Orange County NC Website
26 <br />Several companies occupy space either in the Hamner Institute accelerator (Chaperone), one of <br />Alexandria's properties (Alpha V~, Gal~y and Micell) or the First Flight incubator that is <br />owned by the State of North Carolina (Dyzen). Considerable information is available about <br />these facilities and the business models they represent on line. <br />The remaining eight companies are located in Orange County. G-Zero is on campus in 200 SF at <br />the Lineberger Center, 450 West Street as is Enci Therapeutics. The company will move next <br />door into 400 SF of wet lab and office space on the tenth floor of the Mary Ellen Jones Building. <br />Rent will remain the same at $27/SF. Theralogics leases space at Franklin Square (1829 E. <br />Franklin St.) in an o~ce building owned by one to the principals. Progressive Computer <br />occupies an office building it owns in Eastowne office park. The Carrboro locations include <br />Webslingerz in Carr Mill over Weaver Street Market and New Media Campaign at 605 W. Main <br />Street. Finally, the Hillsborough locations are N. Churton Street just north of King Street for <br />Inneroptic and the Hillsborough Business Center on Dimmocks Mill Road near the Eno River for <br />MegaWatt Solar. The PI visited all of these locations and the flex space at North Chatham Park <br />where Aslbio is located. <br />The PI completed general reconnaissance of West Franklin Street, downtown Carrboro and <br />various Hillsborough locations. In the process, he visited the county-owned building on West <br />Franklin Street next to the proposed LJNC-CH incubator, numerous buildings in downtown <br />Carrboro, flex space on Eubanks Road in Chapel Hill, several office and flex locations in <br />Hillsborough and other space owned or leased by the county in Carrboro and Hillsborough. <br />Insi~hts from Hi~h-Tech Developments in the Triangle Re~iLon <br />American Tobacco Incubator American Tobacco Underground (ATU) is fully occupied with <br />primarily IT-oriented companies including Two Toasters (see App. B) in the basement of the <br />middle building on the campus. The Council for Entrepreneurial Development moved from its <br />high-quality spacious office building in RTP to cramped, cubicle-divided-B-space in ATU. This <br />move symbolizes the anticipated shift from established corporate-led economic growth based in <br />suburban locations to entrepreneurship-led growth in urban locations. The open question is <br />whether the latter will provide the basis for sustained job creation, earnings opportunities and <br />economic development.19 <br />19 Given the scope and focus of this study, it is easy to exaggerate the economic potential of the high-tech <br />companies like those at ATU. Very few are well established or sources of much new employment. Many <br />are trying to create a business by exploiting one marketing channel (the internet) with convenience <br />services. For example, it is unclear how much upside the startup has that wants to sell subscriptions to <br />help end users manage their social networks. <br />23 <br />