Itís always interesting to see where Rowan County names pop up when The Charlotte Business Journal publishes its annual lists of things like physician groups and motels in the region, ranking them by size. Salisbury may be on the fringe of the Charlotte metro area, but several local businesses and institutions are in the thick of the regionís economy.
Consider the Hefner V.A. Medical Center, with 484 beds. Last year the Salisbury center was the third-largest hospital in the region behind Carolinas Medical Center with 874 beds and Presbyterian with 531, according to the Business Journal. CMC-NorthEast and Rowan Regional rank fourth and eighth, with 457 and 268 beds, respectively.
A list of largest area physician groups shows how Carolinas Health Care and Novant are dominating the market. Carolinas Physicians Services Group tops the most recent list with 1,263 staff physicians, followed by Presbyterian Novant Medical Group with 612. From there the size of area practices drops off dramatically. Ranking third was CaroMont Medical Group in Gastonia with 150 doctors. The medical business is so concentrated in the hands of The Big Two that a ranking of the 24 largest practices includes a couple with only 10 doctors. No independent Rowan or Cabarrus practices made the list.
The Salisbury Holiday Inn earned a spot on the publicationís ranking of largest hotels. Charlotte hotels dominate, and The Westin Charlotte sits at the top with 700 rooms and 1,220-2,000 banquet/meeting room capacity. The Holiday Inn on Jake Alexander Boulevard tied for 24th-largest hotel with three Charlotte hotels ó all having 181 rooms ó and was way ahead of its peers with a banquet/meeting room capacity of 400-670. That reflects the Holiday Innís power to generate tourism dollars.
The largest Charlotte-area banks and savings and loans include one institution based in Rowan County ó F&M Financial Corp. of Granite Quarry with $518,151,000 in deposits. F&M came in 14th in the region.
Miller Davis of Salisbury shows up on a couple of lists. It came in second among the largest area web design companies, reporting 282 websites developed in 2009, and seventh among the top advertising and marketing agencies in the region with $25.4 million in local capitalized billings in 2009.
We could go on ó Delhaize America/ Food Lion is the largest foreign-owned company in the area and North Carolinaís fourth-largest nongovernmental employer. The Business Journal compiles more than 100 rankings, many with local businesses on them. Winning a mention on a list doesnít add to a companyís bottom line, but itís a good way to put local firms in perspective.