UNC seeks $25 million to start Carolina North

BYLINE: Jesse James DeConto, Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL -- The UNC system is requesting $25 million for planning and site work at UNC-Chapel Hill's proposed Carolina North research campus, Chancellor James Moeser announced Wednesday.

"That will really send the engine down the track, there's no doubt about that," Moeser told the Building and Grounds Committee of the UNC-CH Board of Trustees.

The research campus would be built on the university's Horace Williams property just north of the main campus. UNC-CH leaders have talked about developing the tract for the past two decades, but this is the first time university leaders have formally asked the General Assembly for funding, said Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development.

The university seeks $25 million to be dispersed over the next two years.

UNC-CH has plans for a state-of-the-art research campus that would bring as many as 20,000 new jobs to Chapel Hill over the next 50 years.

In the short term, developing part of the Horace Williams tract would allow the university to consolidate offices now spread all over the Triangle. UNC-CH now leases these facilities at a cost of more than $6 million a year.

When asked how soon he would like to see new buildings at Carolina North, Waldrop said, "Last year in terms of the needs that we have."