Herbalife & 500 Jobs Coming to Winston-Salem

Herbalife (NYSE:  HLF) is a publicly-traded nutriution supplement company that sells its products through independent distributors - typically persons who already use their products (this is called Multi-Level Marketing and works similarly to Amway or Avon; click here for more information on similar companies). The Los Angeles based company expects $4 billion in sales this year and projects $10 billion in yearly sales by 2020. It currently sells its products in 85 countries with the U.S. market comprising less than a quarter of its sales. Click here for a link to its Investor Relations webpage.

According to their press release, the company got the Dell Plant for $22.2 million (the plant cost Dell $110 million to build). In exchange for between $10-13 million in incentives, the company will spend over $100 million on improvements to the old Dell facility located at 3200 Temple School Rd., and create 493 jobs over the next three years.  

Downtown's First Grocery Store: the Washington Perk

Downtown Winston-Salem's first full-line grocery store wil be a duplicate of the Washington Perk , the popular "neighborhood market, coffee shop and deli" on Acadia Avenue in the Washington Park neighborhod. The new store will be located on Fourth Street in the old Associated Artists space.  This is a link to the Winston-Salem Journal article about the same.

Winston-Salem State's $140 million Facelift: Go Rams!

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/article_035dc06e-36b5-11e2-acb6-001a4bcf6878.html

Incentives for Downtown Mast General Store Approved

The City Council voted 6-1 to approve $1.27 million in incentives to lure Mast General Store to downtown Winston-Salem. The proposed site is between Trade and Cherry Street on the north side of Fifth Street:  click here for a link to the Winston-Salem Journal article which contains an excellent graphic of the proposed location.

Development of Glade Street YWCA Project Moves Forward

 

Rezoning the Glade Street YWCA property was unanimously approved by the YWCA last night which will allow  "The Glade at West End" development project to move forward. Proposed are seven condominiums and eighteen single family homes on the 5.6 acre site. Leonard Ryden Burr will handle the real estate listings:  click here for a link on their website dedicated to the project. The entire neighborhood is LEED certified under a new "neighborhood development" classification scheme which, according to the U.S. Green Building Council website, "integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building". Richard Alexander will be the builder.

Weeks Plant Purchased; County Reveals 7 Potential Library Sites; Isner Wins Winston-Salem Open

Merinos Home Furnishings Warehouse purchased Hanesbrands' Weeks textile plant in northwest Winston-Salem off Highway 52 near SciWorks with plans to turn it into a giant (850,000 sq.ft.) furniture showroom. The company operates three other showrooms in converted warehouse spaces in Mooresville, N.C., Fort Lawn, S.C., and Jefferson, Ga. 

In other news, John Isner won the Winston-Salem Open (it is so cool to see Winston-Salem on major news and media outlets - I got to go the final!) and list of potential sites for a new or renovated downtown library were submitted to Forsyth County. Click here to see the Winston-Salem Journal article.

Gander Mountain to Open Winston-Salem Store

Gander Mountain will be opening a store in Winston-Salem at 910 Hanes Mall Blvd, near the intersection of Stratford Road and I-40. Construction has already begun and is expected be complete by the end of 2012.

Mid-Sized Company, Murray Supply Co., Moves Headquarters Downtown

 

Murray Supply Company, a wholesale distributor of residential and commercial plumbing products, industrial and commercial piping products, HVAC and multi-family housing maintenance supplies, has moved its headquarters into the Liberty Plaza Building at 102 West Third Street. The company has warehouses, in addition to Winston, in Charlotte, Raleigh, Hickory, and Apex and employs approximately 100 people, 14 of whom will be in their new downtown headquarters. They are also currently hiring.

Inmar Moving Downtown!

 

Since Inmar announced in April that it would stay in Winston-Salem, there has been speculation:  would they renovate and add on to their existing headquarters or would they move downtown to the Piedmont Triad Research Park or the GMAC building? On July 31st, the company announced that their new corporate headquarters would be in two former Reynolds buildings, 90-3 and 90-1A, in the North District of the PTRP. The buildings, located at the southeastern corner of Seventh and Vine Streets are owned and will be renovated by Wexford Science and Technology LLC, the company which did that did such a fabulous job on Wake Forest Biotech Place. According to the press release, the buildings are 51 years old and contain 240,000 sq.ft.  The project will be LEED certified and will preserve the historic character of the buildings; it is scheduled to be completed in 17 months - December 2013. Click here for a Google Maps Street view perspective of the buildings as they currently stand. 

Pepsi Bottling Ventures Expanding in Winston!

 

Pepsi Bottling Ventures announced today that it would expand its operations in Winston-Salem rather than a different Triad location. Pursuant to $1.7 million dollars in city and county incentives, the company will invest $82 million in a new plant at 390 Business Park Drive.  500 total employees will work there with 200 new jobs created after it moves 300 employees from its current location on Myer Lee Drive. Read the official press release here.  

Winston-Salem Open Update

The Winston-Salem Open which will be held August 18-25, released their player field yesterday.  Twenty-two of the thirty-nine players confirmed so far (there will be a total of 48) are ranked in the top fifty in the world; last year only eleven players were ranked in the top fifty.   

2 New Stores on Fourth Street, Brushy Fork Greenway Opens

Unique Home Expressions, a gift shop for home and garden accessories, will be opening in Suite 101A at 500 W. Fourth Street next to the Eyecarecenter in the space previously occupied by Nu Shoes.  Downtown Brody's Bar opened last week near King's Crab Shack and Oyster Bar at 249 W. Fourth Street and was described by its owner as having a "Cheers" feel.

In other news, Mayor Allen Joines cut the ribbon officially opening the Brushy Fork Greenway today, July 10th.  Although only .4 miles in length, the trail connects with the 1.2 mile Newell-Massey Greenway and per Forsyth County's recently updated Greenway Plan, will eventually be connected to the much longer Salem Lake Trail and Salem Creek Greenway.  Click here for a brochure of existing greenway trails in Winston-Salem.

PTRP Names New Head

Eric Tomlinson has been named both President and Chief Innovation Officer of the Piedmont Triad Research Park.  According to information from other sources reporting on Mr. Tomlinson appointment, such as the Winston-Salem Journal, the News Release from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and the Triad Biz Journal, Mr. Tomlinson is an experienced scientist and CEO with a special emphasis on bringing new products to market and will accordingly oversee all research and commercialization efforts.

$136.6 Million in Arts Related Spending in 2010

That number comes from a report from the Americans for the Arts, an advocacy organization.  The report, which looked at 182 regions nationwide, also found that the arts in Forsyth County supported 4,769 full-time jobs.  This article about the study on the Arts Council website quotes Mayor Allen Joines as saying the study affirms that the arts are major economic driver in the area; the article also notes that Forsyth County "substantially exceeded the median of similar study regions and the national median."  

Pepsi Bottling Ventures to Expand in W-S?

 
The company which is based in Raleigh and is the largest privately-held Pepsi bottler in North America, has requested incentives from the city to expand its distribution operations on Myer Lee Drive near Smokin' Harley Davidson off Business 40.  According to this Winston-Salem Journal article, Pepsi Bottling Ventures LLC, is seeking up to $1 million dollars and the office of Mayor Allen Joines has stated that there is a potential for 200 new jobs. 

Greenway Plan Adopted

This is the logo for W-S Greenways, a citizen group that advocates for more greenways.

Winston-Salem City Council approved the plan, which is an update of the 2002 Greenway Plan on Monday, June 5th.  The plan will guide the construction of new greenways and bike trails  for the next 10-15 years and urges connectivity between existing greenways.  It does not propose any previously unproposed greenways and does not allocate any further monies toward greenway construction.   This is a link to Winston-Salem Greenways. 

Berkshire Hathaway Buys the Winston-Salem Journal

 

The purchase feels good:  Mr. Buffett stated he want the papers to have a "permanent" home with Berkshire Hathaway and it is obviously a big vote of confidence in the relevance and profitability of local papers.

Consultant to Evaluate Benton Convention Center

 

The Winston-Salem City Council and the Forsyth County Tourism Development Authority each agreed to provide $50,000 (for a total of $100,000) to hire a consultant to make recommendations about updating the Benton Convention Center. The Center is owned by the city but managed by an Atlanta-company which owns the adjacent Marriot and Embassy Suites hotels and operates them together as the Twin City Quarter.

UNC School of the Arts in $47 Million Expansion

 
As reported by the Winston-Salem Journal, the Board of Trustees approved the measure on Thursday.  The expansion will include a new library, a film production facility, a new campus police office, and a storage warehouse.

Yeah! Inmar is Staying in Winston (and hiring 212)!

The announcement was made today with Governor Perdue on hand at the Annex to the  Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.  The presence of Governor Perdue was significant because, despite receiving the second biggest incentives package from the City and County of all time for a local company*, companies within the state are not eligible for state-level incentives if they are thinking about relocating.**  However, according to the Triad Business Journal, the state approved a Job Development Institute Grant for the company to help train employees which could be worth as much as $4.2 million.  In thinking about relocating, Inmar, Inc. had cited difficulty in finding qualified IT applicants.  In addition to keeping over 700 jobs here, Inmar's decision to stay in Winston translates into at least*** 212 new jobs with an average salary of over $70,000 and $60 million in infrastructure development.  The company has not said where it plans to relocate - stay tuned for that exciting news!


* this time, the City and County together agreed to $2.8 million in incentives; apparently the largest incentives package ever for a local company was $5 million to Wachovia to building the Wachovia Building
**should this law be changed?  I suppose it is written that way to prevent every large company from threatening to relocate to leverage funds from the state but it also puts us at a competitive disadvantage for companies that are legitimately thinking about leaving and being enticed by lucrative packages elsewhere...
***the City has incorporated salary and number of job benchmarks into their incentives package - the numbers are enforced by clawback provisions