Twelve regional real estate groups in an area involving five Multiple Listing Service regions are coming together Sept. 13 for the first ever Carolina Core Real Estate Summit to prepare for coming major industrial development in a vast swath of central North Carolina.
The event, 1-4 p.m. at the Wicker Civic and Conference Center in Sanford, is hosted by Realtor groups from Fayetteville and Johnston County in the east to Winston-Salem in the west, and from communities in between.
It’s pegged to some major-plant announcements made in the past year: Toyota choosing the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite in Liberty just south of the Guilford-Randolph county line for the company’s first dedicated vehicle-battery factory; of an electric vehicle and battery plant by Vietnamese car maker VinFast to the Triangle Innovation Point megasite between Pittsboro and Sanford in eastern Chatham County; and ambitions plans to build a new-generation supersonic commercial passenger jet by Boom Supersonic at the aerospace cluster at Piedmont-Triad Regional Airport in Guilford County.
The sites are linked by U.S. 421 to one another but also to communities to the south and east including Sanford and Fayetteville, with its location on the major coastal highway I-95 and the major Army installation Fort Bragg, being changed to Fort Liberty. The highway may become even more important and effective in tying the region together, as it’s set to be upgraded and designated as I-685 under federal legislation.
With more than 9,000 new jobs long-term between them, the three biggest announcements represent some of the 35,500 jobs Carolina Core organizers say have been announced since the region was branded by the Piedmont Triad Partnership in 2018 as a way to draw attention to and promote regional cooperation across county and community boundaries when it comes to economic development.
But there was some recognition that the Carolina Core was less well known in the southern and eastern end of the region.
“It’s more of a informational marketing effort for the southern part of the 421 corridor with help from success stories from the northern part,” said Mike Barr, CEO of the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association and the Greensboro Realtors Commercial Alliance.
“Is there enough housing? Not yet, but is it coming? It’s got to be, because we have we’ve got to produce enough housing for the employees who will be coming for those jobs,” Barr added.
Among scheduled speakers is Christopher Chung, CEI of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, speaking about regionalism and its importance in economic development. Regional cooperation has been crucial. The Toyota megasite was a result of work from across the Triad, with involvement from Randolph County’s economic-development organization and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.
The site that captured VinFast was made more attractive when the city of Sanford, in Lee County, agreed to link its wastewater treatment system to it. And the city of Asheboro has been enlisted to provide water across a county line to the Chatham-Siler Advanced Manufacturing Megasite.
“The Carolina Core has proven itself to be North Carolina’s third economic engine along with our adjacent neighbors in the Research Triangle and metro Charlotte region,” said Piedmont Triad Partnership President and CEO Mike Fox in the summit announcement Monday. “A big reason for the Carolina Core’s recent impressive economic development announcements has been an unprecedented amount of cooperation across county and city lines.”
As of Monday morning, 275 people were registered, said Zan Monroe, CEO of Longleaf Realtors, which is based in Fayetteville but covers 10 counties.
“For every two jobs created, you need one new house. So the real estate industry is always interested in job growth,” Monroe said. “When you bring in big industries, it also brings in lots, lots of small businesses to support those big industries. So we’re very excited about this event.”
“The purpose of this event is to create brand awareness with builders, developers,” Monroe added. “Investors, Realtors — everybody that’s involved in the recruitment of industry into the region. The whole purpose of this event is to educate the people who attend as to what’s going on in the Core, what it means what it does, and how it benefits everybody.”
The real estate groups taking part are the North Carolina Association of Realtors; the Triangle Commercial Association of Realtors, the North Carolina chapter of CCIM; and Realtors associations in Greensboro, High Point, Mid-Carolina, orange-Chatham, Winston-Salem, Johnston County, Raleigh, and the Longleaf Pine Realtors in Fayetteville.
Details and the schedule are at https://nccarolinacoresummit.com.
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