FAST DISAPPEARING: Slow to the megasite game, North Carolina became a hotspot for big manufacturers over the past year.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: NC TREND: Manufacturing

North Carolina's landmark economic development victory is among the world's biggest megasites: The 7,000-acre Research Triangle Park that was created in the 1950s and 1960s.

So one might suspect the state would be a leader in megasite development. Nope.

Perhaps because of RTP's success and the long-prevailing attitude that North Carolina had sufficient attributes, the state was relatively slow to create a variety of sites of 1,000 to 2,000 acres that could attract major manufacturing operations. There was also a money component, of course. Developing megasites can entail hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in land and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, rival Southern states with aggressive stances persuaded a series of Fortune 500 and global companies to place assembly plants employing thousands of workers on vast tracts of land over the past 20 years.

North Carolina's approach shifted in the past decade as state officials and lawmakers worked with private developers to organize megasites stretching across the state's eastern and central regions. Now four sites have been taken off the table in the past 18 months, including two clearly defined megasites and two other major projects.

* At the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, Toyota Motor Corp. plans a 1,750-employee, $1.3 billion, electric-vehicle battery plant. It is expected to open in 2025.

* At the Triangle Innovation Point megasite near Moncure in Chatham County, Vietnam's VinFast says it will invest as much as $2 billion and employ 7,500 at an electric-vehicle factory. Construction is expected to start later this year.

* At Piedmont Triad International Airport in Guilford County, a 1,000-acre tract helped attract Colorado-based Boom Supersonic, which pledges a $500 million plant to build aircraft by 2025, employing as many as 2,400 by 2030.

* At The Grounds in Concord, Austrian energy-drink giant Red Bull and drugmaker Eli Lilly are splitting a 2,000-acre site formerly occupied by Philip Morris, the cigarette maker. Lilly says it will employ 600 and invest $1 billion, while Red Bull is investing $740 million and plans a workforce of 400.

"The megasite strategy has clearly been validated," says Chris Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the state's primary industry recruiter. "There's always going to be somebody--automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, superconductors--looking for a large tract with super connectivity. If you don't have a megasite, you're...