Megasite remains a prime location
Published January 12, 2018
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, January 11, 2018.
Not many people in North Carolina have more reason to be disappointed than Darrell Frye. He has ramrodded Randolph County’s effort to assemble land for an industrial megasite — which was not selected by Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda as the location of a $1.6 billion joint manufacturing facility.
Randolph County commissioners voted just Monday night to make their final purchase of property — 140 acres for $3.5 million. In all, the county has spent $13.5 million for land, Frye said Wednesday.
He is a Republican who has served on the board since 1982, currently as vice chairman. In a conservative county, $13.5 million is a lot of money to spend on hopes and dreams.
Frye is disappointed but not discouraged. “We’re going to stay the course, and we’ll have some good news, I believe,” he said.
The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite totals 1,900 acres, the result of cooperative efforts by many private and public entities. The Toyota-Mazda project put it on the national map, even though it didn’t come up a winner.
“A lot of good has come out of it,” Frye said. “We established ourselves, made a good name for ourselves. ... We gained a lot of respect.”
North Carolina was widely acknowledged in the national press to be one of two states in the final running for the huge development, which could employ 4,000. The other was Alabama. A site in Huntsville was chosen, the companies officially announced Wednesday afternoon.
This marks the second time that North Carolina has lost a head-to-head competition with Alabama for an automaker. In 1993, Mercedes-Benz selected Alabama over a site in Alamance County for a manufacturing plant. Since then, Alabama has won other automotive prizes, including a Toyota engine factory in Huntsville. More than 50,000 people work in auto manufacturing-related jobs in Alabama, establishing an efficient “supply chain” and a large head start over North Carolina.
Otherwise, North Carolina appears by several measures to provide a better environment for new businesses. In fact, North Carolina was second in Site Selection magazine’s 2017 Business Climate Rankings to sixth place for Alabama.
North Carolina’s corporate income-tax rate is 3 percent, less than half Alabama’s 6.5 percent. Gross Domestic Product per capita and median household incomes are significantly higher in North Carolina. North Carolina’s unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, compared to Alabama’s 3.5 percent, suggests there’s more available labor here. But Alabama’s lower average hourly wage of $15.43 (in 2016) could be more inviting than North Carolina’s $16.31.
Despite having less wealth, Alabama spends more for public education per student — $9,128 in 2015, compared to $8,687 in North Carolina — according to U.S. Census figures.
The 1,252-acre Huntsville site Toyota and Mazda selected earned an official megasite designation from the Tennessee Valley Authority in 2016 for interstate access, rail and utilities connections and for completing environmental reviews. It was “ready to go” at that time, according to press reports.
Also in play were state and local incentives, potentially worth $1 billion or more. It’s unclear which state offered a better deal or how much impact that had on the final decision.
Despite losing this deal, the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite has many elements in place that make it an inviting location. But the coveted tenant may be some other kind of advanced manufacturer and not necessarily an automaker, Frye said.
“I still believe in our site,” he said. “I’m still optimistic.”
That’s the right attitude. So much has already been invested in this site that ultimate success is the only acceptable outcome. An initial failure isn’t cause for casting blame or making doom-and-gloom pronouncements.
This has been a good week for Alabama, but North Carolina has a lot to offer — including prime land in Randolph County.
