November 23, 2022
December 2021
SITE Program
- $18,500 to Halifax County for the Enfield Industrial Park to complete eligible due diligence activities such as environmental assessments, archaeological analyses, and mapping.
- $50,000 to Nash County for the Middlesex Corporate Centre to complete eligible due diligence activities such as environmental assessments, archaeological analyses, and mapping.
- $17,500 to the Foundation for Duplin County Industrial and Business Development for the Duplin County AirPark to complete eligible due diligence activities such as environmental assessments, archaeological analyses, and mapping.
- $632,412 to Alexander County Economic Development Corporation for grading and erosion control for a building pad.
- $1 million to East Yancey Water and Sewer District to provide roughly 11,000 linear feet of water main extension and grading at a new industrial park. The project will support the location of Little Leaf Farms that will create 100 jobs at a $53,700 annual average wage, $86 million in private investment, and another potential site at this new park.
- $965,830 to the City of Fayetteville to upgrade a sewer lift station and construct a force main, and some due diligence activities for 172.13 acres located at Fayetteville Regional Airport.
- $252,720 to the Town of Louisburg for clearing, grubbing, and rough grading at Louisburg Commerce Park, an approximately 50-acre site that recently expanded.
- $952,000 to McDowell County for clearing and grubbing, and rough grading of approximately 50 percent of the 413-acre Universal Technology Park site.
- $992,000 to Rockingham County for clearing, grubbing, and rough grading of a 33-acre lot within Reidsville Industrial Park.
Open Grants Program
- $95,000 to McDowell Economic Development Association, Inc. (MEDA) to help extend water and sewer infrastructure to support expansion of an existing company in McDowell County. The company will create 25 new jobs that will pay wages of $42,146, which is above the county average.
December 2021
Economic Catalyst
- $40 million to the North Carolina Department of Transportation for public road infrastructure to support the location of Toyota’s battery manufacturing operations. This award will ensure that there would be sufficient road infrastructure to help support the creation of 1,750 new jobs in Randolph County at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite.
February 2022
Open Grants Program
- $500,000 to Aces for Autism (ACS) to support pre-construction activities and site prep for the expansion of onsite healthcare services for individuals impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorder in eastern North Carolina. The organization will create 90 new, full-time healthcare jobs.
- $180,800 to Center for Science Technology and Leadership Development, Inc. to establish a regional employment skills training center in Bethel that would serve as a satellite resource hub, making workforce skills training, career exploration, and job placements more accessible to residents of rural eastern North Carolina.
- $200,000 for Goshen Medical Center to fund construction costs of a new Federally Qualified Health Center that will provide integrated primary and medical healthcare, replace two community health center sites, and expand services that will serve both Craven and Jones counties. The new facility will create 9 new full-time positions, totaling $785,000 in new payroll annually.
March 2022
Economic Catalyst
- $50 million to the City of Sanford the construction of public water and sewer infrastructure necessary to serve VinFast. VinFast is a manufacturer of electric vehicles and batteries for electric vehicles. The company plans to make a capital investment of $4 billion at the Triangle Innovation Point megasite in Chatham County. The project is expected to create 7,500 new jobs paying an average annual wage of approximately $51,000, compared to the Chatham County average wage of $37,603.
April 2022
Community-Based Grants Initiative
- $296,794 to Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministry Inc. to replicate, for women at its women’s transitional residential facility, an existing program at the organization’s residential facility for men that creates employment opportunities for those who are unable to find employment because of substance use disorders or who have a history of incarceration and homelessness.
- $1 million to Tri-County Community College to prepare an educational lab and simulation space for clinical training for establishment of a new medical sonography program.
- $500,000 to the Town of Murphy to increase the capacity of the section of its sewer system in an area that serves existing business and industry that are expanding and that is ideal for future industrial development and economic growth.
- $511,500 to Graham County Schools to establish a workforce development training facility that will serve as the new location for two school-based businesses and provide real life training opportunities for students in the county.
- $1.45 million to Haywood Community College for facilities to train individuals skilled to work in the high-demand infrastructure and construction fields including power line, broadband transmission, transportation, and construction industries.
- $1 million to Blue Ridge Community College to expand agriculture programming to meet an emerging need among local growers and agribusinesses that use an automated growing system within a greenhouse, which is a standard practice in the area’s high-altitude environment.
- $500,000 to St. Gerard House for construction-related costs for the Phase I expansion that would allow the only comprehensive autism center in Western North Carolina to provide medically necessary services to an additional 50 clients within 24 months and pre-vocational training to an additional 28 young adults with disabilities. The expansion will add 40 new, full-time positions, provide training to some new workers who will earn 3rd-party/industry credentials, and allow the organization to begin responding to its waitlist of 130 families.
- $628,000 to Westbridge Vocational, Inc. to secure and sustain a larger share of the medical device market, including expanding the number of contracts with existing customers. This business expansion will result in 25 new employees at an average hourly wage of $14 per hour and retain 35 existing employees.
- $777,337 to Southwestern Community College to support the expansion of SCC’s health sciences programs by providing simulated and live-patient training opportunities to graduate more “work-ready” health science professionals.
- $487,500 to Madison County Public Schools to add electrical, HVAC, and plumbing to the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) construction trades program to improve high school students’ employability. The construction trades program anticipates graduating at least 30 students per year who seek local employment.
- $304,000 to Madison County to expand and upgrade the Madison County Extension Value-Added Center and Inspected Kitchen located at the Madison County Extension Office. The Value-Added Center and Inspected Kitchen averages about 150 users per month.
- $450,000 to Madison County to renovate and upfit part of the remaining 3,800 square feet of the Spring Creek Community Center building to provide business support, retail sales, a community college distance training location, and income-producing rental spaces.
- $1.5 million to Transylvania County for Phase 2 of the expansion of the county-owned Sylvan Valley Industrial Center that would provide an additional 40,000 square feet of light manufacturing space. This project will help create at least 20 new jobs.
- $703,176 to HIGHTS Inc., serving Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties, for a two-year project that will serve 50 disengaged high school graduates by pairing them with career mentors; placing them in work-based experiences in high demand like healthcare, construction, and technology; providing career exploration; and offering post-secondary enrollment support.
Economic Catalyst
- $1.1 million to the City of Thomasville to help extend public sewer to serve Nucor, a manufacturing company that announced it will locate a new facility at an industrial site on US 64 in Davidson County. The project will create 180 jobs that pay, on average, $99,660 in annual salaries, with a total capital investment of $310 million by the company.
Open Grants Program
- $498,924.36 to Central Carolina Community College for training equipment for a regional truck driving and logistics program providing CDL and short-term logistics courses. This award is part of a collaborative effort by Central Carolina, Sandhills, and Randolph community colleges which will be using a scaled shared-resources model to incentivize collaboration. This project will serve Chatham, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Moore, and Randolph counties.
- $500,000 to Wayne Community College to purchase and install equipment for a new workforce training facility at WCC that would expand the capacity of college’s applied technology curriculum programs and continuing education courses in response to the need for skilled workers in manufacturing and related industries in the region. The total project budget is $12.8 million with other funding from the State of North Carolina, Wayne County, and the Wayne Community College Foundation.
June 2022
SITE Program
- $29,500 to Martin County Economic Development Corporation for the NC Rail and Commerce Park to complete eligible due diligence activities such as environmental assessments, archaeological analyses, and mapping.
- $39,650 to Surry County for the Westwood Industrial Park to complete eligible due diligence activities such as environmental assessments, archaeological analyses, and mapping.
- $35,500 to Robeson County for the Comtech Park to complete eligible due diligence activities such as environmental assessments, archaeological analyses, and mapping.
- $937,600 to Cumberland County to clear and grade approximately 30 acres of the 159 Sand Hill Road site.
- $423,500 to the Foundation for Duplin County Industrial and Business Development for clearing and grubbing of a tract within the Duplin County AirPark, adjacent to Duplin County Regional Airport.
- $1 million to Jacksonville-Onslow Economic Development Partnership for clearing, grading, and drainage systems that will yield nearly 40 acres of stormwater-ready sites at Jacksonville Business Park.
- $188,513 to the Town of Nashville for grubbing and clearing of two lots in the Nashville Business Center, design and engineering, and completion of due diligence to develop affordable construction-ready industrial sites.
- $973,750 to Person County to complete due diligence, and clear and grade a 26-acre parcel in the county-owned North Park Site.
- $998,512.50 to Rutherford County Economic Development Corporation for rough grading of two adjacent parcels at RiverStone Business Park.
- $375,000 to the Town of Tabor City for updated due diligence and grading costs for a lot in the Tabor City Industrial Park.
Open Grants Program
- $200,000 to Brunswick Community College to support expansion of advanced manufacturing training to meet the needs of existing and new employers in the county and region.
- $364,896 to the Town of Elizabethtown to help construct infrastructure in the Elizabethtown Industrial Park, and to perform some site development activities that will facilitate construction of seven commercial buildings and support the location of five businesses, including a new medical clinic, that have committed to Elizabethtown to invest and operate in this section of the industrial park.
- $333,761.34 to Haywood Community College for simulation equipment to help equip the newly constructed Health Education Building, particularly the simulated hospital unit.
- $500,000 to the Town of Middlesex to expand the sewer system for the Middlesex Corporate Centre located in Nash County to support economic growth. The expanded service will serve four sites in the industrial park.
August 2022
Open Grants Program
- $199,300 to North Carolina Coastal Federation to support the creation of a shared use aquaculture hub facility in Carteret County that would provide new and existing oyster and clam growers improved access to the water, product refrigeration, storage, grading, and loading equipment, and an aggregation site for distributors, with the goals of creating high-quality jobs and increasing income for shellfish growers.
- $46,575 to Pungo Christian Academy to support equipment and supplies to expand PCA’s FFA program to include welding and auto mechanics in addition to its existing horticulture and carpentry offerings. PCA students can participate in the Career and College Promise program at Beaufort County Community College, which has indicated its support for the project.
- $199,706.78 to University of Mount Olive for simulation equipment to support development of a BSN program that will train 100 RNs each year for positions within Wayne and surrounding counties.
September 2022 (Special meeting)
Economic Catalyst
- $9,752,860 to the Town of Siler City to extend sewer to the Chatham Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) megasite to serve Wolfspeed, Inc., a developer of semiconductors for power and radio frequency applications such as transportation, power supplies, and wireless systems. The funding enables Siler City to provide enough sewer infrastructure to help support the creation of 1,800 new jobs.
October 2022
Open Grants Program
- $443,000 in the Open Grants Program to Johnston Community College Foundation to purchase two trucks and a simulator to support the expansion of the college’s current Truck Driver Training program. The expansion will allow the college to grow its annual enrollment of 185 to 241 and to also enroll 30 incumbent workers in new continuing education courses and 20 high school students through a new CTE Pathway through the Career and College Promise program.
Economic Catalyst
- $1.2 million to the City of Laurinburg to construct a ground storage tank in the Laurinburg Scotland Industrial Park. The tank will provide fire suppression capacity that will serve the expansion of SO-PAK-CO, Inc., a food processor and packager, into North Carolina and will have capacity to serve other sites in the park. The company plans to construct a new manufacturing facility in Laurinburg and create 450 new and make a capital investment of $85 million.