Camel City project starts smoking.

• Position: Fire at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s factory derails Winston-Salem, North Carolina's planned research park

When a former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. factory burned down during renovations in late August, it took a slice of old downtown Winston-Salem with it. But the building was just as much a piece of the city's future, as part of the six-acre Piedmont Triad Research Park the city is developing for medical- and technology-related companies.

The fire couldn't have come at a worse time. Bay Shore, N.Y.-based thermal-products developer Frisby Technologies Inc. saw its plans for opening an R&D center in the building in early September go up in smoke. Local economic developers are scrambling to find Frisby space.

Naturally, park officials put the best spin on the fire. "The master plan for the research park remains unchanged," Jack Steelman, executive director of the Downtown Winston-Salem Development Corp., insists. On the bright side, he says, instead of four new and three renovated buildings, there will be five new ones. His group took out an ad in the Winston-Salem Journal to reassure prospective tenants.

Short-term, the fire caused chaos. Eighteen companies and some condo owners in Albert Hall, another renovated Reynolds building, had to evacuate. (The park's only other tenants, two Wake Forest...