Seems like this happens every so often, but people are wringing their hands over the lack of planning for land surrounding the future FedEx hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport.
Greensboro Politics says:
Why is this land important? Why is a plan important? A member of the city staff recently said that there are 10 (or so) businesses that typically follow FedEx wherever they build a hub and about half of those could potentially come to the Triad. If there isn’t enough land close enough to the FedEx hub, companies could possibly find that locating near PTI is not as cost efficient as it has been in other cities.
While I don’t disagree that land around the airport is hot, I also have to point out that the potential for support businesses is a common selling point when pushing large incentives packages for projects like FedEx and Dell. That scenario hasn’t panned out for the land surrounding Dell, and now the future of the plant itself is in question.
In the meantime, PTIA takes every opportunity to throw its weight around to restrict development around the airport. You could say PTIA is protecting its interests — fair enough. By the same token, you could say the market is being manipulated by a scenario that — let’s be realistic — might not play out.
