Kannapolis seeks $30M for North Carolina Research Campus - Triangle Business Journal:

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The 350-acre life-sciences hub has seen construction slow as theeconomt faltered. The building, startedr in May, is the only projecy under construction atthis time. The interim financing will be used to construct the $8 million, 62,000-square-foot building and at least two infrastructures projects, says City Manager Mike Legg. “If we can have a couple of infrastructureprojectss going, we’re just chipping away at the projects needeed to ultimately facilitate the buildout,” Legg says. He says the number and type of project s will depend on the type offinancing used. Bank-qualified loans or even a bank-placed tax-increment financing are a possibility.
Kannapolis will issude and managethe debt, he The interim funding also would provid e about 25 percent reimbursement for Kannapolis and campux developer for money spent to date. Kannapoliz will receive $1.3 million and Castle & Cookes $5 million. The decision to seek interim financing comes after more than a year of delaywsurrounding $168 million in tax-incrementr financing. Legg expects the TIF funding to be postponed at leastg another year because of highinterest rates. That type of financing would allow Kannapolis to sell bond backed by future tax collections onimproved property.
Legg estimates future financing will likely be lessthan $100 “We’re going to have to be really smart aboutr what projects we pursue,” he Construction costs for the new health-alliance building have fallen as the economyu has struggled, says Dr. William Pilkington, chief executivde and public health director for the Cabarrus Health a public-health authority. He says the $8 milliobn bid for the project is goodthrough That’s down from $13 millionb a year ago. The building will be constructed on Dale Earnhardt across fromthe “We could break ground as earlyh as August, if everything falle in place,” Pilkington says.
He says it is importantr for the health alliance to be part of the campus andits research. The health-alliance building will bettere servethe public, expanding some services and enhancinf others such as primary care, he says. Aboug 1,400 to 1,600 patients use servicesx at the Cabarrus Health Alliance each receivingpediatric care, immunizations and clinical “We could serve a wholee lot more people if we had a lot more Pilkington says. The alliance’s current locatio n measures 35,000 square feet. The alliances has 270 employees. Pilkington expects the number of workerz to climb to 300 with thenew building, despited recent cuts.
The health allianced has laid off 18 employees in the faceof $1 milliomn in budget cuts at the county and state It put more than $500,000 into land and preparationsw for the new building, anticipating the TIF fundinf would be available last Pilkington says.