Just one day after saying the City of Greensboro should hold off on buying the Canada Dry building, the N&R’s answer to UNCG prof Keith Debbage’s gloomy outlook is — you guessed it — more public funding:
It’s possible to change that, but success requires a strong response on many fronts. To date, the higher-education community is leading the way, but government and the private sector have important roles to play.
A model effort landed HondaJet at PTI Airport. Not only did Greensboro, High Point, Guilford County and a Winston-Salem business group kick in for relatively modest incentives, GTCC offered a unique worker training program.
A chance for similar cooperation will arise if High Point biotech firm TransTech Pharma considers incentives deals from out of state for a large expansion. Greensboro Partnership President Pat Danahy said Tuesday that talks have begun about how to help High Point keep that cutting-edge company.
On a bigger scale, N.C. A&T and UNCG are joining to create a nanotechnology school on a new campus, with city economic development officials pressing hard for critical state funding. This initiative promises to create excellent jobs for local graduates.
Cone’s on board with doing whatever it takes to keep TransTech Pharma:
The City of Greensboro and Guilford County….. both should be at the front door of TransTech CEO Adnan Mjalli with flowers and chocolates and money, as part of a coordinated economic development strategy that isn’t based on the specific location of a business within Metro Guilford.
Funny that Mjalli’s major complaint is the Triad is placing too much of its biotech focus on Winston- Salem’s Piedmont Triad Research Park, a concept that’s been so overwhelmingly successful that Rep. Larry Womble is seeking for $15 million in state money so it can have a nanotech park of its very own.
But never mind that dark side of Triadism. Just stay, TransTech Pharma. Pretty please, with sugar on top.
