Outside of Rowan

New Year, New Tax Credit Program

The new Credits for Growing Businesses (Article 3J Credits) took effect on January 1, 2007 and the impact is beginning to be realized. Article 3J replaced the William S. (Bill) Lee Credits and provides for new county tier designations, Urban Progress Zones (UPZ), Agrarian Growth Zones (AGZ) and Eligibility. The Bill Lee credits designated five development levels for Counties with Rowan designated a tier 3 while the Article 3J credits have three levels with Rowan designated at tier 2. The UPZ and AGZ replace the State Development Zone and Rowan has applied for a UPZ over the same area covered by the former Development Zone. Eligibility is expanded to include corporate headquarters, customer service call centers, motorsports facilities, motorsports racing teams and research and development.

The Salisbury- Rowan Economic Development Commission is prepared and able to assist you in determining how to maximize the credits as your business expands or relocates to our community.

Biotech business update

With the North Carolina Research Center project breaking ground in February, a transformation has begun to the south of Rowan. The eventual impact of that transformation cannot yet be determined but is expected to fundamentally change the town and the region with the research campus projected to have 5,000 employees and create 30,000 related jobs.

David Murdock's vision is coming to life with the ongoing construction of a $120 million core laboratory building, where research will be conducted into biological sciences to improve medicine, nutrition and other keys to healthy lives and the building is expected to open in late 2007. Murdock is putting $150 million of his own money into the $1.5 billion research campus and UNC Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and Duke University have agreed to lease buildings at the site to house researchers. The campus is also expected to attract businesses eager to exploit breakthroughs; Murdock plans to create a venture-capital fund to attract them.

Water, Water, Where?

The recent and ongoing fight by Concord and Kannapolis to obtain permission to draw up 10 million gallons a day from the Catawba and the Yadkin rivers illustrates the importance of resources and infrastructure to economic development. Widely reported in various media outlets, The Environmental Management Commission, on a 13-1 vote, approved the inter-basin transfer request much to the chagrin of opponents. Numerous local governments in the Catawba basin and the State of South Carolina have vowed to sue over the decision.

Most traditional and advanced manufacturing processes have considerable water and sewer requirements. Even if the industrial process does not directly require water, alternatives beyond municipal systems, including wells, septic tanks and seepage fields, are generally insufficient to meet the needs of hundreds of people employed in most industrial facilities. Regardless planned activity, most relocation and expansion projects necessitate water and sewage connections, either existing connections or extension of service guarantees, and locations without those connections are generally immediately eliminated from consideration.

The Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission works in close cooperation with the Salisbury-Rowan Utilities Department for the expansion and improvement of our community’s water and sewer infrastructure.

New diesel fuel regulations drove pre-buying

Diesel fuel is the standard for commercial medium-duty trucks like Freightliner manufactures and many companies rushed to buy new trucks before more stringent federal emission regulations covering diesel engines took effect on January 1, 2007. Additionally, anticipated initial problems that may occur with the new diesel engines drove pre-buying within commercial fleets. The new regulations promise to raise the price of diesel-engine trucks in 2007, due to the installation of costly emissions equipment, it is expected that this cost increase will impact new-truck sales this year. The full impact of the new regulations is still unknown, but it is expected to have a negative impact on this year’s sales by Freightliner, which added a third shift to meet 2006 production demands.