The $1.5 billion North Carolina Research Campus now taking shape is the brainchild of billionaire Dole Food owner David Murdock.
The 350-acre campus is going up on the same property that was home to the former Cannon Mills complex. But mill successor Pillowtex abruptly closed in 2003 and threw more than 4,000 people in Cabarrus and Rowan Counties out of work, part of the biggest mass layoff in state history.
Out of that misery, Murdock hatched the idea for a biotech campus to bring jobs and money back to the area. He bought the mill property and tore down all of the former Pillowtex structures, including its iconic smokestacks.
The campus is a collaboration with several universities, including UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, UNC Charlotte and N.C. State University. Rowan-Cabarrus Community College will have a training lab there.
The 311,000-square-foot Core Lab building, a campus centerpiece topped by a copper dome and housing speciality equipment, is expected to open next year. Murdock has said he wants the research to focus on health and nutrition.
But the campus has not been without controversies.
Some biotech experts question the likelihood of success for a project built from scratch outside of the country's handful of traditional biotech hubs.
A city report estimated the campus will employ 5,035 by 2013 and 37,450 by 2032. But it warned that few of the first and highest-paying jobs at the campus would go to Kannapolis residents, mainly because few have the skills needed for the work.
Then there's the financing issue.
The vast majority of money is coming from Murdock, one of world's richest men. He also is planning a venture-capital fund available for campus companies. The state's public universities are looking to spend more than $48 million there over the next two fiscal years.
At the local level, officials plan to borrow $168.4 million for infrastructure needs that range from road improvements to water lines. Some Cabarrus County officials initially balked at parts of the proposal but ultimately agreed to the financing plan.
The campus also is expected to include housing, a hotel, shops and a new city hall. There's even a Murdock-owned restaurant. It opened this year featuring such healthful food as arctic char fish and Tibetan berry smoothies.
