From textiles to test tubes.

• Author: Chapman, Dan
• Position: Impact of Roche Biomedical Laboratories Inc. on economy of Burlington, North Carolina

How a home-grown, Swiss-owned lab gave downtown Burlington a shot in the arm.

At first glance, downtown Burlington looks like any other North Carolina town that fought -- and lost -- the revitalization battle of the 1980s and beyond.

There are all the usual landmarks -- an ageless mill, banks, insurance agencies, mom-and-pop retailers and acres of parking lots. Here and there, low-slung brick buildings in this central Piedmont town of 40,000 stand empty, their windows filled with schoolchildren's artwork instead of goods for sale, their customers long ago having abandoned the center city for the malls and strip shopping centers.

But in Burlington, first impressions are truly deceiving. Look closer and you'll see a city that's coming back to life, with new construction and newly arrived businesses. Alongside the cafe and the specialty store is the corporation responsible for the awakening: Roche Biomedical Laboratories Inc.

Roche now owns 11 downtown buildings with more than 150,000 square feet of office space, where it employs 450. Administrative headquarters is next door to the Picnic Basket Deli and across the street from Kayser-Roth's hosiery plant. Roche Insurance Laboratory is next to the Magic Shoe store and cater-corner to Carolina Beauty College. The centerpiece is the nine-story Atlantic Bank and Trust Building smack in the middle of downtown, where the company's top brass will be moving this month.

Downtown Burlington is quickly becoming Rocheville, a distinction that doesn't bother city elders. With 1,300 workers all told, the company ranks second among the county's private employers, behind only Burlington Industries. Statewide, Roche employs 2,623. "I can't think of any community that would not be doing back flips to have a Roche in their downtown," says Sonny Wilburn, president of the Alamance County Chamber of Commerce. "There is a renaissance going on down there."

"To tell you the truth, I can't think of a better place to be," Roche President James B. Powell says. "Being from this area, it's fun to be involved and see Burlington do well."

Yet the connubial bliss of an expansion-minded, multinational corporation and a development-hungry, midsized city is much more than a love affair between a business and its community. There's a profound transformation of a way of life going on here, a textiles-to-test-tubes revolution. With $600 million in annual sales, 9,000 employees, 20 laboratories, more than 350 offices, 60,000 customers and the backing of a Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Roche...