is to implement High Point’s Core City Plan, which focuses on eight areas within the city’s 11-square-mile urban core.

Her tenure has coin-cided with the worst eco-

nomic recession in near-ly a century, which has slowed new development to a trickle, making The City Project’s mission that much more daunt-ing.

Still, there has been progress guiding revi-talization of the central city’s neighborhoods and commercial corridors.

“When I look back, I’d give us a ‘B,’” said Fuscoe, invoking the traditional grading scale to rate the organization’s perfor-mance. “And I know that other people might look around and say, ‘We see nothing.’ People get tired of hearing we’ve worked behind the scenes and we’ve laid the ground-

work, but I look at the things we have accom-plished and I’m pleased with where we are. I’m pleased with what we’ve done. There have been some things that we’ve accomplished.”

Three parts of the city have been the group’s primary areas of interest so far.

Uptowne – the stretch of N. Main Street between Ray and State avenues – has probably seen the most in the way of accom-plishments.

New businesses, such as Wicked Purple, Sequels, Blue Bourbon Jacks and Collared Greens, have opened, and the branding and marketing efforts to

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identify the area as a pe-destrian-friendly, walk-able Uptowne have taken root.

“We’re beginning to see a good uptick in inter-est from entrepreneurs who want to think about opening businesses here. It’s been really encourag-ing,” said Aaron Clinard, City Project chairman. “We also started some-thing recently that we’ll pursue more and that is talking with property owners privately to make sure they are updated on our efforts – that we’re here to help them with any vacancies they have and share with them our passion for the types of businesses that we would like to see. One thing we’ll be pursuing soon is the idea of a retail village Uptowne.”

One tool City Project rep-

resentatives would like to have to aid in their business recruitment efforts would be the city’s proposed retail in-centives policy, which is in a state of flux.

This would grant eco-nomic incentives to small businesses locating or expanding in core city areas such as Uptowne. The City Council has not indicated a clear intent to adopt the proposal, al-though it is still on the table and in the process of further study.

Washington Street – re-named during the past year in reference to its history as the center of African-American com-merce and culture in High Point during the era of segregation – also has received signifi cant attention as a revitaliza-tion target.

The Hayden-Harman

Foundation of Burling-ton has spearheaded the changes in the neighbor-hood, which has long struggled with crime and urban blight.

The foundation bought a former barber shop and restaurant at 613 Wash-ington St. and converted it into the Changing Tides Cultural Center, which includes space for offi ces and an art gallery.

The foundation also re-cently established a grant program to help residents of the neighborhood make repairs to their homes. Its efforts were said to be the fi rst private-sector invest-ment in the Washington Street area since The City Project started its work.

“Washington Street has probably seen more change, physical change, than the other ones just because of the Hayden-

Harman Foundation,” Fuscoe said.

The third major area to get focus is the area along S. Main Street near Guil-ford Technical Commu-nity College’s High Point campus.

The centerpiece of The City Project’s plans for the area is the idea of establishing a cultural arts center across the street from the campus. They are working with the High Point Area Arts Council to propose a S. Main Street location.

“The theory is that a cultural arts center would create a lot more energy for other retail and res-taurant opportunities,” Clinard said. “We already have 7,200 students in a captured audience, and so much activity and syn-ergy already with arts at that campus.”

As with so much of what The City Project does, the chances of this becoming reality hinge on some-one coming forth with a large investment to make it happen. Clinard said the group is trying to fos-ter an environment that would increase the like-lihood of that happening by forming a grassroots committee to come up with ways to market and brand the area, in a simi-lar vein to what has been done for Uptowne.

Besides coining a new name for the area – the Southside district – the group wants to come up with a logo and other vis-ible evidence that distin-guishes it and shows that something is happening there.

The city has also tak-en recent steps to spark investment in this and

other areas by modify-ing High Point’s exist-ing incentives policy for large-scale offi ce and industrial projects. The changes lowered the cap-ital investment thresh-olds needed to qualify for incentives.

Existing companies in north High Point must now invest $1 million instead of $2 million to qualify for incentives, and existing south High Point companies must invest at least $500,000, down from $1 million.

To qualify for incen-tives, new companies locating in north High Point now will have to invest at least $10 million instead of $17.5 million, and companies will have to invest $2 million in-stead of $4 million when moving to south High Point.


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Washington Street district figures prominently into

revitalization effortBY JORDAN HOWSE


HIGH POINT — Wash-ington Street has been the center of the Afri-can-American commu-nity since the earliest dates of High Point. It is included in The City Project’s Core City Plan to revitalize Uptowne and South Main/GTCC. Of the three districts, Washington Street has seen the most success. It’s seen a total invest-ment more than $250,000 and the Hayden-Har-man Foundation has purchased and refur-bished properties in the neighborhood. The Washington Street district is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, mean-ing developers who choose to rehabilitate properties within it could be eligible for tax credits

In the four years since the High Point City Council implemented the Core City Plan, sev-eral organizations have made strides to return Washington Street to its former glory. The opening of the Changing Tides Cultural Center, which houses five orga-nizations: the Hayden-Harman Foundation, the High Point Fine Art Guild, the City Project’s satellite office, Word of Reconciliation Church, and a project composed of High Point Universi-

ty students majoring in nonprofit management.

Last year, the City Council restored the historical name of Washington Street (Washington Street was renamed to E. Washing-ton Drive in the 1960s). Further revitalization projects include restor-ing the Kilby Hotel, where black travelers stayed while visiting or going through High Point, and building a jazz club.

The Hayden-Harman Foundation also estab-lished a grant program that will help homeown-ers of the neighbor-hood make repairs to their property. The foundation will cover 80 percent of the cost of repairs, up to $3,000.

Since businesses and residents have moved out of the area, it has become overwhelmed with crime, mostly drug-related. But the revitalization project has High Point Police cracking down on the neighborhood and mak-ing it more attractive for new businesses and residents to move back into the area.

In the fall of 2009, Washington Street held its first fall festival. Last year, the festival brought out a crowd to the cultural center ribbon cutting and the many vendors and booths.

In March, the cultural

center unveiled the mu-ral on the eastern side of the building that pays homage to influential African-American High Pointers.

The City Project’s Core City Plan was undertaken to guide development, redevelop-ment and revitalization of High Point’s core area to improve the physical, economic and social facts of the area. The central theme of the plan is to define the various distinct places that make up the core city area to bring iden-tity to them, reinforce their purposes and ensure their long-term stability.

The ultimate goal of the Washington Drive Plan, drawn up previ-ous to the name change, is to physically and eco-nomically revitalize this historic commercial

district. The intent that the area becomes both a resource for the adja-cent Washington Street Neighborhood and the community as a whole.

Other historical plac-es in the Washington Street neighborhood include High Point Normal and Indus-trial School, now Wil-liam Penn High School, which was founded by the Society of Friends in 1893. Also, High Point Baptist Church, now First Baptist, was the oldest black church of its denomination within 25 miles of High Point. Shaw University’s High Point campus was estab-lished in the late 1970s and is one of nine extra-mural sites of the oldest historically black col-lege or university in the South.


HPE | FILE

A section of Washington Drive, recently renamed to its original designation, Washington Street, is shown in this file photograph.

HPE | FILE

The iconic Baptist church is one of the many historic features of Washington Street.

THE HIGH POINT ENTERPRISE SuNday, July 24, 2011 www.hpe.com 13�


“Cheto” Gonzalez is shown in front of his tire business at 404 E. Main St. in Thomasville.

Hispanic population growth adds to Triad’s business baseBY VICKI KNOPFLER


TRIAD – Felix Reynoso gets up at 5 or 6 a.m. during busy season to clean and sharpen the tools of his landscaping trade.

He and his crew arrive at their first job between 7 and 7:30 a.m. and work well past dark, often by the lights of Reynoso’s trucks. He even works week-ends when needed.

Aniceto “Cheto” Gonzalez, owner of Cheto’s Tires in Thomasville, provided Mike Robertson of Trinity with such good service one Saturday morning in April that Robertson wrote a Letter to the Editor to The High Point Enterprise praising Gonzalez.

Reynoso and Gonzalez are just two of a growing number of Hispanic business owners who have settled in the Triad in hopes of bettering their lives by making their businesses a success.

With competition fierce in the poor economy, they focus on hard work and customer service to get ahead of the pack.

Municipalities do not track busi-nesses by ethnicity of owners, but a drive down S. Main Street in High Point or National Highway in Thomasville makes it obvious that Hispanic busi-nesses are increasing along with demo-graphics.

“(Hispanic businesses) are growing,

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14� www.hpe.com Sunday, July 24, 2011 THE HIGH POInT EnTERPRISE

particularly in the Na-tional Highway area, and some folks really have some thriving busi-nesses and are good, rep-utable partners for the city,” said Ken Hepler, Thomasville’s planning and zoning administra-tor. “I wish we did have a way to track them.”

The 2010 Census showed that the Hispan-ic population is growing faster than any other de-mographic. Currently, 50.5 million Hispanics live in the United States, which is 16 percent of the country’s 308.7 million population. In 2000, 35.3 million Hispanics lived in the United States.

In the South, the His-panic population grew 57 percent between 2000 and 2010. In North Carolina, the Hispanic population doubled during the same period.

The largest sub-group of Hispanics in the coun-try is Mexicans, and both Reynoso and Gonzalez are from Mexico.

Reynoso, 28, came from the state of Guerrero (where Acapulco is locat-ed) seven years ago and settled in High Point. For the first three years here, he worked for a landscaping business in Thomasville, learning lawn maintenance, land-scaping design and to cut and maintain trees.

He began his own busi-ness, FJR Landscaping, three years ago and is especially proud that his business is licensed and insured. He also takes pride in being so tidy he never leaves a stray leaf behind.

He works through-out the Triad and never turns down a job.

One evening this past spring, Reynoso arrived at a Thomasville home the day after a storm to cut and haul away a

large oak tree that had fallen. He and his crew left at 8:30 p.m. and were headed to another job laying sod.

His motivation is sim-ple.

“I just love to work,” Reynoso said. “It’s (keep-ing) me out of trouble, and I want to leave some-thing for my kids when they get old. My daddy had 14 kids, and he couldn’t give anything to nobody. I’m trying to change my life and have a better life.”

Reynoso and his Mexi-can-born wife, Dalila Harrison, have two chil-dren: James, 4, and Eliza-beth, 2. Both were born in the United States, and when James becomes 21, he can help his father and mother become citi-zens, Reynoso said.

Gonzalez has been in the United States for 20 years and in Thomasville for 15 years. He came from Rioverde, San Luis Potos, slightly southeast of central Mexico. He worked at a tire business in Mexico and for some-one else in Thomasville for six years to learn the trade before starting his own business four years ago.

Robertson stumbled on Cheto’s Tires by ac-cident when he had a flat tire on his lawn mower one Saturday morning. His usual tire shop was closed, so he went to three American-owned tire businesses, none of which was interested in his business.

On his way home, he noticed Cheto’s and stopped. Not only did Gonzalez fix his lawn-mower tire, but he also did it for free.

“He only asked that when I next needed to pur-chase tires, to keep him in mind,” Robertson wrote in his Letter to the Editor.

“So, in the future, I will bypass those busi-nesses that obviously do not want my business and will support those who do. I also will tell my friends of those business-es that treated me badly, and of those who give me good customer service. Remember, the customer you turn away may be the one you can least af-ford to lose.”

Gonzalez does not remember Robertson, but he chuckles at the recounting. Most tire shops, he said, won’t bother with small jobs, such as lawnmower, bike or motorcycle tires. But he does.

“I live for my custom-ers, and I gotta make nice with them for more customers to support my business,” he said. “I don’t be nice, I don’t have customers.”



Felix Reynoso cuts a limb as he works to prune this large oak tree in High Point. Reynoso owns FJR Landscaping.


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The Palladium off Wendover Avenue anchors the growing retail base that’s sprouted up in north High Point.

Business leaders, officials try to cultivate city’s unique retail climateBy Paul B. Johnson


hIGh PoInT – If you took a city of 100,000 people that’s the size of High Point and plunked it down in most counties across North Carolina, it would become the retail focal point of the area.

But because High Point is in the Triad, adjacent to the larger cities of Greensboro and Winston-Salem, its re-tail role takes on a different dimension.

High Point’s recent retail history has

involved ups and downs reflected by the erosion of tenants at its largest shop-ping center, Oak Hollow Mall, and the expansion of retail shopping complexes in the northern section of the city in the past five to six years. The city’s retail climate also has been buffeted by the impact of the Great Recession and na-tional shopping trends.

But High Point also faces a fate of ge-ography.

If the city were the county seat and largest municipality in a more isolated

county, it probably would become the shopping mecca for people who would have few other options for stores. But because Greensboro and Winston-Salem are relatively easy drives for shoppers, city merchants not only face competition among themselves for re-tail dollars, but from businesses in the larger, neighboring cities.

High Point’s location in the urban Triad can cut both ways for its retail market, said Mike McCully, associate professor of economics at High Point


University. “High Point is going to have some advan-tage from people who are going to stay in the com-munity and shop, especially if the shopping is conve-nient to where they live,” he said.

One reason for the development in the last decade of north High Point

retail centers such as Wendover Land-ing and the Palladi-um is the residen-tial growth in the northern sections of the city, McCul-ly said.

The High Point Chamber of Com-merce, as part of its 2011 Plan of Ac-tion, lists as one of its business de-velopment goals

a Buy Local cam-paign. And High Point retailers en-joy one advantage that many other stores in a city its size would envy – upwards of 70,000 visitors coming here each spring and fall for the High Point Mar-ket. The influx of marketgoers gives High Point a retail

Oak Hollow Village is among several strip shopping cen-ters comprising a retail node along Eastchester Drive.

file | hpe


boost twice each year. Advocates for the City Project rede-velopment effort and Uptowne – a section of the city along N. Main Street north of downtown – aim to convince small busi-ness entrepreneurs to pick High Point for their retail locations. City Project advocates say they’ve recorded some success, even against the headwind of the recession.

Since August 2008, at least 16 businesses have opened or ex-panded in Uptowne, the City Project in-dicated earlier this summer.

While J.C. Penney Co. Inc. closed its underper-forming Oak Hollow

Mall department store June 1, a small business owner near downtown has opened a catalog store to keep the Penney name and merchandise in the city.

What happens with the retail climate in High Point in the fu-ture may depend on the direction of the mall, which was pur-chased earlier this year by High Point University. HPU of-fi cials have indicated that Oak Hollow Mall will operate as a retail center for the imme-diate future, though in the long term the university may have other purposes for the property.

The direction of re-tail in High Point will

depend in part on the national economy, McCully said. The re-tail market in the city tends to follow nation-al trends, he said.

“We are affected by the same factors over-all. So that means consumer confi dence is one issue, and that’s tied into peo-ple’s jobs. Then you have people’s income, which hasn’t been growing too fast,” Mc-Cully said.

The higher-than-normal level of gas prices through most of this year could divert money that would have been spent at retail stores, McCully said.


High Point Mall, an-chored by the Harris Teeter grocery store, is one of the city’s busier shopping cen-ters near the heart of town.

FILE | HPE


By leaps and

boundsHigh Point University sees massive growth spurt

ENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT

HIGH POINT — The latter half of the 20th century and the early years of the new millennium brought a spurt of growth to High Point University under the leader-ship of two presi-dents.

The campus opened in 1924 as High Point Col-lege, a cooperative venture between the Methodist Church and the city of High Point,

but remained rela-tively small until after World War II, when all cam-pus debts from the Great Depression were paid.

Under the infl u-ences of the G.I. Bill and the “baby boom” of the 1940s and 1950s, enroll-ment more than tripled and staff also grew. The college’s programs received full re-gional accredita-tion in 1951.

Additional facili-ties were added in response to the

post-war growth: four residence halls between 1953 and 1968, two class-room buildings, a second gymna-sium, an audito-rium, a chapel, and a campus cen-ter. Crowning the physical expansion was Smith Library, completed in the spring of 1984. The original men’s res-idence hall was re-placed in 1987 with a 221-resident facil-ity and The Millis Athletic/Convoca-tion Center was opened in late 1992


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The Old Yadkin college building located in western Davidson County. Yadkin College moved to High Point in 1924 and became what is now High Point University.


during the presidency of Jacob C. Martinson and after High Point College became High Point Uni-versity in 1991.

The university also opened an Evening De-gree Program in Win-ston-Salem for working adults. HPU opened a graduate studies pro-gram during Martinson’s presidency. Martinson was known for his quiet demeanor and integrity. “He was a visionary lead-er,” said HPU President Nido Qubein. “We miss him, but we will always be grateful for his many contributions.”

Martinson also built stronger connections between the university and the city. Residents attend cultural and ath-letic events on campus, and students and faculty members participate in local activities.

TransfOrmaTiOnHigh Point University

leaders announced in Oc-tober 2007 a doubling of investment in academic programs, student life, scholarships and con-struction of new facili-ties. That commitment eventually became a $2.1 billion, 10-year effort guided by Qubein, and made possible through gifts, bonds and operating revenues. Part of the fi-nancing comes from $170 million HPU has raised since Qubein succeeded Martinson in 2005.

Almost every month offers a new sight on the growing university cam-pus.

A new $16 million Greek Village was to open in 2011 along with a “liv-ing and learning” com-munity for arts, theater and music students even as construction started

on a $9 million School of Education. A new $12 million residence hall for 300 students is scheduled to open by fall of 2012. Campus officials expect

High Point University leaders announced in October 2007 a doubling of investment in academic programs, student life, scholarships and construction of new facilities.


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An inside look at the University Center at High Point University.

enrollment to contin-ue growing to 5,000 undergraduates by 2017.

HPU also is a grow-ing business enter-prise. By the end of 2011, HPU was ex-pected to join the city’s 1,000 employee club by adding 149 new workers. Job growth has helped to elevate the universi-

ty’s annual economic impact on the state to $415 million, ac-cording to Qubein.

The campus also has received nation-al attention about resort-style ameni-ties and fun activi-ties. Classical music wafts through the grounds. There’s va-let parking, a con-cierge desk, a hot tub

and free snacks. Qu-bein says that when students know you care, they do well in the classroom.

The latest big HPU project is the $70 million School of Health and Sci-ences, proposed to open in 2014. The 180,000 square-foot health science build-ing to be located

across from Millis Center will include a pharmacy school and house programs in physical therapy and physician assis-tant studies.

So far, HPU has committed $550 mil-lion to construct 28 new buildings, add 120 faculty members and buy the nearby Oak Hollow Mall for

$9 million. Qubein’s family is one of four prominent High Point families who have pledged a to-tal of $40 million to the upgrades. Most of the money from the families of Earl E. Congdon, Fred E. Wilson, Jr., Mark A. Norcross and Qubein will go to the health sciences school and

the proposed school of pharmacy.

“The donors know that their money is going to an institu-tion with a clear vision, a solid lead-ership team and highly focused exe-cution of projects,” Qubein said. “And they want to invest in the lives of young people.”


Mega-showroom deal may shift

furniture market’s direction

By Paul B. JohnsonENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

hIGh PoInT — The his-toric deal earlier this year involving the three largest showrooms at the High Point Market may change the trajec-tory of a trade show that has served as the nexus for the city’s economy for a little more than 100 years.

The newly created In-ternational Market Cen-ters formally announced plans in May to buy the International Home Furnishings Center, the former holdings of Mer-chandise Mart Properties Inc., the assets of Show-place and the once-rival World Market Center trade show in Las Ve-gas. The deal totaling $1 billion will give Interna-tional Market Centers, a privately held company made up of a group of in-vestors from across the country, a corner on the home furnishings trade show field in the United States.

The deal came at a tu-multuous time for the High Point Market. Two of the complexes that In-ternational Market Cen-ters bought – the assets of Showplace and the former holdings of Mer-chandise Mart Proper-

ties, which includes Mar-ket Square – had been in receivership for lack of payments on debts. And the purchase took place

during an ongoing battle between the High Point Market and World Mar-ket Center, the upstart trade show launched six

years ago as the main U.S. rival to High Point.

One sign of the scope of the deal: The Wall Street Journal during this past

spring devoted a half-page of coverage as the sale was simmering.

The interest in the deal reflects the scope of the

trade show. The High Point Market features 180 buildings covering 10 million square feet of showroom space, pre-

Changing with the times

FILE | HPE

Buyers shuffle in and out of the International Home Furnishings Center during a recent High Point Market.


dominantly in a trade show district taking up most of downtown. More than 2,000 exhibitors un-veil tens of thousands of new product introductions at each trade show.

Now that the Interna-tional Market Centers deal is announced and the buyers known, analysts of the home furnishings in-dustry and the High Point Market are trying to assess what the merger of the Las Vegas market and approxi-mately two-thirds of space at High Point Market will mean.

The purchase of the for-mer Merchandise Mart Properties and Showplace showroom properties by International Market Cen-ters removed them from the financial distress of court-supervised receiv-ership, said Richard Ben-nington, professor of home furnishings at High Point University.

“One encouraging sign is

that the leaders of Interna-tional Market Centers are thinking about bringing in other markets like gift and accessories markets. It may turn out to be a big boon for the local econo-my, if you could get these events in addition to the spring and fall markets,” he said.

The impact of the di-rection of the High Point Market doesn’t limit itself to the future vitality of the city, or even the region. Year in and year out, the High Point Market repre-sents the single-largest eco-nomic event in the state.

The annual impact of the trade show on the state economy is $1.14 billion an-nually, according to a study compiled by Andrew Brod, an economic researcher and faculty member at the University of North Caro-lina at Greensboro. The market accounts for more than 13,000 jobs, and the as-sessed tax value of all trade

showroom buildings was $667 million, according to Brod’s research.

Each spring and fall, the market draws upwards of 70,000 furniture indus-try representatives from across the world to High Point, including visitors from 106 countries.

One role that the High Point trade show will con-tinue to play is serving as a test market for retailers ordering home furnish-ings for their stores and, indirectly, for consumer interest in products, Ben-nington said.

“You have buyers com-ing in here who represent companies that are real close to the consumer. If 80 percent of the buyers come in and say, ‘That’s not right,’ furniture manufac-turers are one step closer to what the consumer wants. You can’t replace that eas-ily,” Bennington said.


Representa-tives with Pata-gonia Trading Co. talk with potential buy-ers during the recent spring High Point Mar-ket in April.

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Mike Mebane with Linwood Furniture is shown near a scene on a wall outside the Linwood showroom on the third floor of Market Square.

Made in the Triad

ENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT

TRIAD – While thousands of Triad furniture jobs have been outsourced to China, there are companies right here still continuing the trade.

In fact, some furniture jobs are coming back to Trinity as produc-tion costs are increasing overseas. That’s good news for this region, an area that was shaped by the furni-ture industry.

One of the companies that contin-ues to produce furniture locally is Linwood Furniture, located in Lin-wood. Linwood Furniture, which currently employs 85 workers, was founded six years ago as a dream of artist and furniture designer Bob Timberlake to keep and create fur-niture manufacturing jobs in North Carolina. With a dozen of its own branded collections, the company also serves as a leading domestic OEM producer for other residential and contract furniture brands.

Mike Mebane, the chief executive officer for Linwood Furniture, said the company was established fol-lowing Sun Capital’s purchase of Lexington Furniture Industries. Me-

Despite globalization, many furniture companies keep operations here

24� www.hpe.com SunDay, July 24, 2011 THE HIGH POInT EnTERPRISE

Braxton Culler (center), with sons, Brack (left) and Josh (right), are shown at the company’s Sophia plant recently.


bane said Timberlake did not want the World of Bob Tim-berlake Collection to move to Asia, so arrangements were made to purchase the former Lexington Furniture factory for Linwood Furniture.

“I don’t think you can say that the U.S. is going to re-trieve a major share of the furniture business that left in the earlier part of the decade,” Mebane said. “However, there is a portion of business that stays here, and there’s a portion that is going to come back. The reasons are multi-fold. When you look at the factors of production, those factors are increasing sig-nificantly in all Asian coun-tries.”

Mebane grew up in Old Emerywood of High Point surrounded by furniture and textiles families. For many years, he worked for indus-try-leading, public chemical fibers company Unifi Inc., watching as the company grew from $350 million to more than $1.7 billion in sales. Needless to say, he knows the impact that furniture and tex-

tiles have had on this region.“Certainly, it’s a huge im-

pact to the economy of High Point,” Mebane said. “From the market standpoint, I think the region has pretty well absorbed the reduction of manufacturing jobs associ-ated with furniture that left.”

Braxton Culler is the chief executive officer and presi-dent of Sophia-based Brax-ton-Culler Furniture. The company, which was founded by Culler in 1975 with a dozen employees, has 185 workers in a 415,000-square-foot facil-ity. Culler said the majority of his company’s manufac-turing is done in Sophia.

“Business, at this particu-lar moment, has been better since early March,” Culler told The High Point Enter-prise in a May interview. Culler’s grandfather, Roy Culler Sr., founded a furni-ture business in 1934 in High Point. Braxton’s father, Roy Culler Jr., continued that company, but it was later purchased by Burlington In-dustries.

“Furniture and textiles

were the mainstays of this whole area for many, many years,” Braxton Culler said. “Of course, High Point, Arch-dale has a reputation, as far as the consumers are con-cerned, as being a center of the furniture industry.”

Thomasville Furniture Industries began in Thomas-ville in 1904. The company, which currently employs less than a 1,000 employees in the Chair City, had more than 6,000 residents at its peak, said Thomasville City Man-ager Kelly Craver. Those numbers began to decline in the mid-1990s.

According to Craver, TFI has committed to bring 40 to 50 jobs to a plant on Unity Street, relocating the opera-tions from the company’s Ap-pomattox, Va., plant.

Craver said Thomasville is home to other furniture com-panies, such as Tomlinson/Erwin-Lambeth. Craver said he recently heard from the owner of Isom International who plans to bring some up-holstery jobs back to Thom-asville.


Road to progressProximity to I-85, planned I-74 project

make Archdale ripe for growthBY CHANEL DAVIS


ARCHDALE – The construction of Interstate 74 through Arch-dale-Trinity will put the community in the right position to lure future development.

The new I-74, when completed in October 2012, will touch the northeastern corner of the city. It will provide easier and di-rect access to the Piedmont Triad International Airport and the FedEx Terminal located nearby. In addition to the direct

26� www.hpe.com SundAy, July 24, 2011 THE HIGH POInT EnTERPRISE

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Proximity to Interstate 85 already has paid dividends for Archdale, with hotels sprouting up along the intersection of I-85 and U.S. 311.

access via Interstate 85 to Greensboro and Charlotte, I-74 also would provide a direct access to Interstate 95 and Interstate 77.

“Our benefit will be the economic development, particularly up at the interchange of N.C. 62 and I-85,” said Archdale Planning Director Jef-ferey Wells. “I think that will help with economic development, attracting some industry and com-mercial development to that area. Particularly in-dustry, because then they

will have the ability to go north or south on I-85 and east or west on I-74 a con-siderable distance.”

“It could also help resi-dential development as well. Someone can live in the area and commute up to Winston-Salem in about 20 minutes for work,” Wells said. “We need more residential ar-eas out there, and then I believe that the business-es that people desire will come with more hous-ing.”

The federally funded

transportation system, running from Detroit to Charleston, is expected to fuel many opportunities, including light industrial and cluster developments at the intersection of I-85 and N.C. 62.

The I-85 and I-74 cor-ridors will provide easy access to the area’s nu-merous attractions. The connection of the inter-states will bring visitors right through the heart of the communities. Arch-dale and Trinity have plenty of accommoda-

tions for visitors with the seven hotels in the area. City officials are hoping that the completed I-74 will accommodate more.

“It will certainly open up a lot of opportunities where the interstates cross. I think that even-tually, it will be one of the more prominent com-mercial hubs in the city of Archdale, even though the economy has im-pacted our development process and it has not been at the interest that we had anticipated when

we made investments in that area,” said Archdale City Manager Jerry Yar-borough. “I suspect that when the economy recov-ers, retailers and busi-ness will began to make investments that will be one of the prime loca-tions. It is a national lo-cation for retail, and also a national location for lo-gistics, warehousing and distribution facilities be-cause of the interstates. It is the perfect location.”

With the extension of the U.S. 311 bypass, new

school construction, highway improvements, and water and sewer up-grades, the cities are con-sidered to have a solid foundation for business and industrial growth.

“We did some prelimi-nary planning to prepare for this growth. We also made some investments in infrastructure, water and sewer in that area as well,” Yarborough said.

Retail and hospitality jobs are already on the rise in the area. New res-


The area surround-ing the Food Lion shopping center on Archdale’s Main Street is shown. Retail and hospital-ity jobs already are on the rise in the area.

taurants, motels and retail stores have located in the area within the past few years. Archdale and Trinity have also attracted a number of banks, insurance companies and fi nancial planners to the area.

“A lot of it depends on what kind of development we see at the N.C. 62 interchange,” said Beverly Nelson, president of the Archdale-Trinity Cham-ber of Commerce. “There has been a lot of speculation about what might go there. We think this is a prime location for de-velopment for businesses that want to cater to interstate traffi c, like restaurants, big box stores and restaurants. The kind of businesses that would benefi t by being next to an interstate. The economic impact would depend on how

that development looks and how soon.”

Nelson said the city expect-ed the development to happen before now, but the economy did not allow for it.

“I talked to a big box who said we have the demograph-ics to support one of their stores. We have a growing community, we have the traffi c and the income lev-els, but they were not look-ing at expansion at that time due to the economy,” Nelson said. “But I do think that once something goes on the land that we are going to see a huge economic impact be-cause not only will it gener-ate revenue from the traffi c, but it will provide services for the local residents.”


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Community Foundation is pillar for cityBY VICKI KNOPFLER


HIGH POINT – On the most simplified level, High Point Community Foun-dation channels money from donors to nonprofit groups.

On a more encompass-ing scale, it is one of the most quietly powerful groups in High Point. It has granted money to ap-proximately 155 different nonprofit groups and acts as a catalyst for commu-nity growth.

Since 1998, the Com-munity Foundation has granted more than $25.1 million to nonprofits, pre-dominantly in High Point. It holds more than $60 mil-lion in invested assets.

It is a reservoir of hope, said Executive Director Paul Lessard.

High Point attorney Jim Morgan formed the idea of such an organization when he learned of similar groups while traveling the state as president of the N.C. Jaycees and a mem-ber of the North Carolina General Assembly. Soon after, he enlisted the help of Jim Millis Sr., and the two began groundwork in High Point.

In 1990, they incorpo-rated the High Point Com-munity Foundation, and shortly afterward, several large gifts totaling $600,000 formed the foundation’s financial beginnings.

In the fall of 1997, Millis and his wife Jesse (who died in 2004 and 2010, respectively) donated $5 million to establish an of-fice and staff.

Soon after, the first executive board began meeting. Members were:

Morgan, chairman; Bill McGuinn, vice chair-man; Millis, investment chairman; Charles Odom, treasurer; Bill Horney, development chairman; Charlie Greene, secretary; Phil Phillips, personnel committee chairman; Nido Qubein, public rela-tions chairman; George Erath, grants chairman.

Lessard was hired as executive director in 1998, and he has led the organiza-tion since. In 1993, Lessard received the Carnegie Hero Medal for pulling a woman from a car submerged in water, and he used the cash prize to establish The Light-house Project, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing good character traits among young people in Guilford County.

“The greatest bless-ing for the Community Foundation has been Paul Lessard, Jim Millis and I

got very lucky with him,” Morgan said recently.

“I knew, almost from the minute I found out what it was, this was something I wanted to make my life mission,” said Lessard, a military brat who lived all over the world and was taught to serve others. “All my life, all I wanted to do was give back. I never had a home until I came here for college.”

Community Founda-tion gave its first grant to Rabbit Quarter Ministries, led by Raymond Payne, formerly a homeless addict who had been in prison. Lessard has kept track of Payne, who now works with Open Door Ministries.

Lessard follows the prog-ress of people and groups that receive grants, and that’s one of the tenants and strengths of Commu-nity Foundation, he said.

The foundation also ad-ministers Donor Advised Funds, in which donors specify how their gifts are to be used.

For the grants program, however, a committee selects recipients based first on geography – with High Point as the center point – then on how the grant will impact the com-munity, how many people will be impacted and how lives will change.

Most grants go to educa-tion projects, Lessard said.

Lessard believes the following factors make the Community Foundation successful and relevant to the community:

• Leaders are dreamers who are practical;

• It is operated as a busi-ness;

• It ensures that money goes to the right organiza-tion and that those groups achieve;

• The board is composed of top community leaders, and staff that supports Lessard and the board – Karol Murks, director of accounting and grants, and Sherri Scott, direc-tor of donor services and administration – are tire-less, dedicated and highly effective;

• Transparency, confi-dentiality and partner-ships are key tenets.

“We’re known as an or-ganization that gets things done, and for the right rea-sons,” Lessard said. “We do the things we do quietly because we want to do them for the right reasons, and it’s easier to achieve when you’re not making a big deal of it.”

In recent years, the poor economy has resulted in more grants to meet hu-man needs, which is fine, since the organization was designed to change with the times, Morgan said.

“I hope we don’t stay there, though, because I like the idea of new organi-zations and new ideas,” Morgan said.

Both Morgan and Les-sard hope the Community Foundation’s invested assets reach $100 million, and they expect to meet that goal in six to eight years.

“I knew we’d be success-ful, and I’m happy where we are,” Morgan said.

[email protected] | 888-3601 SPECIAL | HPE

The High Point Community Foundation staff includes Karol Murks, director of ac-counting and grants (from left), President Paul Lessard and Sherri Scott, director of donor services and administration.


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Trinity’s transformation is an ongoing affairBY PAT KIMBROUGH


TRINITY – When Trinity residents got together to begin the process of incorpo-ration in the mid-1990s, there was one is-sue on people’s minds above all others: the prospect of being annexed by one of its three neighbors.

Becoming a city would forestall this, giving the residents the ability to con-

trol how their community developed.It was much more than this issue that pro-

pelled Trinity into existence, but if there was another dominant theme leading up to the city’s incorporation in 1997, it lay in the hard soil of northwest Randolph County.

That soil held the key to the area’s fu-ture in many ways, because, without a public sewer system, new development would be diffi cult, since the soil made it diffi cult to install new septic systems.

Trinity’s fl edgling government forged an agreement with Thomasville for that city to treat the wastewater from the new system and began installing sewer lines near N.C. 62 and Finch Farm Road.

The city started with a seven-member council, a manager and a clerk. Its prop-erty tax rate was 5 cents per $100 of as-sessed value, and, other than zoning and code enforcement, it offered virtually no services for the vast majority of its

Growing up


Trinity City Manager Ann Bailie is shown with a book and map of Trinity.

residents who didn’t have access to the sewer sys-tem.

That has changed in recent years, but the city is far from a full-service municipality. It has no police, fire or parks and recre-ation department, for example. It add-ed curbside trash and recycling pick-up this year, and is now up to eight employee positions

in the current bud-get.

The population grew over the last decade, but has ebbed and flowed since then. It stood at 6,614 as of last month, down from 7,016 in September 2010.

Like all young cities, Trinity has gone through its share of growing pains.

One of the latest points of contro-

versy surrounds this summer’s spe-cial election to al-low alcohol sales in the city. It might surprise some that Trinity, which drew hundreds of newcomers over the past decade and took on many of the characteris-tics of a prosperous a bedroom commu-nity, has no beer or wine for sale in its convenience stores. It’s easy to

forget that it’s still a part of conser-vative Randolph County, which re-mains dry.

Proponents ar-gued that allow-ing beer, wine and mixed beverages in the city would draw commercial development, such as grocery stores and restaurants, that the city has lacked.

Bailie said a con-sultant once told


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A historic marker is shown in downtown Trinity, and behind is a gazebo which contains the bell from the old Trin-ity College. The town got its name from the college in 1868. The college moved to Durham in 1892 and became Duke University.

city leaders that Trinity’s tax base was so tilted toward residential develop-ment that the per-centage of it com-posed of commercial or industrial proper-ty was negligible.

“(Commercial/in-dustrial growth) hasn’t come about as quickly as hoped, but we’ve done OK,” she said, men-tioning a Subway restaurant, Sheetz convenience store, Cornerstone Health Care office and other non-residential proj-ects in recent years. “Things have been happening, just not a great amount of development at one time.”

Allowing alcohol sales would address this, not only en-hancing the quality

of life for residents, but positively im-pacting city finances by growing the prop-erty tax base, Bailie said. She estimates the enhanced tax base, sales tax stem-ming from beer and wine purchases and other new revenue streams would add about $29,000 per year to Trinity’s cof-fers.

That’s a significant sum, given the finan-cial challenges faced by the city, which has a property tax rate of only 10 cents per $100 of assessed value, generating about $500,000 annu-ally.

Beginning this summer and continu-ing for the next 20 years, Trinity faces annual debt service payments related to


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construction of the city’s sewer system that will top $1 million by 2014.

Trinity voters in 2004 approved a referendum allowing the city to issue up to $15 million in bonds for new sewer construc-tion.

The plan was to use a significant amount of the city’s sales tax revenue

to pay the debt service until revenue from the new sewer customer base started flowing. With new development lagging, city officials are concerned about the future of their revenue sources. “If ev-erything remains the same, we’ll be OK. We’ll be able to pay the debt without raising taxes, but there are so many vari-ables,” Bailie said. “What we’re trying to do is po-sition ourselves so that if some of these things should occur, we’re not going to have a huge and sudden burden on our taxpayers.”

The city has about 725 sewer customers and about 2,700 households, not all of which will be able to tap onto the sys-tem.

“We never said we’d be able to serve every-body with sewer. We said we’d do about half the households, and we’re on

course to do that,” Bailie said.

There are four or five sewer projects active, with the upcoming fifth phase of construction slated to make use of the remaining portion of the $15 million in 2004 bond funds.

The majority of the city’s sewer is still treat-ed by Thomasville, with a small portion going to Archdale. The city is do-ing a feasibility study looking at the idea of a regional wastewater treatment plant that would involve Randolph County, but such an ini-tiative is probably a long way off from coming to fruition.

Trinity’s next major project is continuing planning for the devel-opment of a downtown. The city has hired con-sultants and formed resident focus groups to come up with an idea for how to create a down-town area along N.C. 62 that would take in the former site of Trinity College.

“The plan has been ad-opted and we’re working on the ordinances to sup-port the plan, and that will be the next big thing,” Bailie said. “We’re very excited about that. We’re very excited about Trini-ty’s future.”


FILE | HPE

The Carl & Linda Grubb Family YMCA, after eight years of planning, opened on Trindale Road in May 2010.

‘If everything remains the same, we’ll be OK. We’ll be able to pay the debt without raising taxes.’Ann BailieCity Manager

The bell from the former Trinity College chapel is a historic remind-er of Trinity’s roots.


Small-town charm

Wallburg residents take destiny in their own handsENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT

WALLBURG – Incorporating as a town on July 1, 2004, Wallburg leaders wanted to retain their small-town feel and cul-ture before potential annexation took it away.

Wallburg Councilman Lynn Reece said the town was formerly known as Piney Grove. The name changed after J.W. Wall purchased large amounts of land for timber, Reece said. He said the town formerly had a drive-in movie theater and a mill, but those are now gone.

“Now, we are eight miles from every-

where, but we used to be as far as out you could get from any city,” Reece said.

Located in the far northeastern cor-ner of Davidson County, Wallburg has a population of about 3,000 residents. Wallburg almost borders the much larger city of Winston-Salem across the Forsyth County line. A large portion of Wallburg residents have Winston-Salem mailing address.

Thomasville city limits end just a few miles west of the town, and High Point is located only a few miles farther south-west.

Wallburg Councilman Mark Swaim said a large group of residents who were concerned over plans from adjoining cit-ies to annex Wallburg started the push toward incorporation. He said those residents wanted to have a say in their community.

“They wanted to really kind of con-trol those decisions,” Swaim said. That group also wanted to try maintain the community’s identity as much as they could ... They knew there was going to be growth, but they really wanted to try to maintain that small-town bedroom com-


munity feel that it has been for years and hope-fully will continue to be.”

Swaim, a lifelong resi-dent of Wallburg, said the town historically was a farming commu-nity. He said the town recently has become more commercialized at the intersection of Gumtree Road and N.C. 109, the location of Tim-co Aviation’s plant and a Sheetz convenience store.

“It was predominant-ly a farm community

and, of course, that has changed as profes-sions have changed,” Swaim said. “The next generation, when they quit farming, they started selling some

of their property off and more homes were built.”

Swaim said the amount of farming in Wallburg changed dras-tically when the tobac-

co buyout happened in 2004. Now, the town is a bedroom community.

“It’s a been a great community for the sup-port of other larger areas as far as a labor pool, and it’s a nice, quiet community for our citizens to live and raise their children in,” Swaim said. “It’s a great place to raise a family.”

Just like Midway, Wallburg leaders partly decided to incorporate partly due to the tax rate of other cities. The town currently has a tax rate

of 5 cents per $100 valu-ation.

“The 5 cents was a lot more attractive than some of the other cur-rent rates,” Swaim said. “Of course, they offer a lot more services than we do, but there again, it went back to the citi-zens making their deci-sions and the leaders right now have made the decision not to pro-vide a lot of services, so we can keep that tax rate down, and we have been able to do that. Hopefully, we can con-tinue to do that”

As of May, Wallburg has about 1,175 homes. Town officials in May were considering pro-viding garbage service.

“I think we will con-tinue to try to maintain that small-town identity and listen to the citi-zens,” Swaim said. “It is a community that we want the citizens to be a part of and let them help us make the decisions of the direction they want the town to go. I think

for the most part, every-body would like to keep that small-town atmo-sphere. We have kind of tried to develop the commercial develop-ment that is needed.”

Last year, the town received good news that Timco Aviation would be moving into the for-mer Tyco Electronics building on Gumtree Road. The company pledged to created 500 jobs in Wallburg in the next seven years.

“We are very excited to have Timco in the community,” Swaim said. “We had the build-ing there of course, and we obviously wanted to get some type of busi-ness or industry back in there. We are excited about Timco being in our community and the jobs they are going to bring to the communi-ty. We support that, and we will continue to help them in any way we can. We look forward to them being a part of our community.”

FILE | HPE

Wallburg Town Councilman Mark Swaim (left) and Wallburg Mayor Allen Todd, talk about plans for new business coming to Wallburg.

‘It’s a nice, quiet community for our citizens to live and raise their children in. It’s a great place to raise a family.’Mark SwaimCouncilman


Auctioneers:Forrest A. MendenhAll, CAI, AAre,

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Annexation fears drive incorporation of Midway as bona fide townENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT

MIDWAY – The town of Midway, known historically as a farming and faith-based community, incorpo-rated on June 29, 2006, because community leaders were fearful of being annexed by Winston-Salem.

Midway, which is near the communities of Arca-dia, Wallburg and Welcome in Davidson County, got its name from being “midway” between Lexington and Winston-Salem. Several Midway leaders, like Wallburg leaders a few years earlier, led the town’s drive to become incorporated because of annexation fears and growth. Town officials have said Midway

became a town because residents wanted to protect their identity.

Current Midway Mayor George Byrum said resi-dents were concerned about “getting subsumed and losing its identity if it became a part of Winston.” He said residents also wanted to ensure they didn’t have the 49 cents per $100 valuation property tax rate of Winston-Salem. Midway has a tax rate of 5 cents per $100 valuation.

“For some people, it was a kind of a cultural thing,” Byrum said. “Other people, it was kind of an economic thing that they got out and signed that petition. Sen. (Stan) Bingham had graciously con-

Protecting its identity

36� www.hpe.com SundAy, July 24, 2011 THE HIGH POInT EnTERPRISE

sented to try to work with us and enable us to incor-porate. For us to be one of the municipalities in Da-vidson County, that would be better for us than (to be) part of Forsyth County.”

At its time of incorpo-ration, the town encom-passed nearly 8 square miles and was home to 4,400 residents. Now, the town has 4.786 residents and 1,909 homes, accord-ing to Town Administrator Ryan Ross.

Ross said the town has grown partly due to about 100 residents who recently were voluntarily annexed into Midway. Town offi-cials have said those resi-dents wanted to become part of the town to prevent being annexed by Winston-Salem. The other growth has been gradual, Ross said.

Midway officials say sewer will be key to growth, in addition to providing restaurants and a grocery store for residents. The town has been putting in sewer for its business district along Hickory Tree Road. That project will be completed this summer.

“We did have a Winn-Di-xie a while back,” Byrum said. “Because of the com-pany’s business structure, they pulled out of here. We have been trying since that time to be able to get a gro-cery store here.”

Byrum said Midway offi-cials have started a search for land for a new town hall and park. He said Mid-way’s current town hall is inadequate because of space. Byrum said a town park would be something to give back to residents who have paid taxes.

Lynn Griggs, chairman of the town’s planning and zoning board, previously said Midway historically has been known as a farm-

ing community, while also being a faith-based community. However, the town’s farming presence is almost obsolete because farmers either died out or their land was subdivided, he said.

Byrum said Midway has been a longstanding bed-room community, with a number of residents trav-eling to RJR Reynolds for work.

As part of services from the town, residents of Midway currently are provided garbage service, street lights, and zoning and planning, while law enforcement service is provided by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.


Hal McAlpine, whose family owns and operates Midway General Store, looks over some of his plants. The store originally was built in 1935 and ran as a general store/grocery/barber shop. Since then, it has undergone several changes, each time under different ownership. It is one of the oldest business buildings in Midway, located at the intersection of U.S. 52 and Gumtree Road.

Midway Mayor George Byrum is shown in front of a quilt depicting Midway scenes. The quilt hangs in the Town Hall.



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GTCC emerges as community college leaderENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT

JAMESTOWN – This small town located between High Point and Greensboro in-cludes headquarters for one of the flagship commu-nity colleges in the state.

With campuses in James-town, Greensboro and High Point, Guilford Tech-nical Community College is among the fastest grow-ing two-year colleges in the nation with enrollments of 10,000 or more, according to the U.S. Department of Education. GTCC has two aviation campuses near Piedmont Triad Interna-tional Airport.

Growth: GTCC ranks No. 10 on the growth list with a 20 percent increase in enrollment from fall 2008 to fall 2009, according to the latest figures avail-able. The fall 2010 semester enrollment of 15,030 stu-dents established another record. Enrollment for all programs is about 42,000 students.

Growth of two-year col-leges was listed in early 2011 by Community Col-lege Week. GTCC is the only campus among North Carolina’s 58 community colleges on the list pub-lished by the educational journal.

GTCC officials have at-

tributed the enrollment growth to workers seek-ing training for jobs in demand during an eco-nomic downturn. GTCC has grown to become the fourth largest of 58 state community colleges. Only colleges serving Charlotte, Wake County and the Fayetteville military com-munity are larger. Many of the new GTCC projects have been approved with voter-approved bonds.

History: GTCC began life as Guilford Industrial Education Center in 1958. As the community col-lege movement grew in North Carolina through the 1960s, many educators did not want the renamed Guilford Technical Insti-tute to offer college-level transfer courses.

“We started that in 1983,” retiring GTCC President Don Cameron recalled in 2008. “That was a break-through for us. Now those four-year colleges want our graduates.”

In his history of GTCC, author Lee Kinard points out that even local lead-ers had mixed views of the change. GTI board chair-man Zalph Rochelle called the colleges “a string of half-pint, Mickey Mouse colleges.” Kinard also writes that Rochelle, while

file | hpe

Zach Reynolds (left) and Jeff Little rehearse at the High Point campus of Guilford Technical Community College. The campus is home to the Gatlin School of Entertainment Technology in High Point.


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at odds with the school’s first president, Herbert F. Marco, backed the techni-cal school movement.

Cameron credited GTCC’s growth to its as-sociation with aviation technology and man-agement and its unique programs, including the Gatlin School of Enter-tainment Technology in High Point, named for entertainer Larry Gatlin.

“Our aviation program is the largest in the state,” Cameron said. “In enter-tainment technology, we have one of six programs in the United States.”

Meanwhile, construc-tion continues on all campuses.

High Point: Educators are working to make cam-pus life more complete at the GTCC campus on S. Main Street. Part of that is opening new buildings so students can stay on campus for more of their classes.

College leaders have the same hope for a new $8 million, three-story class-room building which has four new computer labs, biology and physics labs, office space, and more student space.

The campus goal is to provide any student who majors in any of the cam-pus curriculum programs housed on the High Point campus – entertainment

technology, human ser-vices technology, simu-lation and gaming, phar-macy technology and upholstery – the opportu-nity to take all the classes they need to graduate on the High Point campus. The campus also offers a combination of tradi-tional manufacturing and service programs from upholstery to enter-tainment technology and massage therapy.

The college’s goal is to serve 10,000 people and the campus master plan calls for the construction of three more buildings as the campus expands toward S. Hamilton and Centennial streets.

Cameron campus: A new northwest campus will bear Don Cameron’s name. Located on N.C. 68, two miles north of Piedmont Triad Interna-tional Airport, the $65 million project on 100 acres is to be completed by the spring semester of 2013.

The new campus will be home to the N.C. Cen-ter for Global Logistics, which will be a coopera-tive effort of 19 colleges in the region.

The construction is being financed from bond referendums ap-proved by Guilford County voters in 2004 and 2008.

Cameron will be re-membered as an ally for business and industry re-cruiters.

“Don has developed GTCC into the best ally for job development. What he has done for developing jobs here

and for others who were looking to bring jobs here is incredible,” Lo-ren Hill, president of High Point Economic Development Corp., said when Cameron an-nounced his retirement in 2010.

file | hpe

Students walk in front of the Medlin Campus Center on the main campus of GTCC in Jamestown.


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Evolving mission

Randolph Community College is rooted in vocational trainingBY VICKI KNOPFLER


RANDOLPH COUNTY – Randolph Community College is well poised to begin its second 50 years in 2012, said college President Robert Shackleford.

In some respects, RCC has changed little since it

opened as Randolph Industrial Education Center on Sept. 4, 1962, with 75 full-time students, eight instruc-tors and four staff members.

In other ways, it’s now an entirely different re-source for the community, with two additional name changes, expanded facilities in Asheboro, a campus


in Archdale and approxi-mately 11,500 credit and non-credit students.

In 1962, the school’s mission was vocational training, and it was a place where people went to learn a trade if they weren’t going to college. Now, its mission still is vocational, but that mis-sion has evolved consid-erably, and the vocations even have changed.

“Twenty-five years ago you could buy a set of wrenches and get under a car under a shade tree and learn to be a mechan-ic,” Shackleford said. “Today, if you can’t learn to operate a computer system, you can’t even work on a car.”

Shackleford has been president of RCC since January 2007, but he has been at the school in vari-ous other positions since 1998, except for a 3½-year period, when he was at Rockingham Community College.

He describes the school’s evolution as a three-legged stool, with many offshoots.

First is the original vo-cational mission, which didn’t go away, but ex-panded 20-25 years ago to include what Shackleford calls the “college transfer mission.”

“We became what the old junior colleges used to be,” Shackleford said. “Now our single-largest program is the college transfer program. Stu-dents take the first two years here, saving tens of thousands of dollars, but not sacrificing quality for savings. Our students out-perform in their ju-nior and senior years native students of those universities.”

In the past 15 years, the third part of RCC’s mission has emerged to be econom-

ic and work-force develop-ment. Even before the re-cent recession, the state’s economy changed with the loss of tobacco, textiles and furniture jobs.

“A big part of our job right now is to help re-train people in the work force for the emerging new economy,” he said. “Manufacturing isn’t gone; it’s just advanced.”

Loss of jobs has led to a 16 percent increase in student enrollment since the start of the Great Re-cession. RCC also draws local students who previ-

ously planned to attend colleges away from home but can’t because their parents are out of work or under-employed.

More than half of the people in Randolph County who are unem-ployed are enrolled at RCC, Shackleford said.

Shackleford and the school work hard to en-sure that RCC is chang-ing its curriculum to meet students needs.

“I just met with two leaders in Randolph County industry, talking with them about where

industry is headed and what kinds of training is best suited for their in-dustry so our programs are properly aligned,” Shackleford said.

“We want to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow, not the jobs of yesterday.”

Toward that end, RCC recently added health care management tech-nology and industrial en-gineering.

The auto body repair program will change from a one-year diploma program to a two-year

degree program, based on administrators’ be-lief that auto body re-pair isn’t something that can be exported to other countries, such as China. RCC will be one of the very few community col-leges in the country that offers a two-year auto body repair program, Shackleford said.

This year a medical as-sistant program will start on the Archdale campus, and plans call for a new welding lab at Archdale this fall, based on requests.

“As we start to come

out of the recession and construction is starting back up, we need weld-ing again. It’s not like my daddy’s welding; it’s high-tech welding,” Shackleford said.

“We’re changing con-stantly. My philosophy is, it’s not our job to think up things and hang out a shingle and hope people come. It’s our job to be closely connected to busi-ness and industry, find out what they need and meet that need.”


SPECIAL | HPE

Students are shown participating in a motorcycle training class that’s offered at RCC’s Asheboro campus and soon will be coming to the Arch-dale campus.


DCCC meets growing demand enterprise staff report

DAVIDSON COUNTY — Even as Davidson County Community College pre-pares to celebrate its first half-century, the school continues to look ambi-tiously toward the next one.

“We want to celebrate our achievements, but we also look forward to our future and what the col-lege will do in the next 50 years,” said Mary Rittling, president of DCCC, which will celebrate its 50th an-niversary in 2013.

Originally established as an industrial education center in 1958, the school became known as David-

son County Community College (DCCC) in 1963. However, it was not of-ficially chartered by the state until 1965, which al-lowed for the addition of college transfer courses.

Since its beginnings, the campus and its student body have grown signifi-

cantly. In 1963, for example, the campus consisted of a single building on 22 acres, whereas today’s campus features 13 buildings on about 97 acres. There’s also a Davie County cam-pus that opened in 1994 in Mocksville, as well as sat-ellite education centers in Lexington, Thomasville and Advance. Meanwhile, enrollment has grown from about 175 students in 1963 to nearly 17,000 students to-day who take classes at one of the school’s campuses or extension sites.

With more than 50 cur-riculum programs, the col-lege continues to grow,

and its significance in the community has mul-tiplied in the difficult economy of the past few years.

“With the current econ-omy, we’ve seen a lot of individuals coming back for retraining education to help them with em-ployment,” said Rittling, who’s been at DCCC since 2003. “We’ve seen an in-crease in enrollment, and we’ve seen an increase in interest in our programs across campus. We try very hard to do outreach so we can make sure indi-viduals – even if they’re intimidated about going

back to school – know that we’re here to serve them and help them get to where they want to be.”

The recently graduated Class of 2011 included 805 students who earned two-year associate degrees, di-plomas and certificates.

Two important pieces of DCCC’s future are its Link Campus and its par-ticipation in the “Com-pletion By Design” initia-tive.

The Link Campus will be situated on a 183-acre site across Business 85 from the current campus. The land was donated to DCCC by siblings Ed Hinkle and Tal-

madge Hinkle Silversides in memory of their grand-father, Henry T. Link, an extremely successful fur-niture manufacturer who originally owned the land. Link also was involved in the early planning that led to the creation of DCCC, ac-cording to school officials.

The vision for the Link Campus calls for such fa-cilities as a 3,500-seat are-na, a baseball stadium, a tennis complex, and soft-ball and soccer fields.

There may also be a wind power generator to enhance the college’s ex-panding curriculum of green technologies; an am-

phitheater; a nature con-servation complex; miles of recreation trails; and an animal sanctuary or aquarium, which will be part of DCCC’s recently es-tablished Zoo & Aquarium Science program, one of only seven such programs in the country.

“The Link Campus re-ally expands our college for the future,” Rittling explained.

The “Completion by Design” initiative, sup-ported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Founda-tion, is a national initia-tive to develop and share ways to help more people obtain college creden-tials. DCCC is one of five North Carolina colleges – and one of only 14 na-tionwide – selected to participate.

“We’re going to look at the different situations students encounter from the moment they have an interest in going to school, and we’ll be look-ing at how we might in-tercede to help them meet their educational goals,” Rittling said. “We’ll be looking at how we advise students, how we teach, how we prepare them to go out in the world, and come up with strategies we can implement.”

With all that’s happen-ing at DCCC, the school is also gearing up to cel-ebrate its 50th anniver-sary in 2013.

“We’re getting excited about it, because this really is something to celebrate – not just our value to this community, but also the impact we’ve had on so many lives,” Rittling said.

FILE | HPE

Nearly 17,000 students are enrolled in Davidson County Community College, either taking classes at the school’s main campus (pictured), one of the school’s satellite campuses or extension sites.

‘With the current economy, we’ve seen a lot of individuals coming back for retraining education to help them with employment.’Mary Rittling President


A desired locale

Jamestown’s growth is reflected in development of new schoolsENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT

JAMESTOWN — The opening of one new school and the expansion of two others show that Jamestown is catching up with its recent growth.

Located between High Point and Greensboro with a population of 3,400, Jamestown has become a place where families and mer-chants seek small-town charm.

Town population grew 9.5 percent in the last decade, according to the 2010 Census.

The new Jamestown Middle School and the nearby Haynes-In-

man Education Center opened in 2010. The $33 million middle school will serve as many as 1,000 stu-dents. The old school will become part of the adjacent Ragsdale High School campus. The $11 million special education center opened with about 80 students.

Major construction was sched-uled to start in the summer of 2011 on the $32 million renovation and expansion project at Ragsdale High. New portions include a gym-nasium, media center and admin-istrative offices.

For 50 years, the town has been home for the main campus and administrative offices of Guilford Technical Community College, which also has seen enrollment and campus growth.

Leading development growth has been the Pennyburn at Maryfield nursing home and retirement community, which opened an expansion at the edge of town.

Also pending is the development of a Koury Corp. shopping center on 35.6 acres at the southwest cor-


ner of the Guilford Col-lege/High Point road in-tersection.

But growth has not al-ways progressed smooth-ly. In 2010, residents bat-tled town officials over the rezoning of the For-estdale neighborhood, which was rezoned to be considered for future growth and development.

After a public hearing, the Jamestown Town Council not only revert-ed the zoning of the For-estdale, Knollwood and Potter neighborhoods to single-family residential, but also five other prop-erties that they rezoned in 2009 for commercial use.

Forestdale residents said they did not realize the city had rezoned parts of the neighborhood from single-family to commer-cial and mixed-use zon-ing, including multifam-ily residential. After the zoning change, residents said they were glad their hard work paid off.

For years, growth dis-cussions have focused on a proposed highway by-pass many town leaders oppose. The 7.7-mile, $108 million bypass would in-clude widened parts of Greensboro/High Point Road and a new segment to the south of downtown. It would reach from U.S. 311 in High Point to Hill-top Road in Greensboro.

Opponents fear the by-pass would hurt down-town businesses by di-verting traffic away from the heart of the town.

The project that has been in the planning stages since President Ronald Reagan was in office has been shifted to the back burner as state transportation officials reorganize spending pri-orities and schedules.

The current state Transportation Improve-ment Program, the long-range blueprint for state road projects, has work on the section of bypass from High Point around the heart of Jamestown starting no earlier than sometime after October 2012.

Earlier this decade, the Jamestown Town Coun-cil passed a resolution objecting to state plans for the Jamestown By-pass. Jamestown elected officials and many resi-dents continue to have

concerns about DOT ob-jectives for Greensboro-High Point Road.

Town officials and residents have ap-proached transporta-tion officials about considering nearby Interstate 85 Business Loop as an alternative thoroughfare to avoid disrupting Jamestown with a major road con-struction project.

The uncertain status of the project leaves resi-dents in an unwelcome limbo, according to May-or Keith Volz.


The iconic Jamestown library is a town landmark and at one time was Jamestown High School before Ragsdale High School was built.

One of James-town’s historic treasures, Menden-hall Plan-tation, is shown covered in snow earlier this year.



A wild time

N.C. Zoo, one of state’s main attractions, makes home in TriadEntErprisE staff rEport

RANDOLPH COUNTY — The North Carolina Zoo, America’s largest walk-through, natural-habitat zoo, just keeps getting bigger.

Located in Asheboro in the heart of the Piedmont, the nearly 1,500-acre zoological park features more than 1,100 animals from

more than 250 species – every-thing from polar bears, elephants and gorillas to rhinos, giraffes and zebras – most of them from Africa or North America.

“We’re by far the largest day-vis-itor attraction in the center of the state,” said David Jones, director of the zoo since 1994.

According to Jones, the zoo wel-

comes approximately 750,000 visi-tors a year.

“Folks are looking for value for their money, especially families on a tight budget,” Jones said, pointing out that admission is $12 for adults and $8 for children. “With the zoo, it’s a full day’s excursion – it takes a day to get around the entire zoo – so it’s a


very good value in that re-spect.”

Recognized as the nation’s first state-supported zoo, the N.C. Zoo’s beginnings can be traced to 1967, when the Raleigh Jaycees hosted a pro football exhibition game to raise money for a zoo feasi-bility study. The game raised $18,000, and the process con-tinued from there. The zoo site was dedicated in the spring of 1972, and the first animals – a pair of Galapa-gos tortoises – arrived in the summer of 1973. The interim zoo opened in 1974, and con-struction of the zoo’s natural habitats began in 1976.

The zoo became a total natural-habitat zoo in 1983 when the interim zoo closed and visitors went to the zoo’s Africa region. After the Af-rica exhibit came North America, the zoo’s second geographic region.

Africa habitats include the Forest Glade Habitat, where you’ll find a family of lowland gorillas; the Watani Grasslands Reserve (ele-phants); the Forest Edge (gi-raffes, zebras, ostriches); the Red River Hog Habitat; the Lion Habitat; a chimpanzee reserve; a monkey habitat; and a forest aviary.

North America habitats include the Sonora Desert (tarantulas, roadrunners and other desert creatures); the Rocky Coast (seals, Alas-kan seabirds and puffins); the Cypress Swamp Habitat (alligators, turtles, snakes and cougars); the Stream-side (river otters, bobcats, frogs and turtles); the Prai-rie (elk, American bison); a black bear habitat; a grizzly bear habitat; and a red wolf habitat.

And now, zoo officials are looking at the idea of expand-ing even more.

“We’re right at the end of a major feasibility study look-ing at the long-term future of the zoo, and we’re looking at the construction of our

third continent, Asia, which will be a $100 million project over a 15-year period,” Jones said. “What we’re asking is, if we found the capital for that, could we earn enough off of that to pay the running cost?”

The zoo is about to begin construction on an $8 mil-lion project to enlarge its polar bear area to about four

times its current size. That enlarged area should open in 2013, according to Jones.

Another major project on the zoo’s horizon is the com-plete refurbishment of kid-Zone, the zoo’s educational children’s area.

“We’re putting about three-quarters of a million dollars into a major refurbishment, so hopefully by next Easter

we’ll have a really nice edu-cational play area for kids, run by our education depart-ment,” Jones said. “Up to age 8 or 9 is a very critical age in terms of kids learning about things around them, espe-cially their natural environ-ment, and kidZone will be very much directed toward that.”

Zoo officials also are look-

ing at the possibility of bring-ing another major attraction to a 300-acre tract of land ad-jacent to the zoo – as well as a hotel and conference center – with the idea of making the zoo a two-day or even three-day destination, rather than just a day visit.

“Where we’re headed in the long run with this is something like a Colonial

Williamsburg, a three-day destination site which has considerable economic im-plications for the region,” Jones said. “It could be a huge potential job creator.

According to Jones, bring-ing this other attraction to the area would give families more flexibility when plan-ning what to do when they come to the zoo.

Don Davis Jr. | HPE

N.C. Zoo Director David Jones makes the announcement of the pregnancy of one of the zoo’s gorillas earlier this year as male gorilla Nkosi roams the exhibit on the left.



[direction]

David Spencer

[success]

The Employees of Bank of North Carolina

[collaborative]

Tom Sloan

[flexibility]

W. Swope Montgomery, Jr.

The place to be...for all the right reasons.Richard D. Callicutt, II

We’re proud of Rick Callicutt as winner of the Small Business

Advocate of the Year Award. Here at Bank of North Carolina,

his winning spirit inspires and guides us each and every day.

Here is what some of Rick’s associates have to say:

Advocate Award 2011

hometowns 2011

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