WSTB

File this under: No good deed goes unpunished. I re-call Gdweeb hailing this group as the outfit that was going to put Green Town on the map as Hollywood South.

http://www.news-record.com/news/local_n ... f6878.html

He said bigger than BET right?

Not because its Greensboro and theyre our main competition, but I really do think this city has an identity crisis. It just feels like every grand idea besides the greenway loop, is following behind the success of another city's grand idea. The aquatic center(CLT), GPAC(Durham), downtown university campus (W-S). Come up with you own. Every time I visit Greensboro, I dont feel anything. Theres no vibe there what so ever. And its really not a dig, because I do feel they are doing some great things. Something is missing, though.

I think they've given up on HOT since every new major economic announcement since HOT was first announced has favored Forsyth County. Have you noticed them reaching out to Alamance County to develop a new major inter-county business park?

It's pretty sad that that burg doesn't have the infrastructure in place to support film that it has to offer incentives in the first place. Dont make me go off about sad dogs who don't have a life to live!

Meanwhile, I enjoyed a rerun showing of Junebug just last week......

Well, check this out. Don't know what to make of it but it certainly sounds ambitious. Maybe over that 2700 acres they'll find a money tree to help pay for it. For that matter, let Burlington get sucked up into providing water for a Guilford project, Winston already bestowed the gift on Guilford with that Fed-Ex Ground Hub/Plasma Company in the Triad Bus. Park in Baja K-ville.

Yes and this University Center is going to be such a grand collaboration. The powers that be over there have really latched onto this project as such a game changer for their downtown. Who knows, maybe. It appears like that glorified East side cow pasture, aka Gateway Research Park, has been discarded like last Xmas's new toy... Two orphaned buildings with nothing around them. God, what could have been the possibilities had that UNCG/NCA&T cooperation included Wake Forest to create a truly authentic Triad collaboration and been placed in the IQ.

http://www.rhinotimes.com/secret-park-p ... posed.html

Sprawlicious. Best of luck to them though. Grand plan but this is 2013. Urban counties should be growing inward not outward.

Oh, I've been over at U.P. updating Winston happenings and apparently I've rattled the Boi's cage. Come on, someone help me out with some contributions over there.

I really don't care what he does or thinks.

I think Winston-Salem and High Point are stepping up to develop the Heart of the Triad, with Winston-Salem's developments in the southeast part of the city and High Point's new I-74 Corporate Park in Forsyth County. It was really all about Greensboro wanting tax revenue and placing their name on this large piece of Forsyth County land that belonged to Winston-Salem, High Point, and Kernersville; as they find themselves with very few desirable sites near their airport and deal with the problems of poor quality car-centered (sprawl) land use. I'm hoping High Point decides to make the I-74 Corporate Park as dense as possible, to gain the most jobs and tax revenue from it, and not build it with massive pieces of land with one small building. I'm sure it will have many suburban 1-5 storey buildings, but they don't need several acres of woodlands around each of them. That is a waste and very poor planning. It's worth noting: You couldn't locate a data center park in the city, even if you wanted to. Some of them are vibration sensitive. It makes it instantly undesirable to several potential tenants.

So, Winston-Salem is ranked among the top cities for Data Centers two or three times in a row! What happens next? Sprawlboring must build something to take advantage. It's worth noting that very few data centers have located in Winston-Salem, even after being ranked highly as a great location. The low cost, which includes everything from cheap electricity to cheap water for some of them to cheap construction costs to low taxes... from not using bonds to copy the neighbors, ...are big factors. Winston-Salem does have a variety of data centers though, from Lowes to AIG to Data Chambers to Clearinghouse to Wells Fargo. Greensboro attracted a data center from a company that already had a strong relationship with city. The one thing I remember about several of these centers was a requirement that they be located away from Interstates, construction, and other vibrations. They must be located in "preferably" a rural area with no traffic and very few people. They also look at the weather as well and Greensboro/Guilford County has recorded the most severe weather watches and warnings in the state. Data Center employee pay is good, but they prefer to be in the middle of nowhere, where taxes are low, incentives are high, few people are around, and old textile mill electric infrastructure is strong. This is why Hickory was such a big winner with them. The buildings are expensive so they also want extreme levels of incentives, so they don't generate much tax revenue. Sioux Falls, S.D., is the nation's leading data center city. They often locate near cheap hydro power plants in nowhere towns. With a friend of Duke Energy in the governor's office and Republicans who favor higher rates to help the power companies, don't expect cheap electricity to be a strong attraction and being honest, that is likely the most important to attracting data centers. Cheap electricity will bring them to your area to look around and then you need a vibration free somewhat rural or rural area. No Interstate access. Interstates vibrate the buildings. They also are unmarked and prefer places where they can hide. Will a "LOOK! This is a big data center park!" attract something that wants to hide? AmEx wanted to hide and spoke of this. Clearinghouse wanted to hide as well and never revealed their location. I know where it is, but refuse to tell anyone. If you want these companies to select your city, you have to keep their secrets. Wells Fargo has nothing with the company name on it at their sites. Though most people know where two of them are located, they prefer to hide in plain sight in a residential area of downtown.

I do believe the N&R and TBJ have about wet their pants over the filming that has occured the past few days in the city to the east, and at Adamsleigh in Sedgefield. Never mind that part of the filming of the movie is being done in Winston-Salem. A location rep that helped the producers recruit the use of Adamsleigh as a location was beside herself in the interview of one of the features. Adamsleigh is actually in a very sad state, but to hear her tell it, it is architect Luther Lashmit's masterpiece. It may be on the 17th hole of Sedgefield, and be on the market for millions, but I was there last spring when it was a decorator showhouse sponsored by the Junior League, and it was hot wreck. I bet shuttered Chinqua-Penn is in better condition. Windows were broken, tiles were missing, and the whole place would take several humdred thousand to update.

Winston-Salem is fortunate. Graylyn is the masterpiece of Lashmit's work. And High-Point has two better examples of his work, Hillbrook and the Slane/Finch House, if they are smaller in scale.

Yes, Adamsleigh is a smaller and cheaper copy of Graylyn in Winston-Salem. There is also a smaller and cheaper copy of Graylyn in Davidson County. I'm guessing, since this appears to be a horror movie, they needed a somewhat run-down house? Also, I'm guessing Graylyn is too big and would leave viewers questioning how they could afford it? Adamsleigh really doesn't look right, due to a smaller construction budget. Graylyn was a blank check project, allowing the architect to do everything right.