Connecting the spots.

• Position: Western - McCombs Oil - North Carolina Housing Finance Agency - North Carolina Housing Finance Agency

Western North Carolina's fiber-optic network originally focused on bringing high-speed Internet access to rural schools and libraries. But it has, along with an abundance of land and power, made the region a popular site for data centers.

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ASHEVILLE--The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency awarded about $7 million to Eagle Market Place, a mixed-use complex that aims to revitalize a section that was a center of commerce for the black community. Asheville and Buncombe County have contributed $4.1 million in loans and grants for the project, which will include 62 affordable-housing apartments. Construction begins next year.

MORGANTON--McCombs Oil, a fuel sales and transportation company, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. McCombs, which lists assets of about $1.3 million and nearly $8.4 million of liabilities, is leasing its former property to lcard-based Burke Oil and sold its remaining fuel, worth about $19,600, to the company.

ASHEVILLE--The state denied Mission Health's second request to transfer an endoscopy suite from here to its planned Mission Pardee Health Campus in Fletcher. The first application was rejected in 2011 because the Department of Health and Human Services said it overstated need. Reasons behind the second had not been released by early September.

For a daily roundup of business news in the Western region, go to www.BusinessNC.com/Western.

"Age and experience before youth and eagerness."

-- Economist James Smith's explanation for why the number of workers age 55-64 in the Asheville metro has increased since the recession...