That’s UNC President Erskine Bowles on the $29 million a year the UNC system is ready to throw at billionaire David Murdock’s biotech real estate development venture in Kannapolis.
That money is on top of the hundreds of millions in local tax subsidies to help build the research campus.
But get this, there remains little certain proof that actual biotech companies will set-up shop at the site, the supposed benefit of all this “investment” by Murdock, the state, and local taxpayers:
Another major component of the Kannapolis project is a training center run by the N.C. Community College system to prepare workers for what Murdock contends will be thousands of new biotech jobs there.
So far, only two companies have announced plans to move there, but Clyde Higgs, Castle & Cooke’s vice president of business development, said he has received nearly 60 business plans from companies seeking venture capital for business in medical devices, information technology and drug development.
Without real, for-profit companies, the UNC System is simply moving some operations to Kannapolis and having the local folks help pick up the tab. How this is a great, innovative deal remains to be seen.
