COLLABORATION ACROSS COUNTY LINES: Chatham County's business, education and lifestyle spill beyond its borders.

• Author: Blake, Kathy

A sign stating "Trespassers Welcome" brings a smile as visitors reach The Plant, Chatham County's 17-acre eclectic gathering spot for business, nature and the arts. Chatham County Economic Development Corporation President Michael Smith says the sentiment defines the county. Chatham regularly collaborates and partners with businesses, academic institutions, government officials, farmers, entrepreneurs and residents within and across its borders.

Many of the county's recent business and manufacturing acquisitions, residential-mixed use projects and educational partnerships spill into neighboring counties. For example, Smith was recently at The Plant for a meeting organized in part by UNC Chapel Hill, in neighboring Orange County and Karen Howard, chair of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners. Chatham and the university team up often.

"I recently collaborated with UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School to launch Chatham Leads, which seeks to bring together leaders from business, academia and government to propel innovation and opportunity in Chatham County and the region," Howard says. "It was an exciting opportunity to bring together old, new and future businesses, non-profits, our schools and community college, UNC faculty and staff and local government staff and partners to talk about what Chatham's future can look like, and The Plant was the perfect venue."

"For a variety of reasons," Smith says of overlapping county lines, "Chatham has cultivated really strong relationships with neighboring counties. We have collaboration. We have this advantage that we're in the RTP regional partnership and part of the Carolina Core, and we're so grateful to have regional marketing groups helping us with our story."

Chatham is certainly well situated geographically, surrounded with business and educational connections in Wake County to the east, Guilford County to the west and Alamance, Orange and Durham counties to the north.

"With the coming of Interstate 685 [from Dunn to Greensboro] that side [of the county] is only a half hour from Greensboro, and that side of Greensboro continues to grow. So, one part of us is near the Triangle and one part is near the Triad," Smith says.

"Chatham really is well placed for growth and opportunity," Howard echoes. "As a large, still fairly rural county, we are close to airports, rail, major highways and byways but are working diligently to retain much of our rural character and precious greenways while allowing for access to job centers, arts and recreation and housing."

BLURRED LINES

"A win for one is a win for all," Smith says. "Technically, our largest town is Cary. And Cary is more in Wake County, but 10,000 people are in Chatham. And The Governors Club [residential community and country club] has a Chapel Hill address, but residents pay Chatham County taxes."

Chatham has a claim to some of the states most recent economic development home runs.

In March, electrical vehicle company VinFast announced its $4 billion investment in an EV and battery facility at Triangle Innovation Point in Moncure, in southern Chatham. It's expected to create 7,500 jobs. The facility's water and sewer utilities, however, are across the line in Sanford, in Lee County.

Last September, Wolfspeed, a silicon carbide manufacturing...