July 1—Kannapolis: Ryan McDaniels, vice president of economic development at the Cabarrus Economic Development Corporation, has been elected vice chair of the Charlotte Regional Partnership’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. McDaniels is a resident of Cornelius where he is also a member of the Transportation Advisory Board.
 

July 1: Budget Self-Storage, which has more than a dozen locations in the greater Charlotte area, has opened additional locations in Cornelius and Mooresville along the I-77 corridor in the Lake Norman area. The Cornelius location is at 9225 Westmoreland Road, and the Mooresville location is at 114 Joann Lane.

June 30: Mayor Scott Padgett said he plans to file to run for a third term at the helm of Concord, while Jeff Tarte in Cornelius has filed to run for re-election as mayor. Both are tireless supporters of their respective business communities.

“If we were facing he current economic situation 10 years ago we would have had a far greater challenge than we do today,” Padgett said, explaining that working to diversify the local economy is one of his principal goals.

In Cornelius, Tarte says he has worked hard to foster relationships with nearby mayors, local politicians and statewide officials ranging from N.C. Rep. Thom Tillis to Congresswoman Sue Myrick, both Republicans.

 

June 29—Kannapolis: The unemployment rate in Cabarrus county has climbed to 11.4 percent in May, according to N.C. Labor Dept. statistics. It’s the highest jobless rate on record for the county, said John Cox, head of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce and head of local economic development efforts. When Pillowtex closed six years ago, the unemployment rate rose to 11.1 percent, Cox said. With Philip Morris’ closing in August, local officials are worried about even higher numbers. Cox said the county has lost more than 12,000 jobs since 2002, despite success with new companies and corporate recruiting.

The vast numbers of manufacturing positions that have disappeared outweigh the number of new white collar jobs, symbolized by the growing number of upscale homes in Cabarrus. Indeed, one of the obstacles to diversifying the Cabarrus economy was a lack of executive level housing. “It’s all going to come back—when everything else stabilizes,” Cox said.

The unemployment rate in Mecklenburg County climbed to 11 percent in May. In Chesterfield County, the rate is 17.1 percent. In Chester County, 21.4 percent.
 

Bill Root’s desire to become a pilot was born of business sense and necessity.
His company, Physics & Computer Programs, is a consultant shop headquartered in Cornelius for specialized medical equipment.

The edge of the world isn’t at property lines, nor at town or county borders. At least that’s how Richard Flowe, a principal of N-Focus Design Inc. in Kannapolis and chairman of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Transportation and Land Use Committee, sees it.

Quentin Woodward Jr. of Salisbury has joined the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Board of Trustees and four current members have been reappointed. Woodward replaces J. Newton Cohen Sr., who retired.

RCCC board members who have been reappointed are Paul Brown of Salisbury, Cynthia Mynatt, Concord; Irvin Newberry, Concord; R. Wayne Troutman, Concord; and Paul Brown of Salisbury.

The Golden Crescent has some new drivers in the tourism market, sparking optimism that this segment of the economy will weather the summer vacation season better than other regions.

The “coming wave” of commercial real estate defaults will affect the national economy, with office condos, office buildings and even malls going into the tank. Everybody’s talking about it, but will it happen here? Or, is it a case of the national media pushing too hard on a vulnerable subject?

Jim Marshall’s original plan at Blue Harbor Bank was to break even sometime after the bank’s second year of operation. The president and CEO of the start-up Mooresville bank says that’s still the plan, despite the current economy.

The retail side of Town Center in Harrisburg hasn’t boomed liked developers and residents hoped it would, but town leaders assert they are pleased with the progress of  the unique multi-use development.

HABUL

If developer Kenny Habul builds a three-story mixed-use building on West Catawba Avenue in Cornelius as planned, it’s one more step toward the suburbanization of a town barely a generation away from its farmer roots.

Cornelius business owner Robert Watson, right, in photo, and hundreds of other anti-tax business leaders went to Raleigh last week to protest proposed tax increases at the state legislature. They were part of an anti-tax Tea Party put on by Americans for Prosperity, a fiscally conservative organization that regularly lobbies the General Assembly against new taxes and against spending that it considers wasteful or inappropriate. Watson is pictured with Sam “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, who achieved fame during the 2008 presidential campaign as an ordinary small business owner. Watson is the owner of self storage businesses in Lake Norman and car washes in Cabarrus County.

ERIC LEWIS

Is the word “minority” going to disappear from the lexicon of business? Indeed, a better word is “diversity,” according to Eric Lewis, a business and leadership consultant with OneSCSI. A member of the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce board, Lewis is also heads up the chamber’s Women & Minority Business Development Program.

Its first effort is a June 16 seminar entitled “Doing Business with the Government.” Archibald Black, procurement counselor for the Small Business Technology Development Center, is the key speaker.

The chamber’s efforts around diversity come at a time when the face of American business is perhaps more colorful and textured than any other country’s. International companies have operations all over the Golden Crescent even as companies and organizations throughout the region recruit top talent from all over the world.