Economic report: The 'flywheel' keeps spinning for business, jobs in Cabarrus (2024)

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which earlier this year staged a ribbon-cutting for its state-of-the-art Concord manufacturing facility, is investing around $2 billion to create the manufacturing site and has already hired hundreds of employees — most of them from the local area.

The company anticipates producing its first medicines in Cabarrus County by the end of the year.

Red Bull, Ball Corporation, and Rauch North America, who announced plans in 2021 to open a new beverage production hub at The Grounds at Concord, the site of the former Philip Morris plant, are making an investment of more than $1 billion in the local economy and are expected to generate over 600 high-quality jobs.

‘Punching above our weight class’

As Cabarrus continues to be one of the fastest growing counties in the state, big-name companies are taking notice and are looking to move to the area.

“We punch way above our weight class,” said Greg Walter, president of Charlotte Motor Speedway and vice chair of the Cabarrus EDC board of directors, to the packed crowd at Thursday’s Cabarrus Economic Development Summit.

Walter noted that over the past four years, the average salary in Cabarrus County has increased by almost 19%. “That transforms lives,” he said. “That’s generational opportunity.”

Fiscal Year 2024 key wins

A few of Cabarrus EDC’s key accomplishments over the past fiscal year, according to its 2024 Annual Report, include:

$142 million in new investment announced in 2024.

1.3 million square feet of speculative space added in 2024, with an anticipated 3 million square feet starting in 2025.

More than $900,000 in revenue has been generated and 13 new jobs created through the Venture Mentoring Service, where the area’s most viable startup companies work with a trusted team of mentors to further the development of their ventures.

Twenty-three individuals graduated from the Retail Lab program, which is a six-week boot camp designed to help early stage business owners. The owners of two new downtown Concord businesses, The Palmetto Market and Cellar Door Wine Shop, were recent graduates of the Retail Lab.

Page Castrodale, the executive director of the Cabarrus EDC, who recently received the North Carolina Economic Development Association’s Economic Developer of the Year award, discussed the importance of the flywheel, a mechanical device that requires small repeated efforts to gradually build up momentum. Once enough momentum is generated, the wheel keeps spinning on its own with little effort.

“When the flywheel is spinning, it’s easy to keep it going,” Castrodale said. “You have to keep putting in some energy, but you also benefit from some past efforts.”

She emphasized Corning’s role as a key contributor to the economic development flywheel over the years, specifically mentioning that their manufacturing facility in Midland was recently profiled in The Washington Post.

The factory, the largest optical fiber facility in the United States, has generated more than $38 million in property tax revenue, she said.

Although still relatively new to Cabarrus County, it is clear Eli Lilly will do its part to keep the flywheel spinning for years to come. Lilly, which was the main sponsor of the summit, has helped put Cabarrus on the map as a key hub for the state’s growing life sciences industry.

“I have no doubt that in the future, we will one day talk about Lilly’s impact to citizens around the world the same way we talk about Corning’s impact on technology,” Castrodale said.

Biotechnology thriving in NC

The summit’s keynote speaker, Bill Bullock, senior vice president of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, mentioned that the life sciences industry — with over 830 companies and 75,000 employees across North Carolina — contributed $88 billion in economic activity to the state in 2022, up from $46 billion in 2008.

“This is the success story that is biotechnology in North Carolina,” Bullock told the crowd.

Both Greg Walter and Bill Bullock talked about the “halo effect” Lilly has created and how that will help draw even more companies to the area.

“When a company like Lilly goes through its due diligence, and they can build whatever they want wherever they want and they pick your community to make that level of investment, that gets everybody’s attention,” Bullock said.