When Scott Kidd became town manager of Liberty, North Carolina, a former furniture and textile center, he didn’t expect it to be an extremely busy job. Recently, Liberty’s activities have centered around the annual antiques festival.
In less than three years, those quiet days quickly became a whirlwind. Toyota announced it would build a battery factory for electric and hybrid vehicles on the outskirts of town, and Kidd has since been working on the needs of the 7 million-square-foot facility, including reviewing ordinances and meeting with housing developers. I have tried to fulfill it. .
The increased activity reflects new investment in an area of North Carolina that has lagged behind: the Triad. The median income in Randolph County, which includes Liberty, is $47,000, and some Toyota jobs can easily pay more than that. More people moving to the area could breathe life into downtown Liberty.
But the potential gains for the region, which includes Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point in the central part of the state, depend on whether workers develop the skills needed for these new jobs. Kidd was concerned that many local workers lacked the education and skills to work in the factories.
For those jobs, Kidd said, “They don’t write anything down, they put it on the computer.” “And if you don’t know how to do that, you’re going to get an X in a sense.”
At the same time, some residents and local leaders who welcome the new industry want to preserve the region’s character so it doesn’t become like other fast-growing and expensive sprawls in other parts of the South. I’m worried about maintaining it.
“We’re not going to be in Charlotte,” said Marvin Price, executive vice president of economic development for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, referring to the banking center 100 miles down Interstate 85. We don’t want to. We want to be the best version of Greensboro.” ”
Like many states, North Carolina is leveraging new federal and state incentives to attract more advanced manufacturing and clean technology companies. And the triad, based on the tobacco, textile and furniture industries, is pivoting to advanced manufacturing, providing a potential blueprint for other regions whose economic engines have been energized by the rise of globalization and automation. trying to provide.
Toyota’s Liberty plant will open next year and produce batteries for vehicles produced in Kentucky. Ten minutes away in Siler City, semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed is building a $5 billion factory. Toyota has received about $500 million in incentives and tax breaks from the state of North Carolina, and federal laws such as the Control of Inflation Act of 2022, the CHIPS Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are encouraging investment.
“The Biden administration’s policies have helped North Carolina, and specifically the Triad, become the clean energy capital of the country,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said at a recent event in Greensboro.
For decades, the Triad was the state’s manufacturing hub. High Point became known as the home furnishings capital of the world, and at its peak, the city and surrounding area accounted for 60 percent of the nation’s furniture production. Greensboro and Winston-Salem specialized in textiles and tobacco in addition to furniture. And while the Research Triangle of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill was home to the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and North Carolina State University, the Triad was home to Wake Forest University.
But like many manufacturing regions, its fortunes began to decline in the 1970s. Employment in the textile industry began to be relocated overseas and automated, the furniture industry shrunk due to the arrival of cheap imports from China, and the tobacco industry shrunk due to a decline in the number of smokers. Factories closed, the buildings sat vacant for decades, and the downtown declined.
At the same time, the Triangle’s economy, home to the nation’s largest corporate research park, took off as research and technology companies grew. In 2001, research found that triangles and triads had roughly the same economic outcomes. By 2021, the two had diverged. Both regions experienced population growth, but the Triangle region grew faster, driven by an increase in the number of college-educated workers.
Some industries have found a lifeline in recent years. Amid the pandemic, increased demand for home furnishings has led to a furniture boom and a resurgence of manufacturing across the United States. But last year, several factories closed, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs.
“This part of the state is in a situation where it has no choice but to diversify,” said Jerry Fox, an economics professor at High Point University. “This is an opportunity for people in our community to get better-paying jobs.”
Signs of change are also evident downtown. In High Point, a hosiery factory had been vacant for decades, with only a biannual furniture showroom open. But in 2021, a group of local investors teamed up with the city’s Chamber of Commerce and local foundations to donate more than $40 million to transform the site into a co-working space called Condon Yards. Currently, there are approximately 50 employers and his 360 employees.
Similar projects are underway in Winston-Salem and Greensboro. In downtown Winston-Salem, an old tobacco factory became the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, a research-centered district that cost more than $500 million. In Greensboro, his one of the city’s oldest textile mills has been converted into a mixed-use complex with amenities such as a pizzeria and office space.
Still, challenges remain.
One is to prepare local workers for jobs that require a variety of skills. Thomas Built is a bus manufacturing company based in High Point that dates back to 1916 and has been building electric buses for the past 10 years. High Point has approximately 2,000 employees, making him one of the city’s top employers.
Thomas Bilt CEO Kevin Bangston said the company has hired more than 300 employees in the past 15 months. However, he found it difficult to hire more skilled jobs to handle automated processes within the factory.
“The demand for these positions is very high, but the supply is very low,” Vanstone said.
Key to that transition is the role of workforce development programs, including partnerships between businesses and community colleges that provide skills for jobs in advanced manufacturing.
One school offering such training is Guilford Technical Community College, where Mr. Cooper appeared in Greensboro. At the same event, First Lady Jill Biden emphasized the importance of these programs in implementing President Biden’s economic policies.
The school offers an apprenticeship program, allowing students to earn an associate’s degree while working. One of the programs designed by Toyota is aimed at qualifying employees for jobs at the company.
Devante Cuthbertson, 28, grew up in Greensboro and worked as a machine operator at a flooring company about 30 minutes away, but quit that job in 2023 to enroll in an apprenticeship program at Guilford Technical College. There he takes his classes twice a week, and three times a week he goes to the Toyota battery factory site for an apprenticeship program, applying his classroom knowledge about electrical, motor control and car battery components.
“I wanted to get an education,” Cuthbertson said, adding that he plans to apply for a job with Toyota as a maintenance technician when he graduates in 2025.
Anthony Clark, president of Guilford Institute of Technology, said the arrival of Toyota Motor Corporation, which promised well-paying jobs, had increased interest in the school’s programs.
“Every time an employer stands up and says, ‘We have really good-paying jobs,’ students take notice and flock to that,” Dr. Clark said.
Economic development leaders and elected officials say the area’s affordability is an attraction for businesses and workers alike, especially as housing prices soar across the country. . According to Zillow, the average home appraised value in his three major cities in the Triad is about $250,000, while statewide he’s worth more than $300,000 and in the Triad he’s more than $400,000.
The Triad has become a destination for some college-educated workers leaving coastal cities. Melissa Binder and her husband, who worked at Nike, left Portland, Oregon, and moved to Winston-Salem in 2019 to raise their children. The couple bought the home in 2019 for $315,000, but Binder had more space than her previous home in Portland, she said.
After renting in New York’s West Village for several years, Julia and Ryan Hennessy knew they wanted a home to raise their family. In 2018, they chose Winston-Salem, which is close to Hennessey’s family, and bought a single-family home for $445,000.
The Hennessys said they welcome the growth brought on by the entry of companies like Toyota. At the same time, they want Winston-Salem to maintain the small-town charm and cost of living that drew them to the area and not become like other southern cities.
“We know how Winston is different from a place like Atlanta, but we don’t have a desire to be,” Hennessy said.
But the transition could be even more difficult for other parts of the Triad, especially rural areas like Liberty.
Liberty Librarian Brenda Hornsby Heindle said the Toyota plant could improve the town’s fortunes. But primary education in the county remains underfunded and literacy levels are lower than the state average, she said.
“My goal for the future of our community is for anyone to be able to apply to be a Toyota engineer, but right now there are adults and children who cannot read applications,” Ms. Hornsby-Heindle said. “It will take more time than Toyota to realize that.”