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Think about the time in your life when you might have gone house-hunting. If it was in the last 10 years or so, you likely didn't start by calling every real estate agent in the Southeast or even your own county. You probably went online or opened an app like Zillow, typed in three bedrooms and a good school district, limited your geography to no more than 30 minutes from work, and watched a few hundred listings shrink to a couple dozen. You toured a handful. You fell for two. And only then, at the very end, did you start negotiating on price, closing terms, and the rest. Hold onto that picture, because a growing company choosing a new location goes through almost exactly the same thing, just with more spreadsheets, more zeros, and a lot more people involved. But first, a lesson in risk management... totally what you expected, right? Growth Is Risky. Risk Management Is Necessary. Risk is basically a four-letter word in business. It represents the unknown: all those far-flung scenarios nobody expects but that could still happen. The moment a company decides to grow into a bigger or brand-new facility is, oddly enough, one of the riskiest stretches of its entire corporate life. Act too soon, too late, too big, or too small, and the consequences can follow a company for decades, or even possibly sink a once-growing company into oblivion. It's a decision a typical company makes only extremely rarely, so it had better be right. So, the company gathers information. Lots of it….alongside data, perhaps some expertise, and likely a process, anything that leads to the most informed decision with the least risk in the shortest reasonable amount of time. We picture that narrowing as a funnel: many communities go in the top, and only one comes out the bottom (fingers crossed, it’s yours at the bottom). Who's at the Table First, there's Company X, the one with the need and the one driving this whole cycle. Some companies, usually smaller ones with a pretty defined geography in mind on Day 1, may choose to run the search themselves. Many others bring in a site selector, sometimes called a site consultant: an independent expert hired to guide the search, from building the shape and look of the funnel to negotiating with the final two or three communities near the bottom. There's no right or wrong path, but site selectors do this for a living, while most companies go through it once or twice in their entire history. Early on, the site selector is the company's eyes and ears, and frankly, the one making the early cuts, kicking communities out of the funnel. On the other side of the table are the “ocean” of potential communities. A project might reach out to our EDC office directly, through the state's Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC), or through our regional partner, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. Either way, we're usually in response mode, and as we covered in our post on code names, we often don't even know who the company is yet. Down the Funnel The first cut happens online. Just like you on Zillow, most communities are eliminated from a desk before anyone picks up a phone or sends an email. Consultants pull data on workforce, available sites and buildings, and utilities, much of it from public sources, a local EDC website, or subscriptions they maintain with data providers. A community can be cut without ever knowing it was in the running, which is why keeping our data accurate and current is a bigger part of our job than most people would guess. Big credit to Tim Bolick on our team, who does this superbly! Then comes the Request for Information (aka RFI). Every company has a list of what matters most, and as with most things in economic development, this isn't rocket science: tax policy, logistics, access to talent, business costs. The full list can delve into all sorts of minutiae (always a fun word to use), but there are usually 4 to 6 true dealbreakers. Think "an international airport within an hour," one of the most common filters we see, or "the property must sit on a Class 1 railroad like Norfolk Southern." Those requirements become a Request for Information (or RFI): a detailed questionnaire we answer with sites, buildings, utility capacity, workforce data, and more. Turnaround can be as little as a few days, which is exactly as fun as it sounds when the questionnaire can run pages upon pages of detailed questions. Again, credit to Tim here. Site visits. If our answers hold up, the company may come see us in person: touring properties, meeting utility providers, and sometimes talking with local employers about hiring here. Every so often, we learn later that a consultant had already driven through town quietly, stopped by a nearby coffee shop, or chatted with hotel staff to get a "flavor" of the community, all before we knew we were on any shortlist or before had even started our community slide deck. The Finalists, and Where Incentives Finally Come In Eventually it comes down to two or three communities, often in different states, and any one of them could probably work as a site for the future of Company X. Only now does the last question come up, and it brings us to a very big misconception about recruitment: that communities win projects by writing the biggest check. Now, it does happen – communities “throwing money” at opportunities. However, I can unequivocally say that is not our community’s method and that we have dozens of wins over the years in which our community’s proposed incentives surely were the most conservative proposal the company received. It is important to remember that incentives act as a potential tiebreaker between places that already meet the company’s needs, but no incentive can make up for a missing airport or a workforce that simply isn’t there. In reality, we’ve won most of our projects through the years marrying necessary local/state incentive support alongside powerful arguments and evidence that show our community offers the least risk, best chance for long-term success. Another point to hit while we are in the neighborhood - when a company leads with "what incentives can you offer?" before asking a single question about sites or local talent, that's usually a red flag for us. It's the house hunter asking for a discount before walking through the front door: shopping on price, not fit. Those tend to be the projects we're least eager to chase, or ones we simply don't chase at all. And when incentives do come into play, they work the way we laid out earlier in this series: performance-based, paid only after a company invests and hires, and backed by safeguards if it doesn't deliver. Why This Matters for You, and What's Coming Down the Pike Most of what wins or loses a project happens early, quietly, and long before anything reaches a public hearing. It comes down to fundamentals: ready sites, a capable workforce, good data, and fast, accurate answers…and yes, the responsiveness and interest of the state/regional/local team. Thankfully we tend to be able to check many of those boxes, allowing Catawba County to stay in the funnel for many such opportunities. Between Part 1 and this post, we've spent a lot of time on recruiting new companies from outside the county. Next up is the other half of our mission, and one that's every bit as important: business retention and expansion (BRE), or how we help the employers already here grow, hire, and stay. Got a question about anything in this post? Send it to me at nhuret@catawbacountync.gov.

You've probably driven past it: a cleared lot off one of our highways, a construction fence with a rendering zip-tied to it, maybe just a small sign that reads “Coming Soon.” Ever wonder how that company ended up choosing this particular patch of Catawba County dirt, out of every county in the country that would have loved to land them? We've covered a lot of ground in this series so far - the basics of what economic development actually is, how local incentives work, why some projects carry a code name instead of a real one. Now we want to turn to the piece most people associate with economic development in the first place: business recruitment. On paper, it's a simple concept. In practice, it's more intricate to carry out - and a fair amount of what people assume about it isn't quite right. Here's the misconception worth clearing up first: business recruitment tends to get pictured as economic developers going hunting – which we sometimes do, but the honest version is closer to the reverse. Someone is hunting a solution to their business need or problem, and that solution might be us. Let's get into why. What Is Business Recruitment (BR)? Nothing mystical here: business recruitment is the process by which we try to bring a new business operation to locate and grow in Catawba County. It's the other half of the two-bucket framework we introduced back in our first post: recruitment on one side, retention and expansion of the businesses already here on the other. We'll cover that side of the house in a whole series of upcoming posts. Most recruitment opportunities follow a common playbook. Stripped down, it isn't all that different from the process of making a big purchase, like a car. You identify the need, figure out which features matter most, start researching dealers and inventory, compare pricing, whittle it down to two or three finalists, and then work to get the best deal. Business recruitment runs much the same way, except the “dealers” are geographies: counties, states, even countries. And today, tools like the internet and AI research make evaluating a location 2,500 miles away just about as easy as checking out the dealer down the street. Business recruitment itself usually begins in some unremarkable conference room at Company X - long before we, or anyone else, knows an opportunity exists. These are typically well-established, growing companies based elsewhere in the U.S. or abroad, and something inside that company is starting to push toward change. Maybe it's a major new customer growing their book of business. Maybe it's a shifting tariff landscape, which has been a real factor for a lot of companies in 2025 and 2026. Maybe it's simply the headache of shipping product from a current facility to where their customers actually are. Whatever the driver, it plants a small idea in that conference room: “Maybe we need a new location — but where?” That's the moment business recruitment actually starts, and it starts with them, not us. Why Does It Matter? For our loyal ED101 readers (hi, Mom): we covered this in our first post, but it bears repeating. One goal of the EDC's work is to keep diversifying our local economy - more types of eggs, spread across more baskets. If calamity strikes, we might lose a few eggs, or even a basket. But never everything at once. Our area has seen more of that kind of volatility than most, and diversification is one of the more direct ways to hedge against it. Bringing a new business operation into the county is one of the clearest ways to do that. Sometimes it starts small - a sales or service office meant to establish a foothold. Other times, it's a substantial capital investment, especially if the company already has a proven U.S. market. Either way, that company didn't exist here before, and its arrival adds something real to the mix: a new economic sector, new kinds of jobs, sometimes new technology, occasionally a new international connection without a flag planted here. And their investment adds to the tax base, hopefully lessening the financial burden otherwise bestowed upon every man, woman and child in Catawba County. What's the EDC's Role in BR? Strip away the flash, and most of our role in business recruitment is actually just listening. We listen to the company weighing this decision, to what's driving them, and to what worries them most - sometimes that's as basic as this being their first-ever U.S. operation. We listen to their timeline too, and sometimes for clues about who they even are, since that isn't always shared upfront. We're also listening for something else: whether this is a company we even want in our community (clue: not always). So yes, this can play out something like the car-buying process described above. But the best salespeople don't push you toward a particular option right out of the gate - not at a dealership, and not in economic development. They listen to the customer first. Once that listening is underway, our role becomes less about selling and more about helping the company navigate real information and get to the best possible analysis: real estate options, utility capacity, whether a community college training program lines up with the talent pipeline they'd need. The list truly can go on and on depending on the features that matter to them. It comes down to knowing this community deeply and knowing how to represent it honestly and well, which takes genuinely loving the place you live and knowing the people in it. Our office carries more than 100 years of combined economic development experience, all of it built right here in Catawba County. Combine deep local knowledge, real relationships, and a genuine love for this place, and you end up being a formidable competitor against every other community chasing the same company. What's Next That's the setup. In Part 2, we'll get into the actual mechanics: who's typically involved in bringing an opportunity to the table, and how the process - we call it “the funnel” - moves from first contact to a final decision. We'll also get into what genuinely matters to a company once they're comparing us against everyone else. Incentives are part of that list, but as those smart ED101 readers already know from our earlier posts, they're rarely the deciding factor people assume. Got a question about anything in this post, or a topic you'd like to see us tackle in a future one? Send it our way to nhuret@catawbacountync.gov — that's exactly what this series is for.

Claremont, N.C., September 10, 2026 – Prysmian, the leading provider of solutions for energy and digital connections, broke ground today on a major expansion of its Claremont, North Carolina, campus, marking the start of a $1.02 billion investment to more than double the company’s U.S. fiber optic production capacity and strengthen domestic manufacturing of critical digital infrastructure. Prysmian executives were joined by leaders from Molex, Claremont Mayor Shawn R. Brown and representatives from the NC Rural Economic Development organization, as well as the Catawba County Commissioners office for a groundbreaking ceremony to commemorate the start of construction. The expansion will increase Prysmian’s glass preform and fiber manufacturing capacity and create 300 new local jobs. “Today’s groundbreaking represents an important milestone for Prysmian, the Claremont community and the future of optical fiber and connectivity in the United States,” said Andrea Pirondini, Prysmian North America CEO. “This investment reflects our long-term commitment to domestic manufacturing and to building the capacity needed to support the next generation of digital infrastructure. We’re equally proud that this growth will create hundreds of new opportunities for people here in Catawba County.” In addition to the fiber facility, Prysmian is also investing approximately $48 million in its optical cable manufacturing operations on the Claremont campus. The project will increase production capacity and create an additional 85 jobs over the next two years, bringing the company’s total planned job creation in Claremont to 385 positions. “Prysmian has been an important part of the Claremont community, and this significant investment represents an exciting new chapter for both the company and our city,” said Claremont Mayor Shawn R. Brown. “These new jobs will provide meaningful opportunities for local residents while further establishing Claremont as a community where advanced manufacturing can grow and thrive. We’re proud that Prysmian continues to see the value of investing here.” “Prysmian’s continued investment in Catawba County is a testament to the strength of our workforce and our region’s ability to support innovative, world-class manufacturing,” said Randy Isenhower, Chair of the Catawba County Board of Commissioners. “An expansion of this magnitude will have a lasting impact well beyond the walls of this facility, supporting economic growth and strengthening Catawba County’s role in building the infrastructure that will power our increasingly connected economy.” These projects are part of Prysmian’s recently announced investments across North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee to expand domestic fiber and optical cable manufacturing capacity and create approximately 600 new U.S. manufacturing jobs. The additional Claremont capacity will also support Prysmian’s $6.29 billion long-term agreement with Molex to supply optical cables for advanced digital infrastructure. The agreement will help the companies address growing demand for high-performance connectivity driven by artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other data-intensive applications. “Molex and Prysmian share a commitment to helping customers address rapidly evolving connectivity requirements,” said Joe Nelligan, CEO, Molex. “Prysmian’s investment in additional U.S. manufacturing capacity will strengthen our long-term collaboration and our ability to deliver the advanced optical connectivity solutions our customers need.” Construction on the Claremont expansion is expected to be completed in about 20 months, with the facility fully coming online in 2030. As Prysmian grows its manufacturing operations, the company is also expanding its workforce in Claremont and across the United States. To learn more about available job opportunities, text CLAREMONT to 57131 or visit Prysmian’s careers page. Prysmian North America Based in Highland Heights, Ky., Prysmian North America is a benchmark player creating solutions for energy and digital connections, delivering major electrical transmission projects, modernizing power grids, and unlocking renewable energy, electrification, and digital connectivity worldwide. Prysmian’s strategy is perfectly aligned with the main market drivers by developing resilient, high performing, sustainable, and innovative cable systems for the transmission, power grid, electricity, and digital solutions segments. Prysmian’s North American operations include more than 50 locations and 9,000 associates with sales of $9 billion. Additional information is available at na.prysmian.com. Globally, Prysmian is enabled by its 34,000 employees, 109 production facilities and 30 R&D centers in over 50 countries. Prysmian is a public company, listed on the Italian stock exchange and recorded 2025 revenues of approximately €20 billion. Media Relations Anna Wright VP, Marketing & Communications anna.wright@prysmian.com Justine David Mower jdavid@mower.com

by Cooper Metts, originally published here by Charlotte Business Journal, September 3, 2026 Scott Millar, president of the Catawba Economic Development Corp., is pictured in front of the agency's office at the Hickory Metro Convention Center. Photo by Charlotte Business Journal. The backbone of the Catawba County economy is largely comprised of businesses that operate data centers or supply key components to the industry. That’s a result of decades of economic development strategy and positioning. Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. both have massive data center campuses there. Prysmian North America and Corning, which manufacture critical data center components, continue to expand their operations in the county. Those companies alone have invested or plan to invest more than $5 billion since Apple’s arrival in 2009. The county and its economic development agency’s effort to attract these industries dates back to 2006. Scott Millar, president of the Catawba Economic Development Corp., discussed the strategy that led to digital infrastructure becoming a pillar of the county’s economy in an interview with CBJ. Following are edited excerpts. Click here to read the rest of the article at Charlotte Business Journal.

by Billy Chapman, originally published here by Hickory Daily Record, September 2, 2026 An international company’s plans to expand in Catawba County may deliver a large tax windfall for the county and city of Claremont. Prysmian, an electrical wire and fiber optic cable manufacturer, plans to invest $1 billion and expand an existing facility by 900,000 square feet in Catawba County. As part of an economic development agreement between the company, Catawba County and the city of Claremont, Prysmian will add at least 385 jobs. The jobs will pay at least $60,000 per year, according to the agreement. In exchange for the new $1 billion investment and jobs, the company could receive a return of more than $50 million after paying property taxes to the county and city over 10 years. Click here to read the rest of the article from the Hickory Daily Record.

CITY OF CLAREMONT AND CATAWBA COUNTY NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS PURSUANT TO NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL STATUTE § 158-7.1 LEGAL NOTICE Notice is hereby given of Public Hearings to be held at a Special Joint Meeting of the Claremont City Council and Catawba County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., at the Hickory Metro Convention Center, 1960 13th Ave Dr SE, Hickory, North Carolina. The City of Claremont and Catawba County will hold public hearings and consider economic development agreements with Prysmian Cables and Systems USA, LLC (“Prysmian”) pursuant to North Carolina General Statute §158-7.1. This project involves the manufacture of fiber optic cable, telecommunications infrastructure products and related business systems. Performance-based grants will be considered with City and County total incentives not to exceed $28,631,106 and $27,328,135 respectively. Prysmian will create 385 new jobs and make an investment in taxable real and personal property improvements of up to $1,000,000,000.00. Failure to make the minimum investment and comply with other performance requirements will result in recapture of some or all incentive payments. The Claremont City Council and Catawba County Board of Commissioners intend to enter into economic development agreements to ensure performance and believe this project will help stimulate and stabilize the local economy. All interested persons are invited to attend this meeting to present their comments. Publish: August 15, 2026

Project Enzyme. Project Firestorm. Project Dolphin. Project So Awesome (yes, an actual name). Over the years, names like these have crossed our desks by the hundreds — in any given year, more than 120 potential projects come through our office, and the large majority of them arrive already wearing a code name like one of those. They just show up, we work the project to the best of our abilities, and either they become something real or quietly fade away. I want to say it was at a Rotary or Chamber presentation somewhere — someone in the crowd said, half-joking, “the EDC is basically the CIA of Catawba County.” I laughed, but I got why they said it — strange code names, projects nobody can talk about, information that seems to surface only after everyone else already knows. For the record, the closest I've ever come to actual espionage was a college internship application to the CIA that went nowhere. The agency clearly knew I wasn't cut out to be the next Jason Bourne. But the reasoning behind that confidentiality is worth explaining clearly because the confidentiality itself isn't something we naturally would choose. Whose Confidentiality Is This, Really? Here's the misconception, and it's an understandable one: people assume the secrecy around a project is our preference - that the EDC (or the local governments) is the one deciding what the public gets to know and when. That's not accurate. The confidentiality is the company's requirement, not ours, and that requirement comes from a few genuinely practical business reasons. Competitors are always paying attention. If a company is planning a new location, an expansion, or even a consolidation, getting that information out too early can hand a real advantage to whoever they're competing against. There's a human reason too: employees at a company's existing location shouldn't learn about a possible move or closure from a news article before they hear it from their own employer. A code name also helps level the playing field between companies — it keeps a smaller, less recognizable company from getting brushed aside in favor of a bigger name, at least until the project itself gets a fair and equal look. And frankly, some of the reasoning is just strategic timing: a company wants its own plans in order — talking to employees, briefing its board, preparing its own announcement — before the rest of the world finds out. For publicly traded companies especially, or businesses in highly competitive industries, that requirement sometimes comes formalized: we are occasionally asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before a company will even share the specifics of what they're considering. When that happens, the obligation is legal, not just courteous. Who Actually Comes Up with These Names A question I get asked often, and one that always seems to entertain people: who names these projects? Usually, not us. Most opportunities arrive already named, typically by the state economic development partners we work alongside — the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina or the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, most often — or by the site consultants running the search on a company's behalf. There's often very little logic behind the name itself — I've seen fish, birds, cartoon characters, lawn and garden equipment parts and names that make you scratch your head trying to find the connection. Sometimes a consultant just has a favorite hobby, and every project that consultant touches gets named to match that hobby, whether or not the name has anything to do with what the company actually makes. So don't read too much into a code name; the name itself rarely tells you anything about the company behind the project. A large majority of the time we don't even know which company sits behind a code name ourselves, at least not at first. On the more tightly held projects, we can work for weeks or months through a site consultant as the go-between, evaluating sites and answering questions about the community without ever learning the company's actual identity until later in the process. That has a real upside though: evaluating a project without knowing the name behind it keeps the process impartial. It's harder to get swayed, one way or the other, by a recognizable corporate name when all we're actually looking at is the jobs, the investment, the economic impact, and the sector fit. Not knowing helps us stay fair to every company that comes through the door, whether it's a household name or one nobody's heard of. Not Every Code Name Becomes a Real Project It is also worth saying: most of those 100-plus names that come through in a given year never turn into an announcement at all. A company might choose a different state, decide not to expand after all, or simply go quiet. That's actually very normal, and it's actually part of why confidentiality matters so much — talking publicly about every code name that crosses our desk would mean constantly raising and dashing expectations for a community, over projects that were never going to materialize here in the first place. Confidentiality protects the company, but it also spares this community from a steady stream of false starts. How We Handle Confidentiality on Our End Because of all those reasons, we treat information about an active project carefully within our own office, with municipal staff, and with elected officials — who often get their first look at an opportunity through a closed session. A closed session is a portion of a regular City or County meeting where the public isn't present (and grounded in North Carolina General Statutes aka law), typically held near the end of an already-scheduled board/council meeting. Key staff and elected officials attend to hear an overview and ask questions. No vote happens there, and no formal action can be taken there — North Carolina law doesn't allow votes or formal action in closed session. A closed session is strictly a listening and question-asking opportunity for local officials, nothing more. What Breaking That Trust Would Actually Cost It's worth hypothetically playing through the scenario - what would happen if we didn't honor that confidentiality? If we talked publicly about a project before the company was ready? It is almost certain that we would lose that project entirely. Reminder from our second Economic Development 101 article back in late July, “0% of a project that goes somewhere else is what we would get”. Zero jobs. Zero invested into the community’s tax base. Zero even for the local businesses that stood to benefit as suppliers or vendors to that new company. Likewise, we truly do depend on the quality of our relationships with site consultants and state staff. With a great relationship intact, consultants will often look for ways to try and include your community in the consideration for an opportunity (where it makes sense). Break that trust and we would significantly damage that relationship now and for a very long time to come, curtailing the number of opportunities we would even see, especially since site consultants account for at least half of all projects we end up seeing. Even worse, word would spread amongst other consultants, with the fallout spreading well beyond the initial reach of Project “X” and that one consulting group. When a Project Finally Becomes Public The timing of when a project becomes public is mostly set by the company itself, but for projects receiving state or local incentive support, there's a fairly predictable pattern. In connection with the company, the Governor's office is typically first to announce a project's real name, usually tied to a state incentive program like the Job Development Investment Grant or the One NC Fund. That timing matters for a legal reason: state and local incentives both require a “but for” clause, where the company affirms that without the incentive support, the project wouldn't be happening here. The state's announcement effectively confirms that connection publicly. Around the same time, our EDC/local government offices put out a press release to local media with the same information, including a note that the relevant City or County government will be considering local incentive support. Not long after that, a legally required public hearing notice follows - published in local media at least 10 days before the hearing itself (here is a copy of a notice just posted for a 9/1 economic development public hearing), laying out the high-level project details and the local incentive amounts under consideration, along with the date, time, and location where residents can attend and speak. Why This Matters for You The confidentiality that can feel frustrating from the outside is actually what keeps opportunities coming to Catawba County in the first place. Companies need real assurance that sensitive information will stay protected before they'll even consider bringing an opportunity here, and that trust is part of what keeps us in consideration against other communities. At the same time, that confidentiality never extends to the vote itself. Once a project reaches the incentive-consideration stage, the public hearing notice and the hearing that follows are your genuine opportunity to see the details and weigh in before your elected officials decide anything - the same public process we walked through in our last two posts on incentives. Up next, we're pulling back the curtain on the recruitment process itself - how a project actually moves from first contact all the way to a final decision, and everything that happens along the way. Have a question about this post, or anything else in the series? Send it my way at nhuret@catawbacountync.gov.

You've probably seen the headline before: a new company is coming to Catawba County, bringing jobs and investment. Maybe it had a curious code name attached - "Project" something-or-other. Maybe there was a public hearing, or a mention of a tax incentive, or a number that made you wonder. If you've ever found yourself asking what any of this actually means for you - your tax bill, your neighborhood, your kids' schools - you're not alone. It's a fair question, and it deserves a real answer. So let's start at the beginning. Not our beginning this year, or even this decade - our actual beginning. Where This All Started In 1975, a Chamber of Commerce taskforce sat down and did something nobody had really bothered to do before: they counted. They looked at all 439 industrial firms operating in Catawba County and asked a simple question - what are we actually made of? The answer was a little unsettling. Over 70 percent of our industrial base sat in just three fields, mostly various corners of textiles and furniture. We had, in essence, put a few ostrich-sized eggs in one fairly small basket. If any one of those industries had a bad decade (which eventually did happen), the whole county would feel it (which we most definitely did). That study led to the creation of the Industrial Development Commission in 1978 - the organization that would eventually become the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) you know today. Funnily enough, I keep a copy of the February 1977 "Chamber Views" article that laid out the original case for the “Commission” in the back of the notebook I haul to most meetings, mostly as a reminder. The name has changed. The org chart has changed. Heck, even some of the problems then, remain problems today. But the mission on that page is basically the same one we're chasing today. Diversification was never really about the industries themselves. It was always about two things that mattered to actual people - opportunity (jobs, and the kind of jobs that let people build a life here) and a tax base broad enough that homeowners aren't the [only] ones left holding the whole bill for schools, roads, and services. It's what pays for a new trail at the park, keeps the lights on for a Tuesday night rec league game, and keeps fire, police, and EMS crews fully staffed and quick to respond. It's the difference between a downtown that empties out at 5:00PM and one that has a reason to stick around. What We Actually Do Our work generally falls into two buckets. The first is recruitment - working to bring new companies into the county that add to that diversification, which means lots of research, relationship-building with site selectors, developers and the real estate community, and finding the best ways to make the case why Catawba County is the right home for a growing company. The second is just as important, and it's the one people hear about the least: helping the employers who are already here grow, hire, and stay. A lot of our week and staff energy/time goes toward the businesses that have been part of this community for years, sometimes decades - and we've got a lot more to say about that work in an upcoming post, including some of what we're building right now in partnership with local companies. Where We Fit We're not a government office, but we're also not far removed from one. We're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, funded operationally by local tax dollars - Catawba County and the Cities and Towns of Catawba, Claremont, Conover, Hickory, Maiden, and Newton all invest in this work. In practice, that makes us an extension of their municipal staffs, with one job and one job only: improve the local economy for the people who live in our respective Cities/Towns. So think of our role less as "a part of” government and more as "alongside" it: we do the groundwork, the research, the convening, the visioning. We're the ones often pulling people into a room to figure out what's possible, on behalf of the same six governments funding the effort. What we don't do is cast the final vote. When it comes to whether a specific incentive or project moves forward, that decision belongs to your elected officials, made in public. Our job is to bring them the clearest, most honest picture we can build — theirs is to decide. Why This is Personal, Not Just Professional It's worth knowing who's actually doing this work. Between the five and a half of us on staff, we carry more than 100 years of combined economic development experience — right here in Catawba County, not somewhere else. That's a lot of relationships built, a lot of deals we've learned from, and a lot of local knowledge otherwise obscured by a name like “EDC”. And yes, we live here too — raising kids in these schools, coaching in these leagues, choosing this county the same way a lot of you did. So when we talk about growing the tax base or bringing in new jobs, it isn't an abstract mission statement. We want it to be better for you, because it's better for us too. Where We Go From Here This is the first post in a series where we're going to walk through exactly how this process works — plainly, without the jargon, and without assuming you already know how any of it fits together. Up next: how local incentives actually work, and why a company doesn't just get handed a check. If you've ever wondered why a project shows up under a code name, or whether we're only interested in companies from outside the county, those posts are coming too. For now, the short version is this: this has been the work since 1978 — grow the county's economy in a way that benefits the people who already call it home, and be straightforward with you about how we do it. Nathan Huret is the Vice President of Catawba County EDC. Save a short 18-month stint that he left and worked at NC State, he has been with the EDC since 2007 and has led everything from the organization’s business retention and expansion efforts, to workforce programming, and now the EDC’s business recruitment efforts. This is the first post in an ongoing series from the Catawba County EDC team explaining how local economic development actually works. Have a potential topic you'd like us to address in a future post, please email Nathan Huret (nhuret@catawbacountync.gov).

Somewhere out there right now, someone is reading a headline about a new project coming to Catawba County, and there's a flicker of worry that this company's success — and its choice to land here — means a dollar is coming out of their own wallet or purse to make it happen. I get it. I'd think the same thing if I didn't do this for a living. It's probably the single most misunderstood piece of what we do, so let's take it head-on. First, a definition, because "incentive" gets thrown around loosely: in our world, a local incentive is a partial, time-limited reimbursement of the new property taxes a company generates by building or expanding here — nothing more, nothing less. Not an upfront grant. Not a blank check. Not money pulled from you or yours. We'll get to why that distinction matters in a minute. One more grounding note before we go further: none of this is something our office invented on our own. The whole process runs on North Carolina's Local Development Act (NC General Statute(s) 158-7.1) — state law, not local preference — and other states structure theirs quite differently. So what follows is specific to how Catawba County, and North Carolina, actually do this. Why we do this at all If Catawba County existed on an island, none of us would offer a dime. If we could keep 100% of the tax base benefit of every new company or expansion starting on day one, we would — no debate needed. But we don't operate on an island. Every company we recruit, and plenty of the ones already here, are comparing us against other counties, other states, sometimes other countries. Incentives are part of how that competition plays out almost everywhere, and if we opted out entirely while everyone else stayed in, we wouldn't be taking some principled stand — we'd just be losing. 0% of a project that goes somewhere else is what we would get. If that sounds uncomfortably close to everyday life, it should. You've probably waited for a Presidents Day sale on a dishwasher, taken the 0% APR deal at the dealership to finance that truck, or timed a shoe purchase to BOGO a second pair for 50% off. None of that talked you into buying something you didn't want. But if you were shopping for the same truck from Hickory to Barstow, California, the incentive might genuinely tip which dealer got your business when all else is equal. That's roughly the position we're in — except the "dealer" is a whole county, and the stakes are jobs and tax base instead of a car payment. We say "no" more than people think Here's the part that might surprise you: incentives aren't handed out just because a company asks. We turn down a lot of opportunities (I’d venture to say a very healthy majority) — companies whose wages don't clear our wage threshold (updated annually by the NC Department of Commerce, and for new companies we hold a higher bar, 110% of the county average), companies whose investment is too thin to broadly benefit the rest of us taxpayers, and sometimes companies whose operations just don't sit right with the community they'd be joining — think noxious fumes, heavy water and sewer draw, companies that create undesirable waste byproducts, or even a building nobody would be proud to drive past. Our office has recently taken on an unofficial motto: chase good companies, aspire higher, do it now. The reality is we do live in a great community with a lot of tremendous assets, and that puts us in a position to be selective. But companies are equally selective, so we can't get by on just our good looks (I tried that once — didn't get far). That's another reason incentives are a component of getting an opportunity across the finish line. How the money actually moves This is the misconception I most want to clear up: nobody gets paid upfront. A company has to build first, hire first, invest first (Step #1) — and prove it, with documentation sent straight to the Catawba County Tax Office and our EDC office — before a single incentive dollar is returned to the company. Because of this requirement (aka the company performs first), it is usually two to three years before any type of incentive reimbursement from the local government even starts. Once the company's investment is on the books, the county tax office assesses it at full market value, the same way your house gets assessed every January 1st. The company then pays 100% of the resulting property tax bill, at the normal rate, like anyone else (Step #2). Only after that does a portion of that new tax revenue — typically 50 to 75 percent — get returned to the company (Step #3), for an agreed-upon number of years spelled out in a contract before any of this starts. Break it down to simple numbers: the company pays us a dollar in new taxes, and we return fifty cents of it. We keep the other fifty cents. No other taxpayer's dollar is involved — the company is, in effect, funding its own incentive out of taxes that didn't exist in our county before they showed up. And it's worth being precise here: this only ever applies to the new taxes tied to the new investment. If a company already had a facility here, they always pay 100% on their existing machinery and buildings — no incentive we offer ever touches what was already on the books before this deal. The incentive only ever applies to whatever's new. Why this matters for your tax bill That "fifty cents we keep" isn't an abstraction — it's police coverage, fire and EMS response times, ensuring clean water flows out of your tap, the trail at the park we mentioned last time. And when the incentive term ends, which every one of them eventually does (typically after 3-5 years), 100% of that new tax revenue starts flowing to the county and cities for good. That's the diversified tax base we talked about in our first post — now you can see the mechanics behind it. What's still ahead We're only three steps into this explainer which may be a six-step process, and I'll be honest with you: there are entire books — real, published, footnoted books — written on the legal structure of local government incentives. Two shorts posts here aren't going to do the subject full justice, and I don't want to pretend otherwise. But we have to start somewhere, and plain language beats no explanation at all. Next time, we'll cover the other half of the six steps: the legally-binding contracts, the annual monitoring, and what happens — including real financial penalties — when a company doesn't hold up its end. That's the safeguard piece and important safety net each of us have as citizens and taxpayers. If there's a piece of this you want us to slow down on, or a question this raised that we didn't answer, send it my way at nhuret@catawbacountync.gov. This series only works if it's answering what you're actually curious about.

Study commissioned by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance outlines life sciences growth opportunities and an evidence-based strategy for targeted investment This Media Release is from the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Charlotte Region is well-positioned to compete for targeted life sciences investment. A new study commissioned by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance and conducted by Deloitte charts a path to get there, translating the region's existing life sciences momentum into an evidence-based strategy for focused, long-term growth. The study’s findings point to the Charlotte Region’s niche identity in medical technologies (“medtech”) and manufacturing operations. The region is home to 160 life sciences companies that employ 12,400 workers. Pictured: A row of vaccine vials moves along an advanced pharmaceutical production line, highlighting the precision and scale of modern vaccine manufacturing. “The Charlotte Region is already a medtech hub with established companies and trained workers built into our economy,” said Tracy Dodson, COO and head of economic development for the CLT Alliance. “This work gives us a clear, data-backed strategy for where to focus next so we can continue growing intentionally." The four-phase study engaged more than 50 stakeholders, representing higher education, real estate developers, local economic development, and industry leaders in life sciences. Insights from these interviews combined with a regional data analysis and benchmarking were used to determine the four primary target subsectors to help shape the Charlotte Region’s business recruitment strategy: medical technologies, which includes equipment and technologies used to diagnose, treat, and monitor medical conditions; contract manufacturing and technical services, which includes outsourced development, manufacturing, testing and packaging services; biologics, which includes production or packaging of drugs derived from living organisms; and nutrition and consumer health, which includes products and research focused on supplements, functional food, and consumer-driven health solutions. The study also identified secondary opportunities in small molecule pharmaceuticals, which include chemically synthesized drugs like over-the-counter medications; research tools and lab technologies; and digital health and health information technology, which includes software, data, and technology solutions that improve healthcare delivery. Pictured: Innovation starts with research. From the laboratory to the marketplace, science is creating new opportunities for agriculture, industry and our region. "Charlotte's opportunity is to connect its strengths: manufacturing, health systems, transportation, and a growing research base," said Charlotte-based Dr. Kulleni Gebreyes, vice chair and U.S. Life Sciences and Health Care industry leader, Deloitte. "With targeted investment and coordination, that manufacturing base could become the region's signature: a distinct identity that could draw talent, capital and opportunity." The case for Charlotte Charlotte has a well-established ecosystem for targeted life sciences attraction. The region is home to: More than 100 years of manufacturing heritage Several major health systems Charlotte Douglas International Airport The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, which was recently awarded R1 status Existing life science industry activity, including investments in The Pearl and the Wake Forest University School of Medicine When it comes to talent, workers in the advanced manufacturing and technology sectors have transferable skillsets that can be carried over directly into these target sectors. “We evaluated a number of markets for our expansion, and the Charlotte Region stood out for the infrastructure it already has in place, including its research talent, logistics access, and a health care system ready to partner on clinical work,” said Zach Henderson, chief executive officer of MindMaze Therapeutics. “The Pearl gave us a well-equipped space inside a community of peers already doing this work, which made Charlotte the clear choice for our next chapter.” The Pearl is a 26-acre innovation district in Charlotte anchored by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Connect Labs by Wexford, and IRCAD North America to create a collaborative hub for medical education, research, and surgical training. North Carolina has long been a leader in life sciences. Within North Carolina's life sciences landscape, Raleigh-Durham’s Research Triangle Park remains the dominant hub for research and development. Other emerging corridors like the Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem and the Biopharma Crescent in eastern North Carolina fill critical roles in medicinal research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, respectively. The Charlotte Region plays a complementary role with a growing niche in medical devices and equipment, surgical technologies, and pharmaceutical production through already-established companies like Eli Lilly, Bestco, and groninger. To the south, South Carolina's growing life sciences sector adds to the Charlotte Region's position, anchored by top research institutions, global employers, and world-class hospital systems in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville. Located along the North Carolina–South Carolina border, the Charlotte Region is uniquely connected to the full breadth of the Carolinas ecosystem. “South Carolina’s talented workforce and strong life sciences ecosystem made it clear this was the right home for our first U.S. manufacturing facility,” said Octapharma USA President Flemming Nielsen. “This is just the beginning of a long partnership with Rock Hill and York County, one that will strengthen America’s domestic supply of life-saving, plasma-based therapies for patients, hospitals and those who serve our country.” Partnerships with North Carolina Biotechnology Center and SCBio present a further opportunity to deepen the Charlotte Region's integration into the broader Carolinas ecosystem and strengthen its standing in the sector. The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance is also collaborating with the City of Charlotte on a complementary study and strategic framework plan for life sciences growth in the city. "Our research reinforced what we're hearing from employers across the sector: talent and funding are the two levers that will determine how fast this industry grows here,” said Shahid Rana, director of economic development for the City of Charlotte. “Partnering with the CLT Alliance on this work means we can move directly from data to action, together." Turning data into strategy The study is already informing action in the Charlotte Region. Three key recommendations for the CLT Alliance emerged from the research: Strengthen the ecosystem by exploring ways to align industry stakeholders, create connectivity, and advocate for life sciences-enabling infrastructure Build competitive capabilities through economic development capacity, data intelligence, and market intelligence Position the region by promoting a manufacturing-led health innovation ecosystem "These recommendations give us a shared playbook," said Nathan Huret, vice president of Catawba County Economic Development Corporation. "We’re telling a unified story of how the Charlotte Region is already a key player in the life sciences industry. Every county in the Charlotte Region benefits from that work, and we can point to real evidence when we're making the case for why a company in medtech or pharma or nutraceuticals should come here.” The CLT Alliance is already working with regional partners to translate the findings into a targeted recruitment strategy — one that identifies the right companies, the right sectors, and the right markets to pursue. This study gives the Charlotte Region a clear roadmap to build its own identity within the Carolinas' established life sciences sector. The region offers a high-value cost structure compared to many traditional life sciences markets, along with a manufacturing workforce with transferable skills. The Charlotte Region is well positioned for targeted life sciences investment, with a sharp focus on medical technologies and manufacturing-led opportunities. ### For more information, please contact: Ashley Hedrick, VP of Marketing Communications, and Engagement Charlotte Regional Business Alliance 336-250-4540 ahedrick@charlotteregion.com Nathan Huret, Vice President Catawba County EDC (828) 267-1564 nhuret@catawbacountync.gov

CLAREMONT, N.C. — Prysmian North America, the leading provider of solutions for energy and digital connections, today announced a major expansion of its existing Claremont facility that will add more than 385 new jobs and represent an investment exceeding $1 billion — the largest manufacturing project in Catawba County history. The expansion, which includes a new glass manufacturing facility, additional cable production capacity, and an expanded research and development center, is expected to be complete by 2030. Pictured: Prysmian Fiber Reels loaded on a truck. Prysmian, the Milan-headquartered parent company of Prysmian North America, is the world's largest manufacturer of cables and systems for energy and telecommunications. The company employs more than 34,000 people across 50 countries and serves customers across broadband infrastructure, power transmission, and advanced communications markets. The Claremont facility — one of the company's flagship North American production sites — has been a cornerstone of Catawba County's advanced manufacturing economy for decades, producing the fiber optic cable that underpins broadband expansion, 5G and 6G networks, and the high-capacity digital infrastructure driving demand for connectivity nationwide. The announced expansion will add approximately 900,000 square feet to the existing campus, including a new glass factory that will vertically integrate the facility's fiber production capabilities, a significant expansion of cable manufacturing operations, and new R&D facilities that will strengthen the site's role as a center of technical innovation within the Prysmian footprint. The company will hold a groundbreaking for the Claremont expansion in mid-September. "The $1 billion investment we are making in Claremont reaffirms our commitment not only to the local community but also to supporting advanced digital solutions throughout the United States,” said Andrea Pirondini, CEO, Prysmian North America. “Prysmian is one of just three domestic manufacturers of fiber and optical cables, so the products developed at Claremont are vitally important to enact transformational capacity growth.” "This is a historic day for Catawba County," said Randy Isenhower, Chair of the Catawba County Board of Commissioners. "No single manufacturing project in our county's history has approached this scale — in jobs, in investment, or in long-term economic impact. Prysmian's commitment to Claremont and to our region is a powerful statement about the strength of what we have built here together, and we are proud to stand behind their continued growth." "An investment of this magnitude is genuinely transformational for a community like Claremont," said Shawn R. Brown, Mayor of the City of Claremont. "When a company of Prysmian's stature commits to creating hundreds of new jobs and investing more than a billion dollars right here, it changes what is possible for our residents, our families, and our future. Having lived in Claremont my entire life, I have personally seen the growth in the fiber optic and telecom industry firsthand, and I'm personally grateful for the continued investment that Prysmian is making here. We are deeply proud and incredibly excited about what this means for our city. Prysmian is truly a cornerstone of industry in the City of Claremont.” "This announcement is further confirmation Catawba County is the preeminent location in the United States for communications technology manufacturing," said Jeff Cline, Chair of the Catawba County EDC Board of Directors. "Prysmian joins Corning Optical Communications, CommScope and others in a remarkable concentration of companies producing the fiber, cable, and connectors that connect our nation. This cluster is second to none, and projects like this one ensure it will continue to lead for generations to come." The Catawba County Board of Commissioners and the Claremont City Council will hold a joint public hearing on Tuesday, September 1, at 6:30 p.m. in the Catawba 3 Room of the Hickory Metro Convention Center to consider local incentives associated with Prysmian’s expansion. In addition to Catawba County and the City of Claremont, key partners in the project include the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, NC Department of Commerce, NC Community College System, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, Atlas Insight, and the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation. About Prysmian North America Based in Highland Heights, Ky., Prysmian North America is a benchmark player creating solutions for energy and digital connections, delivering major electrical transmission projects, modernizing power grids, and unlocking renewable energy, electrification, and digital connectivity worldwide. Prysmian’s strategy is perfectly aligned with the main market drivers by developing resilient, high performing, sustainable, and innovative cable systems for the transmission, power grid, electricity, and digital solutions segments. Prysmian’s North American operations include more than 50 locations and 9,000 associates with sales of $9 billion. Additional information is available at na.prysmian.com. Globally, Prysmian is enabled by its 34,000 employees, 109 production facilities and 30 R&D centers in over 50 countries. Prysmian is a public company, listed on the Italian stock exchange and recorded 2025 revenues of approximately €20 billion. ### For more information on Prysmian's announcement and how it affects our community, please click here. For further details, please contact: Nathan Huret, Vice President Catawba County EDC (828) 267-1564 nhuret@catawbacountync.gov

Originally published on GrepBeat, July 27, 2026 at https://grepbeat.com/2026/07/27/kathedras-innovative-approach-to-upholstery-automation/ It is estimated that some one out of three upholsterers have chronic musculoskeletal disorders like carpal tunnel and back pain. In Conover North Carolina, an emerging startup called Kathedra wants to do away with that pain and elevate the art of upholstery. It aims to do so by designing automated robots to handle more repetitive, physically demanding tasks like stapling down panels or fastening steel bands. Read the rest of the article on GrepBeat at https://grepbeat.com/2026/07/27/kathedras-innovative-approach-to-upholstery-automation/