Cornelius turns jaundiced eye to Lake EDC

More than five years after it was created by the three towns of North Mecklenburg, the Lake Norman Economic Development Corp. is looking for its second region-wide success.

In June of 2005 the public-private partnership announced that Prairie Packaging would bring about 240 new jobs and $48 million of investment over the next five years as the anchor of the North Mecklenburg Industrial Park.

The park, located in Huntersville, was expected to generate revenue for Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius through personal property taxes. Because of tax abatements used to lure Prairie, no taxes have been collected so far. Nor has another company been recruited to the industrial park.

Some officials in Cornelius have grown restive about the EDC, which they funded to the tune of $84,280 last year.

"We have to fix it or get out of it," stated Cornelius Town Commissioner Jim Bensman. Newly appointed to the EDC board, he said Cornelius is not getting its fair share.

The CEO of Probaris Identity Solutions in Philadelphia, Bensman said it may be time for Cornelius to hire its own economic developer. His sentiments about the EDC were echoed by Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte, another nationally prominent businessman.

Tarte and Bensman are asking for a "specific accounting" of what the EDC has generated for Cornelius. Commissioner Edward McNeely, a commercial broker at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, said the town rezoned large tracts of land to comply with EDC advice to have "shovel-ready" property for would-be commercial and industrial users.

"We have had the zoning in place for two or three years and now, obviously, not a whole lot has happened," he said.

Jerry Broadway, head of the Lake Norman EDC, could not be reached for comment. The agency, which is funded by the three towns of North Mecklenburg, plus partners like AT&T, Duke Energy, ElectriCities and Griffin Bros. automotive service centers, is a creature of many jurisdictions. Broadway, an experienced business recruiter, came from Virginia's economic development bureaucracy.

On the one hand, it is beholden to the three towns of North Mecklenburg, which are most interested in their investment coming right back to their own jurisdictions. It is also funded by corporate investors-most of whom would be delighted if new businesses landed anywhere in the area. Another agency is the Charlotte Regional Partnership which preaches a regional approach to economic development.

The CRP is not particularly concerned about Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville. In a setting where the politically correct behavior is one for all and all for one, a serious case of regionalism is frowned upon.

Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville agreed to share the $4 million cost and tax revenues from the 126-acre industrial park. The North Mecklenburg towns are trying to cultivate a corporate tax base to offset the cost to service literally thousands of new homes.

A visit to the Economic Development Corp.'s web site, at www.lakenormanregion.com, has space devoted to the expansion of Newell Rubbermaid and Microban. Neither one is located in the North Mecklenburg Industrial Park, nor will either send property taxes directly to Cornelius or Davidson.

The Lake Norman EDC has been credited by the state with helping Newell Rubbermaid and Microban in their expansion efforts in Huntersville. Certainly many of the people who work at these companies may live in Cornelius and Davidson, where they pay residential taxes. The purpose of the EDC, however, was to bring balance to tax revenue, such that homeowners were relieved of some of the burden.

EDC's web site has less content promoting the industrial park, to which Davidson and Cornelius have contributed.

The site, as of late February, listed five appropriate development sites in Cornelius, although three are small adjoining packages of 2-4 acres, priced around $200,000 an acre.

There were five much larger sites listed in Huntersville, on the order of 62 acres to 78 acres, for example, with prices of less than $98,000 an acre.

There was one site in Davidson, 35 acres at Griffith Street. No prices were given.

The web site listed four buildings available in Huntersville; one in Davidson and one in Cornelius.

Agreeing that the EDC seems weighted to Huntersville, Davidson Mayor John Woods said the EDC is really just getting under way, partly because the Lake Norman Charter School remains on what is now the industrial park.

"We're at the beginning of what we expected them to do, and there is plenty more to do," said Woods, a bank executive.

He'd like to see the industrial park grow in size, by purchasing adjacent land.

"This is one of the few rail-dependent sites in the area…I am hopeful we can find other rail users," Woods said.

He said a speculative building, where the EDC, the towns and a private developer put up a shell building, might be the best way to attract new business.

"Our return on these kinds of efforts is long term and it will be matter of some years before we see a proven sort of return of these efforts, but we are confident it will develop," Woods said.