A Holiday Message from the ED Director

December 26, 2016

"Season's Greetings"

Since many will be out on holidays this coming week, we are taking a one week break from the Choices in Education series. In the meantime, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We will resume the education series on January 2, 2017, with a post by Ms. Natalie Brozy highlighting Roxboro Community School.

We did receive a Christmas present this week with the announcement on December 20, 2016, by Governor McCrory, that GKN Driveline is going to create another 57 jobs and add additional investment in the amount of $31.8 million dollars to the Roxboro, Person County facility in the next 4 years. GKN Driveline is our largest private sector employer and we are pleased that they are bringing another $170 million dollars of investment to North Carolina!

Once the Choices in Education series is completed, we will have a few weeks on such topics as transportation and a message from the County Manager before we start up our next series on “The Top Factors to Navigate the Location Maze”.

The top ten factors for recruitment of new and expanding industries are relatively similar from one publication to another. The AREA DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE has listed the following top 10 factors needed for recruitment of new and expanding businesses in 2016, listed as follows:

1. Availability of Skilled Labor
2. Highway Accessibility
3. Quality of Life
4. Occupancy or Construction Costs
5. Available Buildings
6. Labor Costs
7. Corporate Tax Rate
8. Proximity to Major Markets
9. State and Local Incentives
10. Energy Availability and Costs

Over the next few months, we will have some guest writers providing us additional information on these 10 topics for our next series on “The Top Factors to Navigate the Location Maze.”

Stay tuned, and remember, “Everything is Better in Person!”

Sincerely:

Stuart C Gilbert, Person County Director of Economic Development