WSTB

Here's a further update concerning this prospect. Glad to hear that Union Cross at least was in the running. The fact that Samet is an owner of the Triad Bus. Park probably gives them somewhat of a cost advantage since they own the land, whereas Landmark & Shelco would be buying the land at U.C. Bus. Park. And having the FedEx Ground Hub across the street was probably iced the deal...

Apparently the pending recruitment of vaccine-maker FFF Enterprises to the Triad is a 'gift' that's been a while coming. We're told that the company, known locally under the code name 'Project Gift", is evaluating plans for a building of nearly 100,000 square feet that would be built in Samet Corp.'s Triad Business Park in Kernersville. it is unclear at this point whether the company would own the property or lease it. Samet Corp. declined to comment on the project, but sources say that the company has been contemplating sites for this expansion for a couple of years. The Kernersville facility likely serve the eastern half of the U.S. The company is also said to have considered Union Cross Business Park in Forsyth County before settling on Triad Business Park. Among the other contractors that were invited to vie for the project were Shelco and Landmark Builders. If incentives are approved and the project moves forward, construction could begin immediately and would likely take as little as eight months, based on typical build-out schedules for projects of that size.

While Guilford County is evaluating $89,250 of incentives, Kernersville is not expected to consider incentives, as the municipality has typically said that it has aided in recruiting industry through the extension of infrastructure such as water and sewer to the park.

This should be under other cities - Guilford County.

Yeah I agree its sort of tenuous, but it is in K-Vegas' city limits... I'm thinking I wished K'ville had approved that land being sold for a GCS High School...

The first time I saw this, I thought.... why didn't they select the IQ District?

Then I noticed Distribution Center (minimum wage warehouse jobs and not high tech manufacturing or research). Think Forklift Operator and loading/unloading trucks. Can you lift at least 50 pounds?

Next I noticed only 31 jobs after 3 years of operations? A facility that size should have at least 60 jobs. It's not enough jobs for the amount of land used.

Next I noticed Plasma? Like those places in low income neighborhoods that pay for plasma. This is where it goes?

All of that would explain why incentives total a very low $89,000.

I would prefer to have something else, with a higher jobs per square foot number, higher pay, and a company Winston-Salem will be proud to say operates here in Union Cross, which only has a few sites remaining. I've looked at the new industrial park in Kernersville and it is very small. This is a good way for Kernersville to gain extra tax revenue to spend in Forsyth County. I'm guessing that entire industrial park will fill with small warehouses and it won't take many to fill it?

It is reported that a pharmacy will be a part of the project. Those could be pretty good jobs, however not sure how many of the total that would be.

A pharmacy in a warehouse.... in an industrial park? It's likely a fancy title given to the people who track inventory for the warehouse? (Does the warehouse have enough inventory to "fill" this customer's order? Where is this shipment going? We need to send-out 20 boxes of this.) They maintain inventory to "fill" customers demands, take orders, and send the boxes out. I'm guessing it's not the high dollar jobs you're thinking about.

Maybe so, could be just pharmacy technicians as you say pulling orders. Unsure whether they will be manufacturing anything there. As I said earlier, the presence of the FedEx Ground Hub across the street most likely sealed the deal.

Yeah, and as indicated it does collect some Guilford County revenue that could be spent in Forsyth unless there's some sort of agreement. I never have understood how it works with incorporated cities' legal boundaries in more than one county - it occurs more than one would think nationwide.

I'm with you, I definitely don't like the idea of this Triad Bus. Park. It is Guilford County who gets to count the tax value of the building to their tax rolls. (although K'ville gets their city tax) The jobs will also be counted in the GSO/HPT metro area figures.

That land would likely be developed with industry with or without Kernersville. If it wasn't Kernersville, it would've had a High Point address. At least a city in Forsyth County can receive money from Guilford and not have to offer incentives. Guilford County is offering all of the incentives. This also allows Kernersville to brag and say these businesses are in their city, when attracting jobs to Forsyth County. Forsyth County can also list all of the jobs in its cities and include these. It has benefits and my favorite is sending money that would go to High Point over to Kernersville. I'm guessing Kernersville did this out of frustration at WSBI and a lack of local developers for Kernersville to work with? FedEx was the only real loss to this park and that was due to WSBI not having a site for them to move to.

The Triad Park developers needed K'ville for water. If K'ville had turned them down, the project would not have occurred. High Point's & Greensboro's water lines couldn't be run out that way due to topographical issues. All in All, it was the prudent thing for K'ville to cooperate and able to grow their tax base. I don't like that its Guilford County's jurisdiction, since the GSO/HPT metro gets the credit for these economic gets.

It's just a shame that Samet didn't try to work out a deal for some of that vacant property south of I-40 east of Union Cross Road. There's plenty of land that was being assembled for that big residential project (Caleb's Creek, IIRC) that never really got off the ground due to The Great Recession. IMO, that area really should be developed for a business/industrial park layout. With the intention of pulling companies that tend to service both W-S & GSO along with the greater Triad region from one site in those business parks along 68, out of those said bus. parks and locate their operations more centrally sited in K'ville. It would have been far more preferable for Varco Pruden's engineering department to have relocated from their closed factory on West Mountain Street to office space in say the Caleb's Creek Bus Park instead of jumping the county line and ending up at Airpark East in "The town with a color in its name".

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing Sept. 19 to consider providing up to $89,250 worth of county funds to support the project, which would create 31 full-time jobs over three years. The facility would be located within Samet Corp.'s Triad Business Park, which is located in Guilford County.
Here's an update to the earlier article from TBJ notice the highlighted portion
Patrick Schmidt, CEO of FFF Enterprises, said Kernersville is an attractive location due to its proximity to FedEx Ground (NYSE: FDX), which operates a massive distribution hub in the business park.

Having a Kernersville facility would also help the company realize tremendous savings on transportation costs for shipments to customers on the East Coast.

Schmidt said a possible Kernersville facility is expected to handle about 75 percent of the company's volume and has the potential to become a future headquarters location for the company.

The planned building, which is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $7 million, would be similar to the facility FFF occupies in California, he said.

Schmidt said if all goes according to plan, Samet could potentially begin construction on the facility later this month or in early October and complete the project by March 2014.

It's now a smaller building, at 86,000 square feet and yet it will house 75% of the company's warehousing operations and the headquarters? It's only $7 million too. While it would be nice to have the headquarters, I don't really care for the warehousing. Low skill and low wage warehousing and call centers are drawn to Greensboro and Guilford County. I would try to talk the company into opening the headquarters in the IQ District, but allow the warehouse to open in this location. No one is talking about the wages at this facility, which tells me they are low. Yes, Winston-Salem should contact them back and show them the IQ District, while offering some incentives for the headquarters. If they receive incentive offers for the headquarters, they may strongly consider the IQ District.

My thoughts exactly!

I second that