On the right track.

PositionNC TREND: Triad Region

Former Greensboro Mayor Jim Melvin and other Triad executives are exuberant about the North Carolina Railroad's $13 million purchase of about 875 acres in Randolph County, completing a giant industrial site that they hope will attract a car manufacturer. It's unclear if the region will land its target, but the implications for North Carolina's state-owned railroad are obvious: It's flexing its economic-development muscle, President Scott Saylor says.

"A lot of folks don't realize how hard we've been hit," says Melvin, chairman of the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation, which has spearheaded assembling land for the site. In the last several decades, the region lost 90,000 jobs. The latest development puts about 1,450 acres owned or under the foundation's control, which gives the Triad something tangible to market to industrial prospects. "This is a step in the right direction. We're going to be out there in front of everybody now."

Created in 1849, the railroad traverses the state, 317 miles to Charlotte in the south and the port at Morehead City to the east, giving the Greensboro-Randolph site a crucial industrial artery in two directions. "Manufacturing sites with rail are becoming...

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