A Kentucky developer has confirmed its interest in renovating the Hill Building into a hotel – "with significant city and county assistance."

In a statement this afternoon, 21c Museum Hotels of Louisville said it had been approached by Greenfire Development, the Durham company that bought the 17-story landmark from SunTrust Bank in 2006.

According to the statement, 21c wants a $5 million public incentive and will come up with $40 million on its own for the conversion.

City Manager Tom Bonfield said an agreement with 21c is "in play."

However, in a memo to county commissioners last week, Deputy County Manager Marqueta Wilson said she had told 21c President Craig Greenberg that Durham County was "not prepared" to meet his request for $2 million. She said city officials taking part in a conference call also said they were "not prepared to offer the full amount requested."

In 2010, the city approved a $4.2 million incentive and the county $1 million for Greenfire, providing Greenfire began construction work by July 31, 2011 and completed the project by July 31, 2013. Greenfire met the first deadline by obtaining demolition permits for interior work, but has demonstrated little if any progress since then.

Bonfield said the 2010 incentives are still technically on the table, but it would be impossible for Greenfire to meet the completion deadline.
 

The notion of converting the 17-story Hill (aka SunTrust) Building downtown into a posh hotel is still alive, but has hit another stumbling block.

According to Deputy County Manager Marqueta Welton in a memo to the county commissioners, a prospective operator asked the county to raise its proffered incentive from $1 million to $2 million. Revenue projections don't warrant the increase, Welton wrote.

Technology company Inmar announced Thursday that it will invest $24.5 million in its Winston-Salem corporate headquarters and create 212 jobs over the next five years.

Inmar offers consulting and software services for clients in retail, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and other industries. The company already employs more than 640 people in Winston-Salem and in Forsyth and Mecklenburg counties.

The company will receive incentives worth more than $4.1 million if it meets investment and hiring goals.

The new jobs will pay an average annual wage of $72,83, plus benefits. The Forsyth County average is $41,912.

Claim: “The One N.C. Fund has created 60,000 jobs and produced $11 billion worth of investments since its inception.”

Speaker: Walter Dalton at Democratic gubernatorial debate Monday

Stanley Furniture announced Monday that it will expand its presence in High Point and create 42 jobs over the next three years.

The company, which has offices in High Point and Stanleytown, Va., is investing $4 million to consolidate its showroom and two corporate offices into a new High Point facility.

Stanley will receive a $335,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund if it meets hiring and investment goals.

The company expects the payroll for the new jobs will be more than $2.5 million, which works out to an average annual salary of just under $60,000

Stanley makes high-end furniture for the residential market. It makes furniture for adults under the Stanley brand and children's furniture under the Young American brand.

Young America furniture is manufactured at the company's plant in Robbinsville, which employs more than 350 people.

An Ohio-based operated of call centers announced today that it will expand its facility in Rutherford County and create 195 jobs over the next three years.

Ameridial will invest $2.1 million in its facility in Spindale, about 70 miles west of Charlotte.

The company will receive a $100,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund if it meets hiring and investment goals.

The average annual payroll for the new positions will exceed $4.2 million, plus benefits, the company said. That works out to a salary of at least $21,538 per employee.

The Rutherford County average is $28,392.

Privately held Ameridial is based in North Canton. The company employs more than 800 service and sales professionals at eight centers in Ohio and North Carolina.

Ameridial focuses on call centers for the health insurance industry.

A Michigan freight shipping brokerage company plans to create 201 jobs in Charlotte in the next three years, the N.C. Department of Commerce said today.

XPO Logistics picked Charlotte to establish its North American Operations Center, where it will house corporate functions like accounting, brokerage and finance. The jobs will pay an average wage of $56,606, which is above the Mecklenburg County average.

The state commerce department approved a $3.2 million financial incentive package for XPO if the company creates the jobs by 2014. XPO picked Charlotte over competing sites in Texas and South Carolina.

Formed in 1989, XPO is a third-party logistics services provider helps its clients arrange for ground, sea and air shipping.

A New York plastics manufacturer plans to open a facility in Rutherford County and create 54 jobs over the next three years.

Alliance Precision Plastics will invest at least $300,000 in the facility in Spindale, about 70 miles west of Charlotte.

The Rochester-based company will receive a $48,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund if it meets hiring and investment goals.

Alliance Precision makes injection molding plastics and other products for commercial, industrial and medical companies.

Alliance is acquiring the assets of Molding Dynamics, an injection molding operation in Spindale. Molding Dynamic employees who have been laid off will have the opportunity to apply for positions with Alliance.

Duke Energy is proposing a half dozen new energy-efficiency measures and cash incentives to encourage customers to invest in household upgrades. The incentives range from $30 to $400 and can be used in tandem with state and federal incentives, where applicable.

The Charlotte-based electric utility filed the request today with the N.C. Utilities Commission, the regulatory agency that must approve the measures as sound and worthwhile before customers can take advantage of them. Approval is likely since the measures are comparable to those already offered by Raleigh-based Progress Energy. 

Approval would also allow Duke to recover its program costs -- incentives, administrative and other expenses -- from all customers through their monthly bills. The rationale for spreading the costs is that all customers benefit from cleaner air and system-wide energy reductions that reduce the need for building costly new power plants. Energy-efficiency programs are considered the most cost-effective way to manage power demand.

Duke has about 180,000 customers in Chapel Hill, Durham and other parts of the Triangle, amounting to about 10 percent of the company's customer base in North Carolina.

Caterpillar has chosen a site near Athens, Ga. for a new manufacturing plant that is expected to employ 1,400 people.

The heavy equipment-maker had also been considering a site just west of Wilmington.

Georgia's governor, Nathan Deal, made the announcement this morning. Caterpillar will invest $200 million in Clark and Oconee counties, the governor's office said.

This marks the second time in less than a year that a company has passed on building in an area along the border between Brunswick and Columbus counties.

Continental Tire last year considered building a $500 million facility that would have brought as many as 1,500 jobs to the area. The company ended up choosing a site in South Carolina.