CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Biotech research a symbol of chan

CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Biotech research a symbol of changing N.C. economy


Business '06: Biotech research a symbol of changing N.C. economy
by PAUL NOWELL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
published January 2, 2006 6:00 am
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AdvertisementKANNAPOLIS, N.C. (AP) — It's hard to envision the huge piles of demolished brick, wood and metal at one end of downtown Kannapolis as a beacon of hope for North Carolina's economy.

Giant yellow cranes are slowly tearing down the 5.8-million-square-foot Pillowtex Plant No. 1 — preparing to remake the site as a planned $1 billion, 350-acre biotechnology research campus.

Once, Kannapolis was at the geographic and figurative heart of Southern textile manufacturing, an industry that helped power the booming growth of an entire region.

Now, California billionaire David Murdock — who owned what was then called Cannon Mills in the 1980s, during its long slide toward the 2003 demise of successor firm Pillowtex — wants to make the "City of Looms" the base camp in a campaign to wrench North Carolina's economy from its agricultural and manufacturing roots into a global, 21st century market of biotech and genetic research.

Murdock's blockbuster unveiling of his plans for a Kannapolis makeover was the state's top business story of 2005, eclipsing the continued record profitability of Charlotte's big banks and the ongoing financial, regulatory and legal mess at Winston-Salem doughnut-maker Krispy Kreme.

Murdock, owner of privately held Dole Food Co., expects the North Carolina Research Campus — now in its first stage of construction — to attract $1 billion of investment, draw in 100 or more biotechnology firms and create as many as 35,000 jobs in a part of the state still suffering from the loss of traditional manufacturing jobs, with their steady pay and good benefits.


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