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8 <br /> County records show that 430 jobs have been retained and/or created by these 96 small <br /> businesses in the past 12 months. <br /> (b) The "LAUNCH Chapel Hill"innovation center's lease was renewed for another 3 years, and <br /> is nearly doubling in size to add more co-working space. LAUNCH has assisted a total of 63 <br /> entrepreneurial start-ups and is now hosting its 6th "cohort" class of new tech firms. Total <br /> employment supported by the various LAUNCH firms is approximately jobs. <br /> (c) Orange County Economic Development has created a new web-based searchable database <br /> listing all identified Orange County firms, large and small. <br /> General Business Recruitment Efforts <br /> (a) The County& Town of Chapel Hill partnered to successfully recruit a Wegmans retail <br /> center to the U.S. 15-501 corridor. The Wegmans facility, once built, will generate 350 full- <br /> time equivalent jobs, and generate nearly $1.7 million in annual retail sales tax and property <br /> taxes for the County and towns. The County& Town will co-share in the incentive <br /> inducement agreement with Wegmans. <br /> (b) In early 2016, the Board of Commissioners approved funding to extend utilities further into <br /> the Buckhorn Economic Development District via the "Efland Sewer to Mebane Phase II <br /> Extension". Debt service funding will be covered by the 1/4 cent sales tax proceeds for <br /> economic development. <br /> (c) The County intends to issue a Request for Proposal(RFP)very soon to conduct a SWOT <br /> analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) to better asses the business <br /> recruitment potential of sites located within the County's 3 economic development districts. <br /> (d) In the past year the County received 59 investment inquiries from a variety of commercial, <br /> light industrial & distribution prospects, and was able to respond to 36 leads by providing <br /> information on our available real estate sites and buildings. <br /> (e) Top project sources were the State of North Carolina's business recruitment agency, <br /> commercial brokers & developers, our local Chambers of Commerce & Towns, site selection <br /> consultants, utilities, and direct leads. <br /> (f) Obstacles that limit the County's ability to pursue some prospect leads include our <br /> community's lack of inventory for suitable buildings of the projects' requested size, ceiling <br /> height or type. Or,prospects seeking larger acreage requirements than available; and, large <br /> water& sewer requirements that cannot be provided locally. <br /> (g) Morinaga America Foods, Inc. held a grand opening ceremony earlier in 2016 and has <br /> reached its' Phase One employment target of approximately 90 jobs with 2 production shifts. <br /> Prepared by: <br /> Steven Brantley <br /> Director, Orange County Economic Development <br /> 11/7/16 <br />