Downtown Kannapolis woes proving to be a drag on N.C. Research Campus
Main lab building at NCRC
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By Emily Ford, Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Faced with the demise of downtown, Kannapolis leaders are wrestling with how to bring retail, shoppers and jobs back to the former Cannon Village.
During a recent long-range planning retreat, city staffers called the downtown "emptying" and "dead." Vacant storefronts hurt development at the nearby N.C. Research Campus, they said.
Potential tenants at the Research Campus wonder why downtown is "so dead," said business and community affairs director Irene Sacks, who urged the Kannapolis City Council to consider several ways to spark downtown development. For prospective businesses, "it raises the question of whether to invest" in the Research Campus, Sacks said.
Her proposals included a facade improvement grant program and a municipal service district, where downtown tenants and David Murdock, who owns nearly all of downtown, would pay a tax to generate revenue for marketing and promotion.
For more details, read the Salisbury Post report.
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