Agony and ecstasy; Some of the Triad's biggest wins and losses

BYLINE: ALLEN JOHNSON

TOUCHDOWN: HondaJet. The soon-to-come manufacturing facility for Honda's sleek little new jet has been cited not only for its potential impact on the regional economy but because it showcases the benefits of a thoughtful, unified approach to industrial recruitment.

Greensboro, High Point, Guilford County commissioners, state legislators, college administrators, business leaders and economic development officials worked together and reaped the long-term benefits.

Honda will add nearly 300 skilled jobs that will pay an average salary of $70,000, which is significant enough.

But the ripple effect should be even greater.Can't we all just get along in the Triad?

Besides the muffed attempt to build a professional football stadium, there have been other notable misses in regional initiatives:

The bid for a Mercedes-Benz plant that went instead to Alabama. The bumbling, fumbling mad dash to throw cash at Dell, which netted a computer plant for the Triad but cost us some of our dignity. The dream of a Triad baseball stadium and a major league team to play in it.

But there have been significant hits as well. The FedEx hub. HondaJet. The Randleman Dam.

Herewith are some memorable victories and losses in regional initiatives, a few that are familiar and a few that may surprise. 

TOUCHDOWN: FedEx. The new FedEx mid-Atlantic cargo sorting hub at PTI Airport absolutely, positively was not delivered overnight. Though it was announced in 1998, the project had to navigate a maze of legal challenges and environmental studies before construction could begin. But when the hub finally is completed in 2009, the facility is expected, indirectly, to generate 20,000 jobs in the area over 16 years.

A CATCH (with a catch): DELL. The giant computer manufacturer announced in 2004 that it would locate a plant in Winston-Salem, where it employs more than 1,300 people - but only after Triad communities bit, scratched and clawed at one another with competing incentives bids. "Dell represents the best and worst of regionalism," says Don Kirkman, president and CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership.

TOUCHDOWN: The Piedmont Triad Partnership. Created in 1991, the Partnership focuses on economic development in the region, with an emphasis on marketing and recruitment. The Partnership is in the midst of a major job-training initiative called WIRED (Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development), which will attempt to provide job training and education for growth industries.

The Partnership was recognized by Site Selection magazine this year as one of the top 10 economic development organizations in the nation in 2006. The Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corp. and Greater Statesville Development Corp. in Iredell County also represented North Carolina on the list.

Charlotte USA made honorable mention.

INTERCEPTION: Carolina Cougars. Talk about regionalism. The first and only major league sports team in Greensboro began as an experiment that took the concept to unprecedented lengths. When the Houston Mavericks American Basketball Association franchise relocated here as the Cougars in 1969, it played home games in Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte.

Interestingly, Greensboro drew the biggest crowds of the three venues and the team eventually played all home games here.

Despite strong attendance and talented players, the team's millionaire owner, Ted Munchak of Atlanta, lost interest in the franchise. The team was sold and moved in 1974, becoming the Spirits of St. Louis. It disbanded two seasons later. Had the Cougars remained in Greensboro, muses former News & Record sports editor Irwin Smallwood, the team probably would have been considered strong enough to become a part of the NBA when the two leagues merged in 1976.

"We came within an eyelash of having an NBA team," he says.

INTERCEPTION: Mercedes-Benz. In 1993, the state's efforts to woo a Mercedes SUV plant to Alamance County fell short. "Mercedes would have been transformational for the Triad and the state," says Greensboro's Watts Carr, who at the time was director of the state Division of Business and Industry. The plant would have created 1,500 jobs, and as many as 6,000 "spinoff" jobs in related industries, Carr says.

But Vance, Ala., prevailed over Alamance. Mercedes officials said they chose Alabama because of its education system. Carr still doesn't believe that. The $300 million Alabama incentives package was the real difference, he says, versus North Carolina's $35 million.

Even in defeat, Carr adds, the Mercedes bid was a case study in one community's willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.

Officials in Burlington supported the bid, even though it would have forced higher salaries in local textile plants.

"You know it had to worry them that it would drive up the cost of labor," Carr says. "But I believe people in the Burlington area just felt like the region needed this - that it would be good for the majority of the people."

TOUCHDOWN: PART. The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation is creating an eight-county mass transit network and laying the foundation for what could be light rail in the Triad. PART also is spearheading the Heart of the Triad, an initiative to set aside and develop land in the airport area for high-octane employers.

TOUCHDOWN: Randleman Lake. The lake and dam, built and managed by the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, will provide water for Triad communities for the next 50 years. From concept to construction, 70 years in the making, the 3,000-plus-acre reservoir will serve Greensboro, High Point, Jamestown, Randleman, Archdale and Randolph County.

FUMBLE: Major league baseball. An effort to build a publicly financed big-league ballpark in Kernersville and lure the Minnesota Twins to play there struck out at the ballot box in 1998. Guilford and Forsyth county voters rejected a proposed food and beverage tax to finance the stadium by a nearly 2-1 margin. Skeptics say the Twins weren't all that serious from the beginning, using the Triad threat as leverage to get a new stadium in Minneapolis. That didn't work, either.

TOUCHDOWN: The Elon Law School. A win-win. The up-and-coming Alamance County-based university wanted a law school near courtrooms in a nearby urban area. Greensboro welcomed another downtown activity center full of smart people that focuses on training leaders, not just lawyers.

TOUCHDOWN: PTI Airport. Despite the passenger terminal's recent struggles to attract passengers, it remains a key to economic development in the Triad. "Without the airport we wouldn't have gotten FedEx," says High Point Mayor Becky Smothers. "We'd have never gotten Dell. We definitely wouldn't have gotten HondaJet."

TOUCHDOWN: 211. The United Ways in the Triad and Triangle merged their 211 call centers, which provide confidential health, human service and volunteer information. The Triad-Triangle system is a logical extension of the merged Triad system. The next step: A single center for the whole state.

FUMBLE: Two coliseums. Building separate arenas in Winston-Salem and Greensboro made absolutely no sense. Both enhance quality of life but, like most arenas, both lose money. Both struggle to attract A-list entertainment. It would have been better in the beginning to create a centrally located facility ... but neither city would give up its investment today for a joint venture.

nA look at memorable hits and misses in regional initiatives, some familiar and some that may surprise.