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Business owners are encouraged to share ideas of potential changes to Cabarrus County regulations during three "listening" sessions this month. The goal is to identify regulatory changes that may help increase employment and job growth. Organized by the Cabarrus County Council for a Sustainable Local Economy recommendations will be forwarded to the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners. The three forums all start at 6:30 pm: Feb. 16, Kannapolis Train Station, 201 S. Main Street, Kannapolis; Feb. 23, Vintage Motorclub, 325 McGill Avenue, Concord; Feb. 28, Buddy’s Restaurant, 1470 S. Main Street, Mt. Pleasant. Comments may be emailed to regulatory@cabarruscounty.us. The Cabarrus County Council for a Sustainable Local Economy was established by the Cabarrus Board of County Commissioners and charged with performing research and analysis, educating the community, developing strategies and making policy recommendations that encourages entrepreneurship and supports local, independently owned businesses. More info: Shannon Johnson, 704-920-2181. |
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Feb. 2 Hendrick Automotive Group has purchased Tim Marburger Dodge Chrysler Jeep in Concord for an undisclosed amount. Wes Watkins is the executive manager of the dealership which has been renamed Hendrick Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Concord. |
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| Jan. 27 The cost to live in an authentic French chateau will now set you back $5.9 million, not $8 million. The luxurious lakefront home in Mooresville, built by the former owner of Boyles Furniture for upwards of $22 million, is listed by Debbie Monroe and Amber Garchar of Lake Norman Realty. Like a lot of homes in all price ranges, this one is bank-owned. To see the brochure, click here. |
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Jan. 25 A "Hiring Our Heroes Job Fair," designed to help military personnel adjust to civilian life, will be Feb. 13 from 9 a.m. to noon at Embassy Suites in Concord. |
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Jan. 25 Karen Bentley, a business-friendly representative on the Meck County Board, will run again. |
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Jan. 24 John Bradford, the owner of Park Avenue Properties in Cornelius, has been named business person of the year by the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce.
Bradford, who is also a member of the town board in Cornelius, received the award at the chamber’s annual dinner last week. Matthew Hayes, principal at North Mecklenburg High School, received the Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award , while David F. Peete, the principal planner for Huntersville, was named volunteer of the Year.
The new chairman of the chamber, Jack Salzman, president of Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, said the chamber would focus on “customer relations” with members and former members to ensure that all see value in their membership. Emphasizing that the chamber’s board of directors would “not be a puppet board,” Salzman stated: “In every thing we do as a board our focus must be always to benefit our community where we live, work and play.”
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| ANERALLA |
Jan. 21 N.C. Senate hopeful John Aneralla, a conservative Republican who has lined up endorsements from Cornelius Town Commissioners Lynette Rinker, Chuck Travis and Dave Gilroy, reports that he has $30,000 in his campaign treasury.
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Jan. 21 The Town of Cornelius will host a special meeting 9 am Wednesday, Feb. 8 in the Community Room of Town Hall to hear an analysis of the Red Line by a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank in Raleigh. Randal O’Toole will discuss the business/finance plan behind the proposed 25-mile freight-commuter line between Mooresville and Charlotte.
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A business plan competition sponsored by the Centralina Workforce Development Board, Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce, Iredell County, Mitchell Community College, Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce, Mountain State University, the Small Business Center and the Small Business and Technology Development Center is getting under way in Iredell County. Meetings will be held in the Continuing Education Center Auditorium at 701 W. Front Street in Statesville. There will be hands-on workshops for participants to develop and assemble a complete business plan. More info: Suzanne Wallace 704-878-3227
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The Lake Norman Chamber will host a presentation on the Red Line by the consultants from Parsons Brinkerhoff and Jeff Hare, Cornelius Commissioner and chairman of the Cornelius Red Line Task Force. The session starts at 8 a.m. Jan. 27 on the second floor of the chamber building on West Catawba in Cornelius. |
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Author and motivational speaker, Nathan Jamail, reminds us not every hire is the right hire and not every job is the right job, but accepting a bad decision is wrong — for everyone involved. |
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| DeMAO |
Sherre teaches us the most effective business owners know how to get things done beyond the confines of their minds and their capabilities. As a result, they make more effective decisions and take more effective action when choices need to be made. Make 2012 the year you become a manager of your destiny. |
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| KANE |
Cheryl Kane teches us that time allocation, prioritizing how time is used, and controlling access to your time for specific efforts are all necessary to efficiently and effectively use your most rare and valuable asset: time. |
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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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Guest
Opinion
MARY HOPPER
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By Mary Hopper
The University Research Park (URP) remains a bright spot in office activity in the Northeast submarket. Located at Harris Boulevard and I-85, the 2000-acre park has a 45-year history of fostering cutting edge technology dating back to its early days when IBM was making ATMs there and Verbatim was producing floppy discs. Its growth came in spurts over the years, with First Union’s CIC complex and TIAA CREF as two of its past wins.
The latest uptick began in 2008 when SPEED renovated a former Verbatim building to become home to a state of the art, all-digital TV network. The motorsports channel now reaches 84 million homes in North America with additional worldwide distribution. The pace continued with David Bowles’ 2009 acquisition of the 70,000 square foot Louis Rose building that had housed IBM and then First Union Mortgage. Bowles used his skills to create Environmental Way as one of the region’s first LEED Platinum buildings and a workplace laboratory of sustainable systems and design. |
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| Mooresville: This home on Easton Dr. in Mooresville sold for $880,000 |
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In Mooresville
A house at 171 Easton Drive in The Point has sold for $880,000 after being listed by Doris Nash of Ivester Jackson Distinctive Properties at $929,900 two months ago.
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By Dave Yochum
New statistics from the N.C. Secretary of State indicate North Carolinians gave less to charity in 2011 than 2010. However, the same report also indicates people supported the non-profits that got better returns.
The Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division Annual Report says that charities licensed by the state collected $26.7 million from North Carolinians during the 12-month period.
The 2010-2011 report shows that of the money collected, $13.2 million went directly to the charities for which the fund-raising campaigns were being conducted. That’s a 49.46 percent return to the charities for each dollar donated. |
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