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a new city FOR A NON CENTURY By John S. Cox, CCE, CEcD FROM TEXTILES TO BIOTECH even million square feet of textile space stands vacant over an entire downtown with no hope of another user. T_ housands of jobs and generations of stories come to an end. Kannapolis, NC, a city of 40,000, faced this challenge in 2003. Pillowtex — for- merly Cannon Mills, then Fieldcrest Cannon — closed its operations and left 280 acres lifeless in downtown Kannapolis. For a year the mill sat in uncertainty, leaving downtown Kannapolis with no prospects for $1.5 billion biotech center focusing on nutrition. KANNAPOLIS, NC Our communities change every day, some marginally and some dramatically. If we are focused, we can anticipate those changes and prepare for them; if we are prepared, we can prosper in spite of them. The elected and community leaders of Kannapolis, North Carolina, would have to rely on both focus and preparation if they were to successfully move their city from economic disaster to recovery and to prosperity. This is the story of how one community has worked to recreate itself (with a little help from its friends) in the face of changing global realities. This is also the story of one man's vision and sig- nificant public- private partnerships which gave rise to the North Carolina Research Campus, a $1.5 billion biotech center focusing on nutrition. center city redevelopment nor economic recovery. Some 4,500 residents were left without jobs, pondering life absent the securities and familiarities of working in the mill. The city, located 15 miles northeast of UNC Charlotte, did have the booming Charlotte economy in its favor. Suburban development on the outskirts of Kannapo- lis increased as Charlotte's growth rippled towards the city. However, the 280 -acre site was still silent and faced many obstacles. The city's entire downtown infrastructure — from power to gas to water and sewer — ran through the Pillowtex site, In late 2004, California -based David H. Murdock, CEO of Castle & Cooke, re- purchased the Pillowtex site (having for- merly owned it as the owner of Cannon Mills) to protect his initial investment and with only a few general ideas on how to redevelop the largest textile facility in the world. Murdock already owned much of downtown Kannapolis, land he acquired when he purchased Cannon Mills two decades earlier. Murdock sold the mill in John S. Cox, CCE, CEcD, is president and CEO of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corporation. (jcox @cabarrus.biz) This is the story of how one community has worked to recreate itself (with a little help from its friends) in the face of changing global realities. This is also the story of one man's vision and significant public - private partnerships which gave rise to the North Carolina Research Campus, a Attachment number 1 Economic Develo rnent Journal / Spring 2011 / Volume 10 / Number2 39 1 -T Page 599 The David H. Murdoch Core Laboratory Building is located on the site of the former Cannon Mills Lake. The building is the home to one of the world's largest Nuclear - Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometers.