Southern Business & Development - Corporate and Industrial Sites in the World's Third-Largest Economy

January 20, 2010

2010 Innovation South Awards

SB&D’s Innovation South Awards recognize what we believe are the most innovative programs, initiatives and projects in economic development in the South the previous calendar year. The Innovation Awards honor outstanding achievements by economic development agencies, utilities, public/private partnerships and government initiatives that truly embrace innovation in a way to further job generation and capital investment in the American South. Here are our winners for the 2009 calendar year.

Memphis: America's Aerotropolis

Known as "America's Distribution Center" for the past three decades, Memphis officials are rebranding the region in an innovative way. America's Aerotropolis is the new brand and it focuses on Memphis' economic and distribution hub that includes the world's largest air cargo airport, the busiest trucking corridor (Interstate 40), the five Class I railroads that call Memphis home and the Port of Memphis, the fourth-largest inland port in the U.S.

The ARC Hydrogen Research Facility in South Carolina

Green is the operative word in today's economy, particularly when it comes to the nation’s long-term energy security. ARC Hydrogen, formerly the Center for Hydrogen Research, located adjacent to the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in Aiken, S.C, is leading the way in the South in research of one of the world’s most common elements. SRNL, which occupies half of the ARC Hydrogen Center, is one of only 12 national labs performing applied hydrogen research.

Building the Largest Solar Energy System in the U.S. in Austin, Tex.

In 2009, in a vote of 7-0, the Austin (Tex.) City Council approved a proposal that would give the Texas capital city the largest solar system in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world. The Council approved an agreement under which the City's municipally-owned electric utility, Austin Energy, will purchase all of the electricity produced over a 25-year term by a 30MW solar project that is being built on 320 city-owned acres 20 miles from downtown Austin. The array of photovoltaic solar panels will produce enough energy to power about 5,000 homes. The project is part of Austin's goal of producing 100MW of solar capacity by 2020

Lowndes County, Miss.'s GTR Global Industrial Aerospace Park

Utilizing the lessons learned in the creation of two TVA Certified Megasites, the Columbus-Lowndes (Mississippi) Development LINK has announced the creation of the GTR Global Industrial Aerospace Park. Located on a 2,500-acre site adjacent to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTRA), the park is designed to complement growing aerospace and defense industries in Columbus-Lowndes County. Access to GTRA’s 6,500’ (expanding to 8,000’) runway is available. Mississippi State University’s aerospace engineering department accentuates the synergies for the creation of a world renowned industrial aerospace park.
Lowndes County and seven surrounding Mississippi and Alabama governments, economic development entities and educational institutions, have agreed the GTR Global Industrial Aerospace Park is beneficial to the economic growth and well being of their communities. As a result, a Memorandum of Cooperation and Collaboration has been developed and all entities are in concurrence to the park’s benefits.

Launch of Four-State Aerospace Alliance

In October, a four-state coalition called The Aerospace Alliance was formed in an effort to establish the Gulf Coast region, from Tallahassee to New Orleans, as a world class aviation, aerospace and defense corridor. Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi have banded together in the initiative, formed in part to also help Northrop Grumman and EADS land the multi-billion dollar aerial refueling tanker project from the Air Force. If the KC-45 tanker is chosen, it will be built in Mobile, which is located in the heart of the Aerospace Alliance corridor.

Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative's GigaPark Program

One of the most innovative programs we've ever seen for rural development is the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative's GigaPark initiative. Currently there are more than 60 business and technology parks located in rural Southside and Southwest Virginia that are hooked up to an advanced 800-plus mile fiber-optic broadband network. The digital optical networking technologies feature a transport capacity with a Layer 1, 400 gigabit-per-second backbone. The network provides direct connections to key Internet peering points in Northern Virginia and Southeastern markets such as Atlanta and Raleigh. While other Southern states are discussing ways to bring broadband service to their rural areas, Virginia is already selling the service at dozens of business parks throughout Small Town Virginia (for more information on rural South development, go to www.SmallTownSouth.com).

What to do with a Vacant GM Plant?

In 2006, General Motors closed its 3.8 million-square-foot Oklahoma City assembly plant leaving local and state officials wondering what to do with the monster facility that sits on 430 acres. But they didn't wonder for long.

Through the leadership of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the city, county and state rallied to purchase the plant and repurpose it to support the community's thriving aerospace industry, or more specifically for use by the Tinker Air Force Base. Tinker is the Air Force's largest base due to its emphasis on maintenance, repair and overhaul of military aircraft and engines. The base employs 26,000 workers.

Now called the Tinker Aerospace Complex, the former GM plant could end up housing thousands of new workers. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said, "The officials at Tinker are enthused, the Pentagon is impressed and it helps solidify our relationship with the most important economic driver we have."

Shortly after GM's announcement to close the plant, Oklahoma City voters approved a $55 million bond issue to buy the property and lease it back to the Air Force for $1 a year in exchange for retrofitting the plant and using it to replace aging maintenance buildings at Tinker.

Alabama's Science and Technology Roadmap

The Science and Technology Roadmap is a major collaboration among the Alabama Research Alliance, the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, the Alabama Development Office, and the eight PhD granting institutions in Alabama. Guiding the project is a steering committee of key public and private sector leaders from across the State. Through the Science and Technology Roadmap, leaders in these sectors are developing strategies to capitalize on Alabama’s science and technology assets in order to diversify the state’s economic base with knowledge-based jobs.

Catawba County, N.C.'s Data Center Initiative

In August 2006, in response to encouragement from Duke Energy and the Charlotte Regional Partnership, Catawba County, N.C. developed a targeting initiative focusing on the recruitment of data centers. Catawba County's Data Center Initiative consisted of a multi-pronged approach in targeted product development, themed collateral materials and Websites, industrial association membership, direct consultant marketing and fam tours specific to the data center industry.

Over time, Catawba County's Data Center Park, a 183-acre site developed and marketed specifically to data center end users, combined with the development of www.datacentersites.com and other focused materials, the relationships built at networking functions both nationally and through a yearly Data Center Exchange Consultants forum in Catawba County, resulted in the announcement of a $1 billion, 500,000-square-foot Apple Inc. data center that purchased all 183 acres of the park in July 2009.

The next steps for the Initiative include partnering with neighboring counties (including Caldwell County, home of Google's $600 million data center) in the development of a branding initiative labeled "NC's Data Center Corridor" linking Apple, Google, the N.C. State Data Center and the banking-related data centers in Charlotte. The effort seeks to cluster the communications resources of the telecom valley (Hickory, N.C. is also the home to makers of 40 percent of the world's production of fiber-optic and coaxial cabling with Corning Cable Systems, CommScope and Draka) and the growing data center industries into a recognized communications cluster.

Louisiana Economic Development’s Development Ready Communities program

Louisiana Economic Development has undertaken a multi-year, collaborative initiative which draws on best practices to empower local communities to build economic development capacity. The Development Ready Communities program will take participants through an intensive six-month pilot program that will help prepare each community to effectively compete with out-of-state communities for good jobs, business development projects, and capital investment. The pilot program will focus on four different phases: community assessment, strategic planning, leadership development, and marketing development. Participants will receive training, a resource team of experienced community and economic development professionals, and a comprehensive web-based toolkit for community development at LouisianaCommunityNetwork.com. The web-based toolkit consists of resource guides, lists of contacts, and instructional modules on different aspects of community development.

The program draws on support from the public and private sectors. Local utilities, the eight regional economic development organizations, the Louisiana Municipal Association, the Policy Jury Association of Louisiana, the Louisiana Association of Planning Districts, the Institute for Economic Development and Real Estate Research at the University of New Orleans, and the Economic Development Administration have all provided funding or marketing support.

After the Development Ready Communities program was launched in August 2009, twenty-five communities began the competitive application process and were asked to submit resolutions from their local governing body, descriptions of the community’s economic development experience, letters of support from local and state leaders, and a statement of commitment to the aggressive schedule. The selection committee (composed of representatives from LED and its partners) chose twelve communities to participate. These communities began the community assessment phase during the first week of October 2009 and will continue to move forward through the other phases over the six-month period.

North Carolina's Advanced Transportation Energy Center

ATEC, a public-private partnership between N.C. State University and the state's two major electric utilities (Progress Energy and Duke Energy), has as its mission to develop fundamental and enabling technologies that will facilitate the electric power industry to actively manage and control large numbers of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) and plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). ATEC will also develop battery and power electronics technologies to help the automobile industry develop better and more efficient PHEVs and PEVs.

The vehicle to grid (V2G) concept envisions the plug-in vehicles as a resource for the electric grid, where power can be absorbed or sourced by the vehicle energy storage system. However, there are many intermediary steps that have to be achieved before this vision comes to fruition. ATEC is researching and implementing technologies that will allow V2G to become a reality.

Florida's Emergence as a Major Biotech Player
Florida is quickly becoming one of the South's major players in the life sciences industry. Three projects are in various stages of development currently in Miami, Palm Beach and Orlando.

Miami

The biggest economic development project right now in South Florida is the University of Miami Life Science Park. The park will provide facilities, infrastructure and interdisciplinary opportunities to foster the development of the life sciences, technology and biotechnology innovations. Currently there are over 1,700 life sciences companies in Miami and the UM Life Sciences Park will accommodate companies and institutes of all types, from locally grown University start-ups to global entities. Under the proposed master plan, the University may develop up to 1.8 million square feet of space at the life sciences park.

Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County is located in the heart of Florida's emergence as a nationally ranked biotech center. In fact, Forbes.com recently ranked Palm Beach County #3 on its list of "Hotbeds of Tomorrow's Technology." There are over 150 biotechnology companies in Palm Beach County including two of the world's most notable institutes, the Max Planck Florida Institute and Scripps Florida. Palm Beach County is also home of the headquarters of Biotest Pharmaceuticals, the state's largest pharmaceutical company.

Metro Orlando

All told, more than $1.5 billion in biomedical-related construction is complete, started or funded at Orlando’s Medical City. The largest economic development project underway in metro Orlando is the development of the 600-acre "Medical City." The large medical cluster being developed in southeast Orlando includes the newest facility of La Jolla, Calif.-based Burnham Institute. The Institute is one of the top four recipients of grant funding from the National Institutes of Health. The first wave of scientists and support staff has just recently moved into Burnham's new $85 million facility.

Also planned or under construction at Medical City in Orlando are the University of Central Florida's new College of Medicine, The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The Nemours Children's Hospital, The Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a University of Florida Academic and Research Center. All told, more than $1.5 billion in biomedical-related construction is complete, started or funded at Medical City.

Tennessee’s Emerging Solar Energy Cluster

In the last year, Hemlock Semiconductor and Wacker Chemie have announced plans to build major polysilicon productions facilities in Tennessee. Polysilicon is a key raw material used to manufacturer solar cells and semiconductor devices. This emerging renewable energy cluster being built in Tennessee received additional support when the state proposed the $62.5 million Tennessee Solar Institute, to be located at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The institute will conduct research to improve efficiency and affordability of solar energy products.

January 20, 2010

Migration to the South Slows: Texas Big Winner, Florida Big Loser

Southwest Airlines Waves Market Size Rule by Serving New Northwest Florida Airport

Southern Towns Named Finalists for American Main Street Award

SC Lawmakers Approve $270M in Boeing Bonds

So, how bad was 2009 in the Southern Automotive Corridor?

Akebono on Expansion Jag in the Southern Automotive Corridor

Louisiana Experiences Third Consecutive Year of Population In-Migration

Kansas City Metro Market Hits the Jackpot

Toyota to Ship West Virginia Made Engines to Japan

GM Could Reopen Tennessee Assembly Operations

Tunica, Miss. Lands $300 Million Pipe Plant