2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)

campus to Downtown Greensboro via the City’s Greenway trails. The project takes advantage of State historic preservation tax credits to aid in financing the investment. Tenants in the Revolution Mill development include LT Apparel Group, a New York based apparel designer and marketer, was the first major business tenant, occupying a 12,000 square-foot space with 30 employees. The company plans to make Greensboro its headquarters for the design and artwork for Adidas and Carhartt children’s lines. Eateries can also be found at Revolution Mill including the Kau Restaurant, Butcher and Bar, Cugino Forno Pizzeria and Café at Revolution. Another nearby historic mill was purchased in 2017 with similar plans for conversion to a mixed-use development on 18 acres of land just east of Revolution Mill. The former Proximity Printworks Mill , now on the National Register of Historic Places, served as the first textile printer in the South. A Wisconsin company specializing in urban redevelopment has plans to take advantage of federal historic tax credits and invest an estimated $54 million to convert the 470,000 square-foot mill into an “adaptive reuse project” with 217 mixed- income apartments, 90,000 square-feet of retail and restaurant spaces, and climate-controlled self-storage. Groundbreaking began in 2018 and construction is expected to be completed in 2020. Together with Revolution Mill, this development will connect to the City’s greenway to form an integrated mill community. On the eastern edge of downtown near NC A&T University and Bennett College, plans for a new large scale multi-unit residential and commercial retail development were announced in fall 2018. Aptly named “Greensboro East” , the proposed development would include up to 200 apartments, townhomes, row houses and an anchor grocery store. United House of Prayer, a national Washington D.C. based Church, has had the development in consideration since 2007 when it bought the 14-acre site on East Market Street. The local business community sees this as a much needed boost to the neighborhood, providing services and additional housing options to university students, staff, and local residents. Situated a block away from the future Downtown Greenway, the development would also help to more seamlessly integrate the neighborhood to the rest of downtown Greensboro. Project costs and timelines have not yet been announced. Also on the east side of Greensboro, a $14 million, 300,000 square-foot speculative industrial building was completed at the McConnell Center industrial park. The City of Greensboro extended a $600,000 loan as part of the City’s shovel-ready site program designed to encourage industrial and commercial development. Since it’s opening in 2016, the building has been occupied by two tenants – Wayfair and R.J. Schreiner Co – for a total of 77 employees on the site. In 2018, Coca-Cola Bottling Company became a third tenant, occupying a 135,000 square-foot space with an investment of $4 million into its operation. Increased demand has caused more speculative building in the City. In keeping with Council’s strategic focus on spurring economic improvement, the City solicited proposals to develop strategies for economic development in Greensboro that will result in new jobs, investment and business opportunities. This challenge is part of the $1 million grant received by the City from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Economic Development Administration’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) program . Greensboro was one of three cities nationwide to receive the grant. The transformative economic development plans for Greensboro were received and checks awarded to six recipients in September 2015. The first place award of $500,000 was presented to a local team of educators and business professionals for proposing the Global Opportunities Center in Greensboro that would connect and educate students and businesses in innovative ways to create global business and career opportunities. With the support of SC2 grant funds, the Global Opportunities Center opened its office in downtown Greensboro in 2016. Greensboro and North Carolina in general are transforming from the traditional manufacturing base noted in the late 80’s and early 90’s to a strong service sector and high-tech presence with significant business diversification in recent years. The Greensboro-High Point metropolitan area ranked in the top ten for the past nine years for regions of its size by Site Selection magazine for metro areas enriched by corporate capital investment. The ranking is based on

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