Advancing Progress and Innovation

January 2010

Cabarrus Family Medicine Opens New Facility

Cabarrus Family Medicine has opened the doors to its new facility on Kannapolis Parkway.

The 26,311-square-foot facility will house six providers offering an array of primary care services, including OBGYN and women’s health services, pediatrics, digital x-ray, an on-site laboratory and more.

According to Cabarrus Family Medicine’s Tom Earnhardt, the project has been part of CFM’s strategic plan for nearly five years. After an exhaustive three-year search, the group chose the site due to its desire for a highly visible location and its interest in the Kannapolis Parkway corridor.

Earnhardt said, “We expect this area of the county to see tremendous growth, and we are excited to be one of the first commercial buildings to help set the tone for that area.”

The new building also boasts several green features, including energy-efficient glass and a large underground reservoir that will capture run-off from the roof for use in watering the grass and landscaping.

 

Research Commerce Park to be the Gateway to NCRC

Plans are now underway for a high-profile $35 million eco-friendly development at the southwest corner of Exit 63 at Interstate 85 that will serve as the northern gateway to the NC Research Campus.

Research Commerce Park will be anchored by a hotel and conference center at the corner of the interchange, with an additional 275,000 square feet of mixed commercial space likely to include a retail pharmacy, convenience store and office buildings. The entire park will be located within City limits and has the potential to create hundreds of new jobs.

Eco-friendly development practices will be an integral part of the project, which will have three bio-retention ponds and a 300-foot buffer from Lake Fisher. All structures will be built with natural or recycled materials, with an emphasis on LEED certification.

Another notable aspect of Research Commerce Park is its master plan, which was the product of a collaborative effort among developer DPE Investments of Charlotte, the cities of Kannapolis and Concord and the LandTrust for Central North Carolina.

The plan involved a land swap in which DPE provided approximately 62 acres adjacent to Lake Fisher to the City of Concord to be permanently protected from development by the LandTrust. In return, DPE Investments received 17 acres from Concord that will be added to land already owned by the developer to create a 32-acre parcel for Research Commerce Park.

The end result was equally beneficial for all parties, offering a better configuration for the commercial site and a larger buffer for Lake Fisher, which serves as Concord’s municipal water supply.

Doug Ehmann of DPE Investments believes that the project is perfectly timed to take advantage of the region’s rebounding economy while addressing the growing demand for sustainable development.

Ehmann noted, “Coming out of the recession, this is a pioneering effort in commercial development. It’s not like the old interchanges where big boxes are everywhere. It touches on the New Urbanism development model with a denser footprint and more green space surrounding the project.”

Research Commerce Park is the type of spin-off development anticipated when the NCRC was conceived, and Ehmann is particularly proud of the public-private cooperation that has taken place.

“This is very positive for the area. It provides economic development for Kannapolis, watershed protection for Concord and a conservation easement for the state,” Ehmann said. “It is a win-win-win situation.”

Ehmann has already received interest from potential developers of hotels, medical offices and restaurants and hopes to break ground in 2010, with an anticipated build-out of three to four years for the entire project.

 

USDA Comes to Kannapolis

Since the NCRC was first announced in 2005, one missing link has been federal involvement. All that changed in 2009 when the USDA made two major commitments to the Campus and Kannapolis during the latter part of the year.

USDA Human Nutrition Center

In August, Congress authorized $1 million to establish a Human Nutrition Center on the Campus. Operating under the umbrella of the USDA’s Agriculture Research Services, the Kannapolis location will be only the seventh of its kind in the nation and the first in the Southeast.

Planning is still under way for the center and will continue well into 2010. Initially, the funds will be applied to hire start-up personnel. However, the funding will ultimately support the use of biotechnology to develop healthier agricultural products, with research focused on preventing cancer, diabetes and obesity as well as promoting individual health.

The center, which is expected to be located in the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory, will bring the first federal employees to the NCRC and has the potential to eventually employ as many as 200 people with an annual operating budget of $25 million.

A bipartisan contingent of North Carolina lawmakers led by Rep. Larry Kissell, including Sen. Richard Burr, Sen. Kay Hagan, Rep. Howard Coble and Rep. Mel Watt, worked to secure the appropriation for the center.

Kannapolis Scholars Program

In November, the USDA announced a $1 million grant through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative for North Carolina State University to establish the Kannapolis Scholars program, which is expected to launch this spring.

The grant is designed to allow students from N.C. State as well as the seven other universities that are involved with the NCRC to address food science and nutrition research questions that span multiple disciplines of scientific study. Graduate students who are in their first or second year of studies will be eligible to apply for the Kannapolis Scholars fellowships.

Scholars will receive roughly $38,000 over a 15-month period for tuition, housing and other expenses. A key element of the program is a summer rotation at the NCRC, which will involve the students spending 10 weeks working at a lab on the Campus.

 

DHMRI Made Good Progress in 2009

The DHMRI has continued to grow over the past year and is looking to sustain this positive momentum in 2010. Occupying over 80,000 square feet and employing approximately 30 staff members, this organization is charged with facilitating scientific collaboration and public-private partnerships by providing researchers from all over the world access to the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art collection of instrumentation and research equipment available.

The DHMRI currently has five focused labs in operation – light microscopy, NMR, genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. More than 45 clients from both private and academic institutions use the facility, with some traveling to Kannapolis from as far away as New York.

An impressive list of industry partners has been assembled, including Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, Bruker, Waters, Microsoft, APC, Citrix and others. The organization has attracted several experienced individuals as well, including President Dr. Michael Luther, who joined the DHMRI in March 2009.

One of the biggest accomplishments that took place at the DHMRI over the past year was the integration of information resources among the various labs. In addition, workshops, seminars and user group meetings are held on a consistent basis, giving scientists information and training on how to access and use the instruments at DHMRI for their research needs.

For more, visit www.dhmri.org.