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A power networking session and champagne reception will be held Oct. 6 at The Peninsula Club in Cornelius in honor of Business Today’s 2010 Top Women Business Leaders. The sixth annual event recognizes the contribution of women in business in the Golden Crescent. Former winners include Realtors Abigail Jennings, of Lake Norman Realty, and Diane Honeycutt, of Team Honeycutt in Concord; Pat Horton, president of Cabarrus Bank & Trust; Robin Smith of Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep Dodge; Dakeita Vanderburg Johnson, CEO of Southgate Masonry & Lumber in Concord; and Ginger Griffin of Ginger Griffin Marketing and Design in Cornelius. Business Today columnist and UNCC instructor Cheryl Kane will conduct the power networking sessions, after which the 2010 winners will receive their awards, complete with champagne toasts. The event, which starts at 6 p.m., is $12.50 to attend, Visa and MasterCard accepted at time of reservation. More info: Phone BusinessToday at 704-895-1335 or email nebiztoday@gmail.com for more information. Registration opens at 5:30 p.m.
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Heart Group of the Carolinas, with offices in Concord and Albemarle, has merged with Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute. The practice will now begin operating under the Sanger name. |
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More than 100 Denver area business owners will meet at Verdict Ridge Golf Club Sept. 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the annual Denver Area Business Association networking luncheon. Non-members are invited to attend the event which will honor long-time Denver business leader Joe Turbyfill and his wife Jean. Michael Thompson, director of corporate communications for the Charlotte Bobcats, will discuss overcoming adversity in the business world. The cost is $17 for pre-registration at www.dabanc.org or $20 at the door. More info: Denis Bilodeau, dbilodeau@aquestainsurance.com |
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Jim Trogdon, the chief operating officer for NC DOT, will be the featured speaker at a Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday at NorthStone Country Club. Trogdon will discuss local road improvements including HOT lanes, commuter rail and the diverging diamond interchange planned at Exit 28 on I-77 in Cornelius. Tickets are $16 for members and $20 for non-members. More info: 704-892-1922. |
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During its 2009-2010 fiscal year, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College was awarded $2.654 million in grant funding from public and private organizations. From July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, the 21 grant awards produced a single-year grant-funding record for the college. Funded projects include scholarships for students with financial need, a major updating of RCCC’s IT infrastructure, the JobsNOW certificate programs, initiatives to develop new curriculum, and programs to help students quit smoking and assist local citizens adversely impacted by changes in the tobacco industry.The funding agencies include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Margaret C. Woodson Foundation, the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation, the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund, the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund, the North Carolina Community College System, the Proctor Foundation, and the N.C. BioNetwork. |
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| LAWRENCE |
What does a professional planner really do to help clients?
Let’s say you want to hold a customer appreciation event but you want it to be more than just a party. Your company’s reputation is on the line. You have to make a decision whether to leave this important function to a professional or to unskilled hands? In this case, a planner can be a valuable asset |
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| DeMAO |
In the last of this three part series, Sherre explains how reviewing your current involvements can help you achieve your goals through putting you in direct contact with your ideal target market, in direct contact with those who could refer you to your ideal target market, or to help you gain needed support or resources for growing your business. |
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Since the dawn of mankind we have been buying and selling “stuff”, and over the centuries a predictable pattern has developed between buyers and sellers. The buyer-seller dynamic can spell “commission catastrophe” for the sales professional who lacks the artful skill of effective questioning. |
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Hopes riding high on biotechnology wave |
Kannapolis has come a long way, and has a long way to go, the mayor says.
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| MISENHEIMER |
Mayor Robert Misenheimer says the city — once a prosperous mill town and hoping to someday be a prosperous biotechnology hub — needs a city hall, a police station and a few more fire stations. In the past few years, the city hired a police chief and a fire chief and no longer relies on county or other jurisdictions for those services. It also opened a customer service center and moved some city employees from a shabby facility on Floyd Street.
High hopes — and the city’s future — are placed in the North Carolina Research Campus. Research park developers say the mixed-use NCRC will boast the most technologically advanced biotechnology campus in the country, featuring university-run research facilities and labs as well as private industries on 350 acres. The public-private venture is expected to be a leader in the development of biotechnology discoveries, processes and products with an emphasis on health and wellness.
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| Construction slowdown: The NCRC will offer more than a million square feet of lab and office space when complete |
Progress has slowed with the economy, even if hopes haven’t dimmed.
“The economy has put a damper on the research center,” says Misenheimer, noting the only building going up is the Rowan Cabarrus Community College facility. Next on the horizon, Misenheimer says, will be the Cabarrus Health Alliance building off Pine Street; the bidding process for that project is complete.
Billionaire David Murdock has said in published reports that he remains committed to development of the $1.5 billion N.C. Research Campus despite a slowdown in the economy and setbacks in partnerships.
Murdock considers the project his legacy and is part of his commitment to better health through improved diet. Murdock has invested about $500 million in the campus so far.
The project has encountered delays in funding, including from the City of Kannapolis which has been unable to sell special bonds to help with some aspects of the project.
Misenheimer told the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce directors during a recent “State of the City” talk that city leaders backed off on the $168.4 millions in bonds for now because interest rates are so high and they don’t want to over-burden taxpayers. “So, we’re waiting,” he says.
The development also lost a potential partner in Wilmington, N.C.-based Pharmaceutical Product Development.
Ground was broken earlier this year on RCCC’s 62,332 square-foot building that will house its associate-degree programs in biotechnology and agricultural biotechnology and continuing education programs related to biotechnology and clinical research. RCCC hopes to open the building in time for its fall 2010 semester with the focus of providing instructional space for hands-on biotechnology training in a realistic research and development setting. The cost of the building is about $26 million.
Along with Rowan Cabarrus Community College, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University and N.C. State University are expected to build facilities there.
“I hope before long that we can get that research campus back on track,” the mayor says.
“I can’t wait for economic development with the research campus to come,” says Misenheimer says. “We need businesses downtown.”
A furniture outlet is going out of business because the owners are retiring and retail stores such as a Belk department store have moved on.
“Did you know that a man can’t buy a white dress shirt in the city of Kannapolis? That’s unheard of for a city like ours,” says Misenheimer. |
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| RUSSELL |
By Bill Russell
Wouldn’t it be nice to pick up a paper and read only pleasant headlines for a change? The news in Washington this week is that we have retired the national debt, unemployment in North Carolina has sunk to it’s lowest levels since 2006, and a group hug broke out in the streets of Baghdad.
Unfortunately that’s not the headlines we read. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the annual difference between what our federal government collects in tax revenue and what it spends will be $1.3 trillion this fiscal year alone. Combat troops are leaving Iraq, however, we are still a stretch from a tension free region. Closer to home, North Carolina’s unemployment rate dipped to 9.6 percent in July and has declined for five consecutive months but still remains higher than the national average of 9.5 percent. |
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| GILROY |
Many of us were chilled to the bone a few weeks ago at what Charlotte City Councilman David Howard said at a Lake Norman Transportation Commission meeting. Howard, a Democrat who has focused on inner city affordable housing issues through his position as vice president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership since 1997, was quoted several times:
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It’s a mixed bag in the luxury market. Some homes are closing at steep discounts, while some pristine homes in superb locations are closing near their asking prices.
Prices per square foot edged upward about 1 percent in Lake Norman during the second quarter vs. 2009 levels, but realized values are still off 20 percent to 25 percent compared to 2007 levels, according to Reed Jackson of Ivester Jackson Distinctive Properties in Cornelius. |
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These home sales and property transactions in the Golden Crescent were recorded by the Register of Deeds in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Iredell. |
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These new businesses in the Golden Crescent have registered with the N.C. Secretary of State. |
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Staff directory, emails, phone and fax numbers along with other general and subscription information |
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