Industry recruitment allows North Carolina to realize economic development and workforce gains for years into the future. While WithersRavenel has been an active leader in many development projects, in recent years, our company has played an integral role in two of North Carolina’s largest and most exciting economic development projects: Project Axis, a warehouse and distribution facility for a large online retailer in Garner, and Project Forge, an aluminum forging plant in Sanford.
Project Axis is a 2.6-million-square-foot facility which broke ground in July 2018 and became fully operational this year. This four-story structure, located on the previous ConAgra site, presents more than $166 million in investment and is projected to employee 2,000 people.
Project Forge is investing over $127 million to build its facilities and plans to create more than 300 jobs.
Jason Bertoncino, the principal consultant on both of those projects, said that they represent exciting opportunities to engage all of WithersRavenel’s departments and resources. Whether it was utilities, land development, environmental, planning, or geomatics, both projects spoke directly to WithersRavenel’s core value of community an idea that includes not just our company and the communities of Garner and Sanford, but the entire state of North Carolina.
The success of both projects relied on the collaboration and coordination of people across the state. Economic development projects like Project Axis and Project Forge are examples of our quality work and expertise and well represent our ever-growing Economic Development practice at WithersRavenel.
Our firm’s growth in this arena has led us to add another leader to the Economic Development leadership team. Arthur Salido recently joined the company as the new Director in Economic Development.
Our Economic Development Team
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In this role, Arthur will help local governments and private businesses position themselves for growth, prosperity, and resiliency. His background in public and private sector economic development, executive leadership, community engagement, and management will help lead our clients to long-term success on a variety of projects and strategic initiatives.
Arthur worked for nearly 17 years at Western Carolina University, the last three years of which were as Executive Director of Economic Development and Regional Partnerships. He is also a Ph.D. chemist, which brings value-added analytical skills to the firm’s utilities, environmental, and transportation practices.
Would you like to put our North Carolina economic development professionals to work for you? Contact Arthur Salido today at (919) 469-3340 or asalido@withersravenel.com.