“Smart Development” – Interstate Business Park

Many of you have noticed the construction along Interstate Drive on US Highway 601 just across from the Wal-Mart shopping center in Mocksville, NC.

Construction has started on a facility for Sherwin Williams, scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2010.  Construction will begin soon for an outpatient dialysis center for Wake Forest University Health Sciences.  The dialysis center is also scheduled to open in the spring of 2010.

This is part of a vision for Smart Development maturing at “Interstate Business Park.”   Smart Development is land-use that is environmentally friendly and fiscally sound.  It provides jobs and grows the local tax base while protecting the character of the community and the quality of life by concentrating industrial and business development in areas with easy access to existing transportation, water, sewer, energy, and communications infrastructure.

Interstate Business Park is another great example of cooperation between state and local governments including the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the Davie County Economic Development Commission and local landowners who helped fund some of the infrastructure and donated land for right-of-way to support road construction.

Interstate Business Park is located on Interstate Drive just north of Interstate 40 on US Highway 601 across from the Mocksville Wal-Mart.   This early stage development in Davie County paves the way for potentially hundreds of new acres being made available for business and industry growth.  This growth will bring jobs and opportunities to Davie County citizens.  The development will also grow the tax base for Davie County providing additional sources of funding for Davie County Schools, city and county government operations and other civic needs.

Economic development in this corridor is an example of another new trend; life-cycle development. Life-cycle development provides economic growth that parallels the development of the education infrastructure in a community.  This parallel approach to economic development and investment in education improves the quality of life in a community by providing opportunities for our children and our grandchildren.  Growing local opportunities means that your children and grandchildren can stay in the community after completing their education instead of moving away for better jobs.  Employers benefit from this approach by providing them with continuous access to a capable and talented local workforce.

This life-cycle development approach matches up well with the current initiative to achieve long term STEM education improvement in the Davie County school system. Growth in the local tax base will help fund STEM education initiatives and other improvements in the Davie County school system.  (Read more about the Davie County STEM education initiative here.)   Effective land-use planning in Davie County helps to attract good corporate citizens that will provide Davie County citizens with better jobs and more opportunity for years to come.

The 2 sites currently under construction at the Interstate Business Park are quality facilities with great curb appeal.  The Wake Forest University Health Sciences dialysis center will improve the quality of life for Davie County citizens by eliminating frequent long drives to out of town locations for dialysis treatment.   Sherwin-Williams will serve a full range of diverse wholesale panting contractors, property management accounts, homebuilders and do-it-yourself retail customers with paint and other decorative products.  Both of these corporate citizens, new to Davie County, are great examples of the good corporate citizen that Davie County welcomes.