UNC Pembroke broke ground in April on a $38 million business-school building expected to open in 2021.

• Position: EAST: PEMBROKE

UNC Pembroke broke ground in April on a $38 million business-school building expected to open in 2021. It will include a 300-seat auditorium, trading room and lots of bells and whistles. "This is where the future lies for southeastern North Carolina," Don Metzger, a retired Lumberton contractor who chairs the Pembroke board, said at the groundbreaking, according to The Robesonian newspaper.

The state is investing $29 million, while Pembroke native Jim Thomas and his wife, Sally, are contributing $7 million, a record for the university. Since the 1970s, Thomas has been a major real estate developer in Los Angeles, playing a key role in 73-story Library Tower, now called US Bank Tower, which opened in 1989. He also once owned the NBA's Sacramento Kings.

"Jim Thomas is the man that The Los Angeles Times said built the...