Wilson Attracts Other Counties' Workers

Source from:  newsobserver.com Dudley Price, Staff Writer 09/25/2006

Business expansions, new highways ease layoff pains When executives at Richmond, Va.-based steel distributor BMG Metals began planning an expansion into North Carolina, their first choice for a new warehouse location was Raleigh. Instead, BMG Metals chose Wilson. There, warehouse space costs half as much and four-lane highways meant that deliveries to Raleigh, Greenville and Clayton were only 35 minutes away. "The bypasses were almost as important as the leasing rates," said BMG's general manager, Gary Hodges. "Highway and transportation-wise, it's probably the best town in Eastern North Carolina -- including Raleigh." BMG and other companies help explain how the city of Wilson -- population 47,441 -- has rebounded from an uncertain future just three years ago. New businesses are only part of the story. Spillover from Wake County is aiding growth in Wilson -- both the town and county. Many in the area say that the growth wouldn't have been possible without some other big changes. Among them: * Completion of the U.S. 64/264 Knightdale bypass in July 2005. The highway, which connects the Raleigh Beltline to the U.S. 64/264 freeway near Wendell, eliminated 14 stoplights through Knightdale and cut the drive to Raleigh significantly. * Completion of the U.S. 264 Wilson bypass in December 2002, which cut the drive to Greenville and East Carolina University's medical facilities in half. Wilson is gaining residents who work in Greenville. * Utility expansions, including a countywide water system. "Raleigh is worrying whether they can wash cars," said Jennifer Lantz, executive director of the Wilson Economic Development Council, referring to the capital city's drought-related water restrictions. "We've got 50 million gallons of excess capacity in our reservoir." * The 2004 national tobacco buyout. Before the buyout, land in the area was too valuable to turn into subdivisions. "It's sort of like the perfect storm, in a positive way," Lantz said. "All these things are coming together at the same time, which makes it look like Wilson is exploding." Rebound after layoffs Three years ago, the landscape was a bit different. The area was hurting after tobacco and textile plants shut their doors and began laying off more than 2,300 workers. The year 2003 was particularly bad, with Universal Leaf moving 1,200 jobs to Nash County and Greensboro-based VF Corp. laying off about half of its 1,135 textile workers. But even then, Wilson was luckier than many communities in the state, because it was not completely dependent on tobacco and textiles. Its major employers included Bridgestone/Firestone, BB&T and pharmaceutical companies Merck and Sandoz. As the economy improved, companies increased their payrolls -- the county gained 700 jobs last year -- and helped bring new companies to town. Now those companies are expanding, too. BMG Metals began operations with 16 employees in October and already plans to double its work force. Absolute Plastics, another new employer, will bring 150 jobs. Wilson now has a total of 200 more jobs than before the downturn, Lantz said. However, Wilson hasn't completely recovered. The county's July unemployment rate was 8.3 percent, higher than the state's July average of 5.1 percent, according to the state Employment Security Commission. And although income is rising, it also is slightly below the average for the state. Last year, Wilson had estimated per capita income of $19,320, up 11.6 percent over 2000. Meanwhile, the statewide per capita income was $22,278. It's not that the new jobs don't pay well -- salaries for 131 new jobs announced last month at Kidde Aerospace average $42,000 -- but that they require skills that many who were laid off don't have, said Terri Williams, manager of the Wilson ESC/Joblink office. Those workers are left to take jobs in retail, at restaurants and in janitorial services. New communities There's also plenty of work in home building: All of those new workers are helping feed a mini real estate boom. Residential real estate brokers are selling record numbers of homes. Home sales in the city of Wilson totaled 976 last year -- up 51 percent from 2001 -- and homes are selling at an even faster clip this year, according to the N.C. Association of Realtors. "We're having as good a year as we've ever had," said Jeff Chesson, owner of the Chesson Agency. He has been in business 29 years. "We've sold 59 homes in the last 60 days. Last week, we closed [on] 14 homes." And developers are racing to put up more. Last year, the city of Wilson issued 253 residential building permits. Through August of this year, developers have submitted plans for 509 single-family lots and another 144 lots for condominiums or apartments. There's similar growth in the county, which issued a record 203 residential building permits in 2005, up 65 percent from 2001. But not all of those homes are being bought by people who work in Wilson. The same road network that has attracted new companies has turned the commute from Wilson to the Raleigh Beltline into a 30-minute jaunt. Couple that with lower home prices -- the average is $141,772, compared with Raleigh's $232,367 -- and Wilson has started looking pretty good to many Wake County workers. "Just like Johnston, Harnett and Franklin counties, we're starting to see some of that growth," said Joey Raczkowski, Wilson County's planning director. Getting more house Tommy Mitchell bought a home in Sims, about six miles west of Wilson, in January. The Raleigh native retired from IBM, but his wife still works in Raleigh and drives about 40 minutes to her job at an oral surgeon's office. Despite gas prices, Mitchell says the move made sense financially. The couple traded a 1,600-square-foot home on a quarter-acre in northwest Raleigh for a 3,000-square-foot house with an office, hardwood floors, four baths, four bedrooms, a den and a formal dining room, on a 1.5-acre lot. The price: $270,000, half what a comparable home in Raleigh would have cost, he said. "For half the price of a house in Raleigh, I can buy a lot of gas," Mitchell said. "The quality of life is better, we're 10 minutes from Wilson, and I can still do things in Raleigh because we aren't that far away." Enditem