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.  

City and Private Investors to Pump $6 million into Various Shopping Centers

City council OKs money for shopping centers

By LAURA GRAFF | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: May 17, 2011

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Five shopping centers around Winston-Salem will be rehabilitated and given face-lifts by private investors and the city, the Winston-Salem City Council agreed last night.
The council voted unanimously to spend about $2.8 million to improve the shopping centers: Ogburn Station off Liberty Street; West Salem on Peters Creek Parkway; Peachtree on Waughtown Street; King Plaza on Waughtown Street; and the shopping center at the intersection of Cherry Street and Polo Road.
The money is coming from the incentive funds Dell Inc. gave back to the city after closing its computer-assembly plant on Temple School Road last year.
"This is our effort to improve the opportunities for small businesses, especially in existing business areas in the core of our city that have been in decline," said council member Dan Besse, who represents the city's Southwest Ward. "We're leveraging public and private investment in those areas of our community that are in need and can benefit," Besse said.
The plan approved by the council includes about $3 million in private investment for the shopping centers. In addition to the $2.8 million city investment, the city will also issue about $550,000 in loans to the shopping centers.
The plan approved by the council on Monday is part of a city program, Revitalizing Urban Commercial Areas, which started in May 2005. The council then agreed to spend $1.5 million to improve three parts of the city: the intersection of Waughtown Street and Thomasville Road, the intersection of Liberty and 14th streets, and the Washington Park and Acadia neighborhoods.
Until the Dell Inc. repayment, funding for the program had run out.
Dell repaid about $15.5 million to the city in November 2009. A little more than $4 million remains from the money Dell paid back.
King Plaza will receive the most money — about $2.2 million in private investment and $800,000 from the city.
"What we will see from this will be dollars generated back throughout the community," said council member and mayor pro tempore Vivian Burke, who represents the city's Northeast Ward.
The city received proposals for redevelopment plans for six shopping centers, according to the city's business development office.
The plan for the sixth shopping center — Northside on Patterson Avenue in northern Winston-Salem — included no private investment. That plan was not approved.

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lgraff@wsjournal.com
(336) 727-7279

Board sets aside money from Dell

By Wesley Young

Published: May 10, 2011

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Forsyth County commissioners voted 5-2 on Monday that the $7.9 million in incentives repaid by Dell Inc. should go toward economic development rather than going into the general fund.
When Dell announced in 2009 that it would close its computer-assembly plant on Temple School Road, the company also said it would repay economic development incentives it received.

Since then, commissioners have been divided over what to do with the money. Most have favored setting aside the money for economic development, but some called for putting it in the county's general fund.
On Monday, commissioners passed a motion designating $3.7 million of the Dell money for paying a land-purchase incentive that was promised as part of the negotiations that lured Caterpillar Inc. to the county last year.
The rest — about $4.2 million — is designated for future economic development.
Commissioner Debra Conrad said before Monday's meeting that putting the money in the general fund is a bad idea, if it is meant to relieve a tight budget.
"This is a prime opportunity to keep it as incentive money so we don't have to worry about what to do if anything else like Caterpillar comes along," Conrad said. "You can't solve financial problems with one-time money. You have to solve them with permanent solutions and not temporary solutions."
Conrad joined Commissioners Walter Marshall, Dave Plyler, Everette Witherspoon and Richard Linville, the board chairman, in approving the creation of the economic development fund.
Opposed were Commissioners Gloria Whisenhunt and Bill Whiteheart — commissioners who have been most leery of economic incentives.
"It is the taxpayers' money," Whisenhunt said before the meeting. "I would like to put it in the general fund because that is where it came from."

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wyoung@wsjournal.com

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(336) 727-7369