"Rock Creek is 31 years old and still isn’t at capacity. Business has picked up in recent years, however. Since 2006, Beard said he’s sold or developed 250 acres, creating about $230 million in taxable real estate."
Did you catch that? 31 years and they still haven't filled up the industrial park. None of our industrial parks are filled. And from the next paragraph:
“We have full infrastructure. We have the water, sewer, gas, and that was not done with public money,” Beard said."
Rock Creek Center is a privately owned industrial park located in Whittsett-- the closest to the Project Haystack site and home to the American Express data center. The assumptions that went into the Project Haystack study are literally pie in the sky, best case scenario, fairy tales that are simply unachievable in Guilford County.
The study assumes there will be $408.2 Million Dollars of annual private investment in the project each and every year for the next 20 years. There isn't that much private investment in the whole of Guilford County. From the Project Haystack Executive Study pried from the City of Greensboro via threats and intimidation.
"Assumptions - Analysis of the potential economic impacts of Project Haystack assume that the site would be developed over a period of 20 years. The Site Preparation Phase is assumed to occur during Years 1 and 2, with an investment of approximately $88 million in site design, infrastructure, and landscaping. The Construction, Machinery, & Equipment Phase is assumed to occur during Years 2 through 20, at a constant rate of 250,000 square feet of advanced manufacturing and public safety space per year and 350,000 square feet of data center and secure data center space per year. The Facility Operation phase is assumed to occur during Years 3 through 20, adding 145 advanced manufacturing and public safety jobs per year and 71 data center and secure data center jobs per year, for a total increment of 216 jobs per year."
Assumptions, constant rate, assume, potential economic impacts, assumed.... all words that tell you they don't have facts or figures to back up their assumptions. And may I remind you that not one company, not one single company has signed on to build a data center or advanced manufacturing facility down on the farm.
Remember folks: this is being brought to you in-part, by some of the very same people who are still trying to ram the publicly supported but privately owned, Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center down Greensboro's throats. So to my new-found readers in Gibsonville, Elon, Burlington and Alamance County, please join Greensboro in boycotting Tanger properties like Tanger Outlet Malls and the Burlington Manufacturers Outlet Mall.
