Hickory Wins with Teamwork.

• Author: Johnson, Clint
• Position: Hickory, NC, is a growing community

Hickory and Catawba County are not as well known as Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Gainesville, Fla. Many recognize those city names from watching college football games on television.

But companies in search of new factory locations and site-selection consultants on the lookout for receptive communities should keep their eyes on Hickory. With a 2000 population of 37,145, it is the largest city in Catawba County. The county is the largest in the Unifour region: Burke, Catawba, Alexander and Caldwell counties. While the Unifour has a reputation as small and laid-back, it has undergone a growth spurt. The region's 2000 population was 341,841, an increase of nearly 17% since 1990 and 26% since 1980. When ranked against other U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, Hickory is the 85th fastest growing, according to the Western Piedmont Council of Governments.

"The key to growth was jobs," says DeWitt "Dee" Blackwell, assistant executive director for the Western Piedmont COG. "The figures show net in-migration is way up as people are coming in to take the jobs." Nearly 54,000 non-agricultural jobs were created in the area from 1988 to 1998, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

But while job growth is the catalyst, it's not the end-all. Using figures compiled from Sales and Marketing Management magazine's Survey of Buying Power, the Council of Governments shows that restaurant sales nearly tripled in the region over the decade. The MSA's restaurant sales of $450 million are larger than those of Athens, Ga.; Charlottesville, Va.; Tuscaloosa; and Gainesville -- all cities that are home to large state universities that generate considerable tourist traffic. Hickory is home to the much smaller Lenoir-Rhyne College and Catawba Valley Community College.

And where there are people and restaurants, there are stores. "Over the last five years, the amount of retail space in our community has more than doubled. This is a booming and prosperous community. We have people who have turned down transfers in order to start their own businesses so they can stay here," says Brayan Derreberry, president and CEO of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce.

Adding to the quality of life are Hickory's two hospitals, Catawba memorial hospital and Frye Regional medical Center. Catawba memorial recently was designated a magnet nursing center by the American nurses Credentialing Center, an arm of the American Nurses Association. magnet nursing centers are those hospitals that employ practices designed to attract and retain qualified nurses. Of 15,000 hospitals in the nation, 32 are magnet nursing centers. Of those, Catawba is one of two community hospitals. Most centers are affiliated with medical schools, such as Wake Forest university and The North Carolina Baptist Hospital Inc. in Winston-Salem...