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Economic Development

FERC: Grid performed better in early 2026 storms

Federal regulators say the East Coast’s power grid, North Carolina’s included, handled January’s two winter storms way better than it did the Christmas Eve storm back in 2022 that prompted some overnight blackouts. The main reason for this, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says, is that utilities like Duke Energy...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

Legislators should act on data-center rates, AG says

Though they definitely favor setting up a special power-rate class for data centers, Attorney General Jeff Jackson and his aides nonetheless say the N.C. Utilities Commission has to tread carefully. Anything on those lines has to be “artfully designed” to remain in compliance with state anti-discrimination law that bars utilities...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

NC and Chemours make a deal

North Carolina has struck a $590 million deal with Chemours and its corporate cousins to settle one of lawsuits spawned by the PFAS contamination of the southeast part of the state. Announced Thursday, the settlement includes $455 million in payments to the state spread over 15 years, and to some...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

ESPN: Nashville’s MLB bid is lacking

Amid all the talk about Raleigh’s pursuit of a Major League Baseball team, there’s been an assumption that Nashville, Tennessee, would have the inside track to any East Coast expansion franchise. Now, one of MLB’s top business partners questions whether that’s so — and says Raleigh is a “dark horse”...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

JetZero lines up more money

JetZero says it’s lined up $100 million in loans that will help pay for “tooling and production facilities” at the airliner factory it’s building at Piedmont Triad International Airport. The money comes from a group of lenders led by the Bay Area’s Pinegrove Venture Partners. Also involved are Pinegrove backers...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Boliek has questions for N.C. Housing Finance

State Auditor Dave Boliek says the Local Government Commission should more closely scrutinize the borrowing requests it fields from the N.C. Housing Finance Agency. Boliek briefly held up but ultimately joined other commissioners in supporting the agency’s latest request, permitting it to issue up to $1.25 billion in revenue bonds...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Data-center bill: touted, but stalled

A couple of Down East Republicans are touting state House’s interest in passing restrictions on data-center development, even though the bill’s stalled in the Senate and its fate in the remainder of this session is far from clear. Rep. Charlie Miller and John Lowery, who are from Brunswick and Robeson...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Housing in downtown Raleigh’s present and future

A big part of downtown Raleigh’s developmental success story is the massive expansion of housing there, which business leaders say is poised to continue. Since 2015, developers have added 6,923 housing units to downtown’s inventory. Another 765 are under construction, and a further 5,922 are in the pipeline of “planned...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Fort Bragg in line for small nuclear reactor

Fort Bragg is one of the five “initial locations” in line to get a nuclear “microreactor” in the next couple of years to help power its operations, the U.S. Army says. The choice is an outgrowth of what the Army calls the Janus Program, and comes also with the selection...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Downtown Raleigh looks to the future

Raleigh’s downtown has come a long way from where it was in 1996, when it amounted to “a failed pedestrian mall, a few storefronts [and] a civic center absolutely no one remembers fondly.” Now, it’s a vibrant place that’s seeing the benefits of $3.7 billion in investment just since 2015,...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Ohio firm picks Mocksville

The No. 2 in CNBC’s Top States for Business has beaten out the No. 1 for a new factory that promises $120 million in investment and 400 new jobs. Ohio-based ProVia will build a window manufacturing facility in Mocksville instead of adding to its existing holdings in its home state....

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Durham Co. adds to state’s data-center moratoria

Durham County has joined the parade of cities and counties around the Triangle and the state that have enacted moratoria on data center projects. But it didn’t go far enough for some tastes. The version county commissioners passed Monday night on a 4-1 vote included a quartet of exemptions, notably...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Lumber in Scotland

Alabama-based Great Southern Wood will invest $40 million to build a lumber treatment manufacturing facility at an industrial park at Laurinburg-Maxton Airport in Scotland County. It is expected to employ 43 workers. If it delivers on that, a performance-based grant of $200,000 from the One North Carolina Fund will subsidize...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Vape store takes HPU to court

A vape shop owner is suing High Point University over what it says is the school’s efforts to force it to move out of a shopping center across the street from its campus. Filed on Aug. 17, the suit by High Point Tobacco Land & Vape accuses the university of...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Duke files resource-plan update in S.C.

The second shoe of Duke Energy’s long-term construction program has dropped, with the company’s filing of an updated version of its Carolinas Resource Plan in South Carolina. Duke officials say they expect the Palmetto State’s Public Service Commission to rule on the proposal by June 2027. North Carolina’s Utilities Commission...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026