Different incentives for this building boom.

• Position: Commercial construction in North Carolina - Industry Overview

Its new headquarters in Greensboro's Deep River Corporate Park still smelled of fresh concrete and carpeting this summer, but nearby, RF Micro Devices Inc. was breaking ground again. This time, the project is a $70 million assembly plant for the company's gallium arsenide and gold microchips, technological wonders with an operating life of 14,000 years. "They'll outlast the pyramids," Vice President Jerry Neal notes.

RF Micro's plant, which won't last that long, was part of a wave of commercial building spurred by the growth of North Carolina's technology industries, readily available financing and a green light from the courts for economic incentives, which had been threatened a year earlier. Through August, commercial and industrial projects reported to the Carolinas AGC Inc. stood at $1.1 billion, up 25% from a year earlier. (The AGC receives most, but not all, major building proposals.) Utility projects totaled $348 million, up 22%, and state and local highway plans were $142 million, up 18%.

Gov. Jim Hunt and N.C. Department of Commerce officials were hopping from one plant announcement to another after the N.C. Supreme Court in June cleared tax-supported business incentives. In August, while race cars droned outside, Hunt stood at a podium in Charlotte Motor Speedway's penthouse Speedway Club and announced that Corning Inc. would build a $90 million optical fiber plant on 150 acres in Cabarrus County, about 20 miles away. Corning projects its total investment over the next 11 years will grow to $500 million.

The state and Cabarrus County will provide Corning tax breaks, training and other incentives worth $42 million over the life of the project. The Corning announcement came the same month that the William S. Lee Quality Jobs and Expansion Act went into effect, providing such features as tax credits for training. The act is named after the late Duke Power Co. executive who championed incentives for economic development.

But the state's 1996 commercial-construction agenda was broader than just manufacturing plants. The Triangle had a flurry of hotels. "We have 25 new properties coming on-line in Wake between now and January of 1998," says Scott Dupree, communications director of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau. "They add 2,556 rooms to our inventory, so we'll crack 10,000 rooms for the first time." In Durham, nine hotel projects were under way. They'll add about 1,500 rooms, boosting the city's inventory to more...