BY FRANK DeLOACHE
SALISBURY POST

Bob Wright is normally an energetic guy, but Friday he was in overdrive.

You can’t really blame him. He’s expecting at least 350 people Tuesday for the dedication of The Gateway, the two-story brick building that the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce has built on East Innes Street with the help of the Economic Development Commission and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

And yet on Friday, workers were still putting up the sign on the wall outside the Chamber, where Wright is president.

Still, everything seemed to be coming together. The Leo Wallace Family Lobby plaque was in place in the first-floor lobby, and workers had installed the Delhaize America Board Room plaque on the second floor.

Those represent the two largest gifts — $275,000 from the Wallaces and $250,000 from Delhaize — that made the $2.3 million campaign successful.

The floral arrangement that had sat for a while on the granite floor in the lobby finally got its cherry wood stand.

And all the furniture has arrived for the Chamber’s offices.

When you ask Wright if he’s excited, he just smiles and says, “Five and a half years.”

Wright arrived in Rowan County in 1996 and has dreamed ever since of a new office that made a statement about Rowan County.

So, all this time later, Wright loves to wheel around The Gateway, pointing out all the wall plaques with the names of any person, business or family that donated $25,000 or more to the center.

He’s proud that the Chamber’s space includes rooms for future staffers the organization will need. One even serves as a conference room for small group meetings.

He points out that all the art work in the building came from N.C. artists, most of them from Rowan County. Betty Sedberry, Clyde Overcash, Betty Watson and Mark Brincefield are among the local artists represented. And most of the art reflects a Rowan County scene.

Wright relishes taking the elevator upstairs to the Economic Development Commission office. He walks in the room to the right and explains: “This is the War Room, where Randy Harrell and other leaders will close the door and sell Rowan County.”

Harrell is executive director of the Economic Development Commission. But until Friday, the large conference table and the comfortable brown vinyl chairs were missing. Now, visitors will have a place to sit when Harrell lowers the projector from its recessed space in the ceiling to show scenes from Rowan County on a screen that also hides nicely in the ceiling along one wall.

The Gateway features about 18,000 square feet, and the two spaces available for rent are already taken. The Hope Center, a counseling service, and Image 500, a promotion and marketing firm for NASCAR, have rented a total of about 2,000 square feet.

About the only thing that’s not finished is the Business Resource Center in Wright’s offices on the first floor.

As part of the Gateway capital campaign, business leaders pledged $100,000 to open the center, which will provide resources to small businesses or entrepreneurs trying to get started. When the computers are ready, the center will offer business counseling, software testing and computer-Internet access.

Other program pledges included the following:

• $125,000 over five years for the Communities in Schools program.
• $110,000 over five years to the Rowan-Salisbury Educational Foundation, which provides grants to teachers for classroom projects.
• $50,000 for a new Workforce Development Task Force, which the Chamber, the Economic Development Commission and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College organized and launched.
• $15,000 over five years for scholarships to Leadership Rowan.

Outside the Gateway Friday afternoon, workers were still installing new awnings. And letters spelling the names of the three major tenants were still sitting on the sidewalk.

But Wright wasn’t worried. He knows how far local business leaders have come to get there, and he’s looking forward to Tuesday — and the future.