Advancing Progress and Innovation

July 2010

General Mills joins the NC Research Campus

Food giant General Mills, the maker of brands ranging from Green Giant to Betty Crocker to Cheerios, has joined the NC Research Campus.

The company’s announcement is a major step forward for the campus, which has now recruited two Fortune 500 companies during 2010. Both General Mills and Monsanto were drawn by the strength of the research capabilities and potential partnerships with the universities in Kannapolis.

“We see this partnership as a unique opportunity to collaboratively uncover solutions that could improve the nutrition of food, including whole grains and vegetables,” said Lane Johnson, director of agricultural research for General Mills.

“We are excited to pair our more than 70 years of agricultural research experience with the cutting edge technology and expertise offered by the North Carolina Research Campus.”

Since 2005, General Mills has been working to improve the nutritional value of its foods. It has improved the health and nutrition profile of products representing 50 percent of its U.S. retail business. General Mills has reduced the number of calories in its products, reduced fat, sugar and sodium, added vitamins, calcium, whole grains, and increased fiber.  The company now has more than 640 U.S. retail products with 130 calories or less per serving, and 460 U.S. retail products with 100 calories or less per serving.

According to City Manager Mike Legg, announcements like these are critical for the campus.

“While the number of employees that General Mills has here in Kannapolis may never be large, the company’s expertise, size and working relationship with other campus entities is very important.

“Our economic development focus, and frankly, the nature of economic development, has shifted away from 100 to 200 person job announcements. It is the small, incremental wins like General Mills that will build upon themselves to create critical mass and spin-off jobs.”

General Mills will occupy space in the Core Lab. Further details about their operations and research should be available later this year.

 

DHMRI Partners with the Immune Tolerance Institute

Each month, the emphasis at the NCRC is increasingly changing from construction and building to collaborative scientific partnerships. Recently, a new center was formally established on the campus to study biomarkers and their relationship with medical treatment for various autoimmune diseases that could include rheumatoid arthritis, MS, diabetes, lupus and other disorders.

In late May, the California-based Immune Tolerance Institute (ITI) and the David H. Murdock Research Institute (DHMRI) announced the creation of the Center for Critical Path Research in Immunology (CCPRI).

The CCPRI will integrate state-of-the-art genomic, cellular, proteomic and bioinformatics technology platforms to discover and develop novel biomarkers that could more effectively guide new advances in human health and match patients with therapies that will provide them the greatest benefit.

Biomarkers can enhance diagnostics and therapeutics development by helping to better predict the course of a disease, the likelihood of an individual’s response to a medicine, as well as serving as surrogate endpoints of therapeutic efficacy and safety.

“We are proud to be partners with the DHMRI in this enterprise,” said Louis Matis, M.D. President and Chief Executive Officer of ITI. “There is growing consensus that applying more evidence-based understanding of disease to patient care will be critical to developing new therapies that are safer, targeted to the right patients, and thus more effective in disease prevention and treatment.”

For more information about the ITI, visit www.iti-immune.org. For the DHMRI, visit www.dhmri.org

 

CHS freestanding ER moving ahead

At a recent meeting, the Kannapolis City Council annexed 14 acres along Lane Street near I-85 and Exit 63. The Charlotte Hospital Authority (CHS) plans to build a free-standing emergency room facility on the site.

 

The ER will be open 24 hours a day and will initially be staffed by one physician. The site currently houses the Lane Street Church of God, which is moving in July. Work on the 26,000 square foot facility should begin in August.

The facility will be called the CMC-Kannapolis Pavilion and will be similar to a facility built in Steele Creek, which was the first of its kind in the Charlotte region.

According to Kannapolis Planning Director Ben Warren, the facility will provide a needed boost to the Lane Street area.

“A facility like this will likely draw other medical uses,” Warren said. “Coupled with the planned Research Commerce Park across Lane Street, the entire Exit 63 interchange should see a dramatic change over the next two to three years.”

 

Kannapolis working to secure long-term water source

As many will recall, securing a long-term water source is a critical issue for further economic development in Kannapolis. Work is underway to finalize plans that will ensure adequate supply.

A Decade-Long Process

Concord and Kannapolis have allocated nearly 80 percent of their existing, long term available water supply. As mandated by state rules, the two cities were required to pursue alternative sources of water to meet future needs. This resulted in a state approval to transfer 10 million gallons per day (MGD) from the Yadkin River to Concord and Kannapolis as well as a 10 MGD transfer from the Catawba River.

Since the City was successful in getting an IBT agreement for the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, Council can now move forward with building the infrastructure necessary to provide water for the next 30 years.

Partnering with Albemarle

In partnership with Concord and Albemarle, Kannapolis will be constructing a new water line that connects the Albemarle water system with the Concord-Kannapolis system.

Funding for this project will be used to construct approximately 84,000 feet of 30” water line running from Albemarle to Concord. Separate agreements between Concord and Kannapolis will send approximately 40 percent of the water to Kannapolis via existing or slightly modified connections between the two cities.

Over the past decade Albemarle has been impacted by the loss of numerous industrial customers to their water system. As a result of these changes, Albemarle now has excess treated water capacity and desires new customers to make up for these losses.

Route of the Line

The proposed water line will run parallel to NC 49 from an existing 30” stub near the intersection of NC 49 and Main Street in Richfield to the termination of an existing 30” line near the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center located at the intersection NC 49 and Old Airport Road. A portion of the water line will be constructed along Fisher Road, Moose Road, and NC 73 in order to avoid any major impact to existing development along NC 49.

Also associated with the project is the construction of two water booster stations, a ground storage tank, and approximately 12,000 feet of 24” line needed to access an existing elevated tank currently part of the City of Concord’s distribution system.

The existing elevated tank will act as the control point for the water entering Concord’s distribution system. That portion of the City’s system is presently served by Concord’s Coddle Creek Water Treatment Plant. Upon completion, flow can then be redirected to Kannapolis and other portions of Concord and Kannapolis’ service areas.

Construction on the project is slated to begin next summer after engineering work is completed. Construction will take two years. For more information as the project progresses, visit www.cityofkannapolis.com/albemarlewaterproject