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Posts Tagged ‘economic development’

Where Good Things Happen #2- Iredell Economic Development Tops in Nation

Posted in Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Quality of Life, Real Estate, Statesville, tagged , , on March 13, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Statesville and Mooresville are known by many things.  One of them is that they are classified as a “Micropolitan” area by the U. S. Census Bureau.  That classification has become one that we hear about often in these parts.  That’s because the Statesville-Mooresville micropolitan area has been named Top Micropolitan Area in 2012 for the 9th time out of the last 11 years in corporate facility projects by Site Selection Magazine!  What does that mean? It means that companies who want to grow find our area a great place to do that.  It means that our employment opportunities and tax base are growing.  It means that the quality of life in our area is attractive to companies looking for a good place to move.  Site Selection Magazine is a publication read by economic development professionals and corporate move specialists who are constantly on the lookout for great places in the country to do business and put down roots.  Success often begets success, so don’t expect this trend to stop.  I think most of us agree that Iredell County and the Lake Norman area is a great place to live and work, and this continuing honor confirms that.

Check out more details of this great news HERE at Site Selection Magazine.  Here’s another article on this subject at the Mooresville Tribune.

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Langtree at the Lake Getting Off the Ground

Posted in Davidson, Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Mount Mourne, Real Estate, tagged , , , on October 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Langtree at the Lake, a huge mixed use community near Mount Mourne that’s been in the planning and financing stages for over 6 years is finally “going vertical” with new construction of the initial phase of mixed-use space including a large amount of retail facilities.

ImageThe Mooresville Tribune recently reported that the first phase retail space is 70% pre-leased including a large number of eateries of various sorts.  All of the plans aim to create a high-end atmosphere for both the businesses and the eventual residential areas.  Here’s a photo I took within the last week showing a flurry of construction activity.  Click on the link for more details from The Tribune.

Various reports have placed the value of the construction project at between $800 million and $2 Billion.  Hey, plans come and plans go, and what’s a few million dollars here or there?  In any case, the project will be a good local indicator of the anticipated economic health of the Lake Norman area.  Those investors plowing millions into it have reason to believe that this is a great investment.  I hope they’re right.

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Donald Trump to Buy The Point Golf Club in Mooresville

Posted in Economic Development, Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Real Estate, tagged , on March 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

A Mooresville golf club will be getting the Donald Trump treatment soon.  Members of the club voted last night to sell the club to Trump for $3 million.  In return, “the Donald” says he’ll spend millions on improvements to the club. Club members hope that this will increase the value of their property.  If they had refused to sell to Trump, they would’ve had to buy it themselves due to the bankruptcy of the orginal developer Crescent Development.  See today’s article in the Charlotte Observer HERE.

Mooresville will have to share the glory, though.  The club will be renamed Trump National Golf Club, Charlotte.  Given that many residents of The Point work in Charlotte, I guess there’s some kind of rationale there.  Some residents are concerned that Trump will drastically change the character of the community.  I suspect others are contemplating the joys of having their local club host a PGA tour event eventually.

Ahhh, the lives of the rich and famous can be so complicated!

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Mooresville/Statesville is Top Micropolitan Area for Commercial Development AGAIN!

Posted in Economic Development, Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Real Estate, Statesville, tagged , on March 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Site Selection Magazine has named the Statesville-Mooresville micropolitan area tops in the nation for new and expanded corporate facility projects in 2011.  Not bad considering that there are 576 such areas in the country and Statesville-Mooresville has won this status 8 out of the last 10 years.  This means that the corporate world finds our area a very attractive place for investing in business and jobs.  This doesn’t happen by accident.  Our towns have the benefit of many talented people working on area economic development.  This has a substantial beneficial effect on our property tax rates.  The government people tell me that commercial/industrial tax base is much more effective in generating needed property taxes than residential tax base.  It also helps to support residential property values when businesses are convenient to residential areas and economic health is strong.  Our prices may be down somewhat, but this type of development and attention has helped to keep prices from falling further.

Quite impressive when you think about it.

Check out the article HERE.

 

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Moving Dirt at Langtree at the Lake

Posted in Economic Development, Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, tagged , , on May 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

At a meeting yesterday in Mooresville of local city planners, school officials, developers and others, Barry Rigby, Principal & VP of Development of Langtree Development Company gave a brief update on progress at the highly anticipated Langtree at the Lake Development.  He showed photos of initial grading on the first phase of the project and said that they should start “vertical” construction this fall.  That phase will be completed in around 18 months.  You can learn more about this 125 acre mixed use project at their website at www.langtreeatthelake.com or search for them on Facebook (be sure to look for the new format pages).

You can also search for my previous articles on Langtree at the Lake in the search block on this blog.

This is just a bit more evidence that there is gaining confidence in the growing health of our local economy.  We’re seeing interest in investment for commercial development sprouting around the community, from new retail businesses to the recent announcement of the construction of new luxury apartments near Brawley and Williamson Roads. 

 Is that a light I see at the end of this tunnel?

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Good Schools’ Connection to Good Economy

Posted in General Real Estate Market, Iredell County, Quality of Life, Real Estate, tagged , , , , , on June 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Iredell County is fortunate to have two excellent public school systems- the Iredell-Statesville Schools and the Mooresville Graded Schools.  Both rank very highly compared to other schools in the state and region.  Both are populated with dedicated, motivated professionals working in schools that offer an environment that is conducive to learning.  The fact that we have such great schools is noticed by many who are considering a move to our area.  Particularly important to all of us is that current and future employers know that good quality employees demand good quality schools for their children.  So, even if you don’t currently have kids in our schools, you enjoy the benefits of our good schools through maintaining a healthy local economy, either directly through your employer or because those employes and businesses spend much of their money locally.

I point all of this out because earlier this week at a meeting in Mooresville, I heard Dr. Kenny Miller of the Iredell-Statesville Schools talk about the challenges our schools face now and in the future due to reduced tax revenues that pay for their operations.  Dr. Miller noted that Iredell-Statesville Schools some years ago were only middling in performance, but have in the intervening years become one of the top systems in the state.  They’ve managed to do that while their spending is among the lowest levels per student in the state.  He asked all at the meeting to keep this in mind when the various governmental bodies talk about how taxes should be spent and where to make cuts, or even if taxes should be increased in order to maintain our schools’ performance. 

It’s ironic that if we reduce spending on schools to help balance the budget, the eventual result could be to cause businesses to leave or not move here. By doing so, that would reduce our local tax revenues and put us in worse shape than before.  Sometimes you have to focus beyond the short term to keep from “shooting yourself in the foot.”

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Remodeling Statesville, NC

Posted in Iredell County, Statesville, tagged , , , , on June 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I recently mentioned our city and county planners meeting with Iredell County Realtors to tell us about their plans for improving the area.  One of the most interesting parts of the presentation had to do with tuning up Statesville, both in the downtown area and in the “gateway” area of Shelton Avenue.  I knew that Statesville movers and shakers have been working on this for some time, including an extended visit to Greenville, SC a couple of years ago where they’ve transformed the downtown area into a wonderful destination.  So the Statesville gang has developed a good idea of what those improvements may look like.  You can see more about what they are thinking by going to the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation website HERE to download their reports and plans.  At the Realtor meeting, we were told that the Statesville city government is looking at ways to get some of this work funded.  Ultimately this would necessarily be a partnership of public and private interests working together for the common good, but Statesville’s initial investment would show good faith and help to jump-start the revitalization of what can be a very handsome city center and gateway area.  Statesville has some great historical architecture that can serve as the basis for these improvements.

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Iredell County and City Planners’ Report

Posted in Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Mount Mourne, Quality of Life, Real Estate, Statesville, Troutman, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

The Charlotte Regional Realtor Association recently hosted a presentation in Mooresville of the local government planners from Iredell County, Statesville, Troutman and Mooresville.  We Realtors meet with them every year to get an overview of what’s going on in the county and to get to know the planners better so that we can get questions asked more easily during the rest of the year.  Here are a few comments from them that might interest you.

- Since the year 2000, Iredell County has grown by 21.5%.  During the slowest growth year, we still added about 2,500 people.

- There is little activity right now on approving new subdivisions.  One reason is that there are now 12,000 lots in various subdivisions that are approved but vacant in Iredell County.

- The new baseball park between Mooresville and Troutman will have a huge positive impact on the local hospitality and retail businesses during the summer season.  This should eventually help our tax revenues, too.

- Troutman is applying for grants to help develop a town park on land next to the town hall.

- As previously mentioned, the J. Hoyt Hayes Memorial Troutman Library will open on May 25.  This will be a great asset to our local quality of life.  (By the way, if you have an Iredell library card already, then you’re good to go.)

- Troutman still expects to have a Wal-Mart built at Exit 42.  Just don’t have firm dates yet.  Maybe they’ll want to be there for the baseball parents and kids!

- Statesville has some great looking plans for improving the downtown area and the Shelton Avenue corridor.  The town is working on how much they can invest in improving theses “streetscapes” as an investment in attracting businesses (mixed with some residential) to these areas.

- Larkin is still somewhere on the stove, if not on the front burner.  The developers are working on finding some bond financing to get going.  See Statesville Record & Landmark update HERE.

- Mooresville’s population has grown 100% in the last 10 years to around 30,000 plus.  We’ll see when the census numbers are in.

- Lowe’s corporate campus is now projected when complete to have 12,000 employees.  That’s a big reason for the need for improved roads and interchanges that serve that area.

- As mentioned already, Langtree at the Lake is starting to make some forward progress.

- Planners are cautiously optimistic about the progress of the re-purposing of the old Burlington Mills complex on Main Street.  Hopefully, the furniture retailer is just the start of more worthwhile development there.

- The Brawley School Road improvements west of Williamson Rd. are scheduled for completion by summer of 2011. The improvements east of Williamson Rd. are scheduled for completion by summer of 2013.

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Langtree at the Lake Update

Posted in Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Mount Mourne, Quality of Life, Real Estate, tagged , , , , on May 19, 2010 | 2 Comments »

I recently met with Brad Howard, one of the principles developing Langtree at the Lake, to find out the latest news on the development.  The economic slowdown has significantly changed the original schedule for this developement, but Brad was upbeat and feeling good since the Town of Mooresville had just recently let contracts for the construction of utilities that will serve the development.  The upcoming availability of utilities is likely to be the catalyst that will really get things moving in various parts of the development.  Here are some comments he gave me on what’s coming up at Langtree at the Lake.

The first properties that will be available for occupancy will be a commercial complex that will anchor one corner of the overall Langtree development.  It is owned by R. L. West Properties who plan 58,000 sq. ft of office space, 24,000 sq. ft of retail space and a convenience store.  This segment is planned for completion in June of 2011.

The second component will be a 300 room, 12 story Embassy Suites Hotel with 80,000 sq. ft of meeting space with construction set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The second quarter of 2011 will see the start of construction of 300 luxury residential apartments along with 40,000 sq. ft. of additional retail space- think Birkdale-ish.

Finally, plans are being prepared for Langtree Executive Park near the Lowe’s corporate campus.  This is where I understand the Friends of the Animals sanctuary will be that is being supported by NASCAR driver Greg Biffle’s Greg Biffle Foundation.

The success of developments like Langtree at the Lake and the new baseball park are important to Iredell County’s tax base and tax revenue.  Recent news of local government cutbacks, including school expenses, underscore the need to attract business that can help the residents pay for the services provided by city and county government.  No, it’s not good for us to go after such developments without regard to possible negative impacts on the local community, but it’s clear that communities that shun well-planned development are setting themselves up to dry up and blow away.

Lets hope these developments are planned and executed well and that we’ll all enjoy the benefits of having them in our community.

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Big Time Baseball Training Facility in Mooresville?

Posted in Iredell County, Mooresville, Quality of Life, Troutman, tagged , , on April 20, 2010 | 6 Comments »

Mooresville, NC has for many years been a town that loves its baseball.  From the Mooresville Moors minor league team that was a town mainstay from 1937 to 1953 to the current American Legion Moors that draw crowds all summer long.  Now, we’ve discovered that Mooresville may have another baseball activity to call its own. 

My neighbor is on the Iredell County Board of Adjustment.  He tells me that they recently approved a Special Use Permit for a business that plans to build a youth baseball training facility near Mooresville.  It will have 25 ball fields including a large one with stands.  The purpose is to host teams from all over the United States to come for several weeks of training.  The teams will have playoffs at the end of their sessions at the big field.  The business that is planning this facility expects there to be multiple sessions each summer with players, and in many cases parents, coming for the training sessions.  That should generate a nice additional flow of business for our communities in the area.

Let’s hope that these plans come to completion.  This would make a nice addition to the recreational facilities of the area and provide a nice economic boost to Mooresville and surrounding communities.

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