Tryon will be taller in the saddle.

• Position: WESTERN REGION - HomeTrust Bancshares purchases nine branches from Bank of America - Richelieu Legwear International to invest in it new plant - Tryon Equestrian Partners new resorts

The first phase of a 1,400-acre resort that promoters say will make Polk County a magnet for the horsey set opened last month in Tryon, a past training ground for U.S. Olympic equestrian teams. Tryon International Equestrian Center opened July 2 with five riding arenas and stables for 500 horses. The developer, Tryon Equestrian Partners, includes 11 investors led by Mark Bellissimo, CEO of Wellington, Fla.-based Equestrian Sport Productions, which runs a similar development near

Palm Beach, Fla. More than $100 million is going into the Tryon project, which will include two hotels developed by Middleburg, Va.-based Salamander Hotels & Resorts. Sheila Johnson, who co-founded Black Entertainment Television with her ex-husband, former Charlotte Bobcats owner Robert Johnson, started Salamander in 2005. The hotels are slated to open by 2017. Also planned are an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, additional stables and arenas and a 6,000-seat stadium.

HILDEBRAN -- Richelieu Legwear International will invest $16 million in a sock-manufacturing plant it plans to build here. The Montreal-based company, which sells legwear to Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores and other retailers, bought the assets of locally based International Legwear Group for $7 million in 2001. It employs 60 at a plant here and plans to add as many as 205 jobs at the new site by 2018. Richelieu will receive up to $2.9 million in state grants if it meets job-creation...