Kannapolis-Cabarrus meeting postponed

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — Kannapolis officials have postponed a meeting with Cabarrus County officials to discuss the future of the N.C. Research Campus.

The meeting, which was scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday in Kannapolis, was requested by Cabarrus County to discuss how the recession has affected developer Castle & Cooke's plans for the Research Campus, as well as the status of a unique and troubled funding method called tax increment financing.

Kannapolis postponed the meeting after a reporter learned about it and planned to attend.

The meeting was not officially public because no quorum of a public board was scheduled to be present. The Salisbury Post wrote about the meeting, prompting further media inquiries.

After Cabarrus County officials agreed to allow the Post to cover the meeting, Kannapolis officials decided the meeting should be rescheduled and held in public, Kannapolis City Manager Mike Legg said.

"The consensus on our end is that, since the press knows about our meeting today and is planning to attend, we should reschedule the meeting to a time when all the members of both the Board of Commissioners and the City Council can meet together to discuss these matters," Legg wrote in an e-mail to Cabarrus County Manager John Day.

Kannapolis officials also had agreed to allow a Post reporter into the meeting. But then it would have turned "into a very different sort of meeting," Legg wrote to Day.

"We need everybody on the same page and to be part of the same discussion if this is going to be covered by the media," Legg said.

The meeting will be rescheduled for late March or early April.

Scheduled to attend were Day and Cabarrus County Commission Chairman Jay White and Vice Chairman Liz Poole, along with Legg and Kannapolis Mayor Bob Misenheimer and Mayor Pro Tem Gene McCombs.

Lynne Scott Safrit, president of Castle & Cooke North Carolina, also was scheduled to attend.

Cabarrus County officials asked Day to arrange the meeting after expressing concern about future funding for the Research Campus.

"We are just trying to understand what their position is so we can work through whatever roadblocks there are," Legg told the Post.

Day had prepared an agenda for the meeting, which included a discussion of the recession's impact on Castle & Cooke's development plans "and how the company intends to move forward."

Cabarrus officials also wanted to talk about how the economy has changed "previous projections of the nature and rate of buildout" of the campus.

"With all the changes in the economy, it became clear that everything needs to be revisited," Day told the Post. "The projections clearly are not accurate."

Research Campus founder David Murdock, a California billionaire who owns Castle & Cooke and Dole Food Co., envisions a 350-acre mixed use complex with university institutes, private companies, laboratories, offices, retail and homes. The campus, built on the ruins of an old textile mill that Murdock once owned, was expected to create thousands of jobs in a decade.

Murdock has recruited more than 15 companies to partner with the campus. He opened the first three scientific buildings in 2008, which house seven branches of North Carolina universities and one of the most complete life science labs in the world.

About 200 people work at the campus.

Developers say total investment in the biotechnology hub will reach $1.5 billion.

"That is our projected buildout on the entire campus," Safrit wrote in an e-mail to the Post. "Thus far, Mr. Murdock has invested over $550 million of his own money in the campus — construction and equipment for the lab."

Castle & Cooke won't release specific financial information because it is a private company, she said.

In addition, Murdock pledged $35 million to Duke University's medical research study based in Kannapolis, which bears his name, and committed $2 million for endowed N.C. State University professorships at the Research Campus, Safrit said.

Tax increment financing, or TIF, bonds were supposed to pay for infrastructure improvements around the campus and a new public health department.

Four years ago, Kannapolis sought a partnership with Cabarrus County to issue $168 million in TIF bonds. Cabarrus County agreed to dedicate a portion of its property tax revenue from a new downtown tax district to repaying those bonds.

But the economic crisis caused the TIF bond market to dry up, and the city never sold the bonds. Kannapolis continues to pursue selling a smaller bond package, worth about $30 million.

Day and the Cabarrus County commissioners want to know more about the TIF, he said.

They also are concerned about an upcoming property revaluation, which likely will result in lower property values in the downtown tax district, he said.

Even if the city sells the TIF bonds, the county wants to discuss delaying construction of the new Cabarrus Health Alliance, Day said.

Due to the poor economy, the county will face budget difficulties for the next two to five years, and a new public health department might not be a priority any longer, Day said.

Cabarrus County recently eliminated 76 positions to help close a projected $6.2 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year.

Early estimates of the county's 2011 budget project a revenue shortfall of nearly $1.7 million.