KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – Faced with stagnant development at the , the Kannapolis City Council agreed Monday to find a new way to build a public health department.
City manager Mike Legg said there is a "tremendous amount of concern" about keeping infrastructure development moving at the Research Campus, a $1.5 billion public-private science complex in downtown Kannapolis.
The economy has slowed development at the 350-acre campus, where only one new building is under construction and a major tenant (Pharmaceutical Product Development, plans for 300 jobs) recently pulled out.
The council agreed to join the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners in contributing this year’s revenues, about $2 million total, from a special tax district to finance a new building for the Cabarrus Health Alliance across from the Research Campus on Dale Earnhardt Boulevard.
Originally, the city and county planned to fund the health department and millions of dollars in other Research Campus projects with tax increment financing bonds. But the market for TIF bonds evaporated when the economy tanked, just before the city issued them.
For details, see the report.
