2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)

the number of projects with capital investments of at least $1 million, related floor-space expansion, and the number of new jobs created. In 2018, Publix Super Markets announced that it will open a new distribution center in the Greensboro area that could bring as many as 1,000 new jobs to the city. With construction scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2020, the company plans to build the largest distribution facility in the region, a 1.8 million-square-foot center. To secure the estimated $400 million investment, the NC State Economic Investment committee approved a $15.9 million incentives package requiring a $300 million investment and 300 new jobs by the end of 2022, with the remaining 400 jobs to be created by 2025. In addition, Guilford County has committed to an estimated $17 million in property tax incentives and Greensboro’s City Council has approved up to $20 million in similar incentives. Publix is a privately held, employee-owned company with operations throughout the southeastern United States, including nine distribution centers. Fortune magazine ranked Publix number one on their 2018 list and number two on their 2019 list of World's Most Admired Companies in the food & drug stores sector. In May 2019, online retailer Amazon Inc. announced plans to open a one million square foot fulfillment center at Triad Business Park in 2020 employing 1,000 full-time employees. The new facility is within a couple miles of the Federal Express Ground operation and within 10 miles of the Federal Express air and sorting hub at PTIA in Greensboro. Additionally, Amazon signed a second lease in April 2019 for 38 acres in the Piedmont Corporate Park. The ten-year lease begins in August 2019 and includes five additional options to extend the lease by five years. In 2016, Kay Chemical, a division of Ecolab , completed construction of a new 36,000 square-foot office building and existing building renovations in Greensboro. The $11 million investment allowed the company to retain 225 administrative positions at risk of being moved to corporate headquarters in St. Paul, MN. Additionally , 45 new administrative jobs were added over a three year period. The company expansion included a 12,000 square-foot cleanroom manufacturing facility and the purchase of the former Coca-Cola building adjacent to its campus for additional storage space. Kay Chemical specializes in customized programs to meet the unique food safety and sanitation requirements of the Quick Service Retail and grocery markets to global customers such as McDonald’s and Walmart. Communications industry leader, Qorvo , has expanded by buying Amalfi Semiconductor, another cell phone component manufacturer located in California. In December 2015, the company added an additional 100 new jobs over a period of 3 years as part of a $25 million expansion of its Guilford county operations, primarily in research and development. The company’s area headquarters currently employs approximately 1,400 workers in Guilford County. Qorvo is the outcome of a $2 billion merger between RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor, an Oregon-based microchip products company. In August 2016, the Greensboro site was named the sole headquarters location. Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery Corporation recently celebrated 30 years in the neighboring city of Kernersville. Four years ago, the company completed a $150 million dollar expansion and now manufactures 13 to 45 metric ton excavators for the mining and construction industry. The campus is 145 acres with a fabrication facility and a new assembly facility. Coupled with nearby Caterpillar, Inc. in Forsyth County, expansion in heavy equipment manufacturing is noted in the region. Cone Health received State approval in 2016 for plans to pursue a $100 million project to relocate the standalone Women’s Hospita l to a 196,000 square-foot, 6-story new construction addition on the south side of the existing Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital. The new facility is expected to open in February 2020. Cone Health has invested $38 million in renovations of operating suites at Wesley Long Hospital and $23.5 million for an emergency MedCenter in Northwest Greensboro to meet the expanding need for emergency medical services in the area. These projects continue to ensure long–term sustainability and transform health care services for the community and add to the substantial investment Cone Health made in its North Tower project, which opened in June 2013. Cone’s Triad Healthcare Network ranks among the top-performing Medicare accountable care organizations in the U.S., according to federal data. Established in 2012, the network includes X