1982 – California business magnate David Murdock buys Cannon Mills for $414 million, including 660 acres and most of downtown Kannapolis.
1984 – Kannapolis incorporates.
1985 – Murdock acquires Dole Food Co. when he buys real estate giant Castle & Cooke.
1985 – Murdock’s wife, Gabriele, dies of cancer. Murdock becomes interested in nutrition and exercise as ways to fend off disease.
He will later point to her death as his fundamental motivation for founding the N.C. Research Campus.
1995 – Murdock splits Castle & Cooke and Dole.
1986 – Murdock keeps real estate but sells Cannon Mills to Fieldcrest Mills, creating Fieldcrest Cannon.
1997 – Fieldcrest Cannon sells mill to Pillowtex for $700 million.
2000 – Murdock takes Castle & Cooke private.
2003 – Murdock takes Dole private.
July 30, 2003 – Pillowtex closes; 4,300 Rowan and Cabarrus workers lose their jobs in largest layoff in state history. 2004 – Murdock attends auction in New York and buys back the abandoned textile mill for $6.4 million.
Jan. 18, 2005 – Murdock and Lynne Scott Safrit sit in front of fire at Pity’s Sake Lodge and brainstorm ideas for sprawling, empty mill.
2005 – Demolition of mill begins.
August 2005 – UNC President Molly Broad sends a memo to UNC Board of Governors saying several UNC schools, in partnership with Dole Food, will form a “biopolis” on the former textile plant site.
Sept. 12, 2005 – Murdock announces plans for N.C. Research Campus.
Feb. 23, 2006 -Groundbreaking for Core Lab.March 24, 2006 – Destruction of about one million square feet of mill in 12 seconds goes down as the third largest implosion in American history.
July 2006 – N.C. General Assembly passes first appropriation for campus totaling $8 million.
UNC System receives $6 million and N.C. Community College System gets $2 million to jumpstart hiring.
October 2006 -Market Street Services in Atlanta estimates the campus will create 5,535 biotech jobs by 2013. With ancillary jobs across the region, the campus could generate 37,000 jobs by 2032.2006 – Murdock forms a non-profit research institute to outfit, own and operate Core Lab. Donates $150 million.
2007 – Universities begin moving into their temporary offices in Village.
April 18, 2007 -Topping off ceremony for UNC building; groundbreaking for N.C. State building.
July 2007 – N.C. General Assembly bumps up funding for campus. UNC System receives $21.5 million, including a one-time $8 million appropriation, and N.C. Community College System gets $3.6 million, including one-time $1.3 million.
August 2007 – More than two dozen new subdivisions are underway or ready to break ground in and around Kannapolis. Some 7,000 new homes should come on the market in the next decade.Sept. 24, 2007 – Duke joins campus and launches longterm medical study with $35 million gift from Murdock.
November 2007 – Kannapolis and Cabarrus County officials sign agreement for tax increment financing bond issue, or TIF, to pay for infrastructure improvements around campus.
2007 – Rowan-Cabarrus Community College gains approval to offer associate degrees in biotechnology and agricultural biotechnology to prepare students for jobs at campus.
2007-08 -Numerous private companies sign agreements with campus, including Anatomics, Carolinas HealthCare System, LabCorp, Lovelace, PPD, Red Hat, Zeiss and Sensory Spectrum.
2008 – Eight universities have research programs in Kannapolis. In lease-to-own agreement, they will rent space from Murdock for 20 years, when state will own the university buildings.
July 2008 – N.C. General Assembly increases funding for campus again.
Legislators give additional $6 million to UNC System, bringing total annual appropriation to $19.5 million.
N.C. Community College System receives additional $1 million, bringing annual funding to $3.3 million. Money will pay for salaries, programs and rent.
Aug. 1, 2008 – Murdock Research Institute’s self-imposed deadline to name chief executive officer for Core Lab comes and goes. International search continues.
Aug. 4, 2008 -Campus takes delivery on the world’s strongest magnet, a 950-MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer.September 2008 – Due to bad economy, Kannapolis delays sale of $168.4 million TIF bond package.
Oct. 20, 2008 – Campus officially opens. Dedication of Core Lab, UNC and N.C. State/Dole buildings.