PARTNERING FOR THE GREATER GOOD: Collaborating with county partners is key to building the state's inventory of megasites and bringing jobs to rural North Carolina.

• Author: Saylor, Teri

Kevin Franklin is a believer in the power of partnership, and when Toyota Motor was exploring sites for a new battery manufacturing plant, collaboration was crucial to success.

As president of Randolph County's Economic Development Corp, Franklin knew his county could offer Toyota the large slice of land it needed, but it didn't have the population density and financial resources to build a shovel-ready megasite.

"We're one of those communities that is relatively rural," he said. "We've got lots of land mass, but our population is still small, and so to be able to bite off a project like this on our own, it really would not have been feasible."

Randolph County leaned into statewide and regional partnerships, collaborating with Greensboro and Guilford County for extending utilities to the site. The North Carolina Railroad Co. and Joseph M. Bryan Foundation helped with financing. Randolph County added $167.3 million in local incentives, while state incentives totaled $271 million. Also, the Golden LEAF Foundation put up $40 million.

The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite in Liberty is nestled up against the Guilford County line. The N.C. Railroad corridor serving Norfolk Southern, cuts across the northern border of the property. U.S. 421 and easy access to Piedmont Triad Regional Airport helped pave the way to the top of Toyota's leaderboard and seal the deal.

In 2021, Toyota announced it had chosen the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite as its new home for battery production with an initial investment of $ 1.29 billion and the creation of 1,750 new jobs. Last summer, Toyota decided to make an additional investment of $2.5 billion, bringing its total investment to $3.8 billion. It now plans to create 2,500 total jobs. Production is set to begin in 2025.

North Carolina's perennial ranking as a top state to do business is paying off, but the success means the state's megasite inventory is filling up. Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina CEO Christopher Chung said that companies have snapped up most of the state's eight available megasites. So the General Assembly spent $ 1 million to identify more megasites, while Gov. Roy Cooper wants to spend at least $ 100 million to prepare those properties.

In Edgecombe County, home of the Kingsboro Megasite, Norris Tolson is seeking additional sites through the Carolinas Gateway Partnership. This coalition of economic development partners in Edgecombe County, Tarboro and Rocky Mount works to bring jobs...