Sample itinerary for a business executive visiting Brunswick County:
Arrive at Wilmington airport. Ride 12 miles to Brunswick Community College's Leland campus, off U.S. 74/76. Watch a presentation on why Brunswick would be ideal for a new branch of the company. Get information about work-force training and business counseling on the campus. Tour the area's several industrial parks, where the new branch could locate.
These points of interest are now conveniently close, and all this can be done in a few hours. But they were scattered before, with the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission giving business presentations at its Bolivia center, BCC giving business counseling at its Supply campus and the work-force training conducted at the Leland campus.
Because much of the growth in Brunswick is focused in its northern end, the college and development commission decided it made sense to bring these services together there, and joined forces to make it happen. They hope more convenience and the attractiveness of the newly renovated Leland campus – known as the Center for Economic and Workforce Development – will give companies an extra push to come to Brunswick.
The $450,000 renovation is part of a $30 million bond voters approved for construction at BCC, said Velva Jenkins, the college's assistant vice president for economic and workforce development. Current plans for the Leland campus also include moving BCC's Small Business Center there from the main campus in Supply.
The Leland campus project, which should be completed this week, includes new wall colors and carpeting, more classroom and office space and a new presentation room with a flat screen TV and conference table.
“First impressions are so important,” said Jim Bradshaw, executive director of Brunswick's Economic Development Commission. “We want to give these businesses a great first impression of Brunswick County.”
Bradshaw said despite the sputtering economy, 17 industrial companies are considering coming to Brunswick right now. The county development commission plans to use BCC's new presentation room this week to talk to three of them from out of state, two of those connected to port business.
Conveniently for them, straddling the Brunswick-Columbus line on U.S. 74/76 is the International Logistics Park, a future distribution center for the state port at Wilmington. Companies that settle in the 1,000-acre park are eligible for a state incentive of $12,500 per job created, higher than elsewhere in Brunswick County, Bradshaw said.
Across the highway is another new option – the similar-size Mid-Atlantic Logistics Center, which plans to have rail service. Also on U.S. 74/76, the Leland campus itself is located in the Leland Industrial Park, which has been around for a while but still has 56 acres of undeveloped land, Bradshaw said.
BCC's Leland campus has watched over the years as developers began to discover the area's many possibilities, in terms of nature and geographic proximity to the port, the airport and the more urbanized Wilmington. For 20 years, the campus has provided work-force training for companies such as Dupont and Rampage Yachts, and let businesses use its office space as needed, Jenkins said.
The 28,000-square-foot campus also hosts some curriculum courses, GED and English as a Second Language classes and law-enforcement training, Jenkins said.
For more information on the Leland campus and its offerings, call 755-7380.
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