Relocation Guide

With all the buzz about books, magazines and newspapers going digital, people begin to wonder if printed materials will survive in the future. Sure it is becoming more affordable to own a iPad or a Nook but can you imagine what would happen in the future? Instead of a library would we be able to check out books through an app? Instead of newspaper subscribers getting the Sunday paper thrown at their doorstep, would we have an alert set on our iPad to let us know a new edition of the paper has been uploaded? Instead of reading about who is dating who, and who cheated on who in those junk magazines waiting in the grocery line, there will be pop-up ads on our e-reader?

I believe that digital media will have a huge impact in the near future, but print media will always be around. Schools will always have textbooks, because there will always be kids that can’t afford the digital device. There will also be a discrepancy between the many devices as well, like Mac vs. PC. Will you get an iPad, a Nook, or a Kindle? And IT and support would have to be handy for those little instances in class when something goes wrong. Although e-readers will be more popular, I think that printed materials will stick around for a while.

Maybe there is a way that digital readers can help promote their printed versions? or visa versa. I can remember when commercials started coming out in the 90’s with their websites advertised. Now you can’t find any company without website these days. The advertisement in a magazine or on tv promotes their website. Maybe print magazines can promote their online readers and the two can mesh together? The future holds a lot of interesting endeavors.

Research Triangle Region, N.C. (May 27, 2010) – Research Triangle Region employment fell by 46,435 in 2009 as the global recession left its mark. During the same period, however, the region posted a record $1.9 billion in investment announcements from companies planning to relocate or expand within the 13-county region, creating more than 10,000 new jobs.
“The employment decline was a big hit. There is no way to sugar coat it,” Charles A. Hayes, president and CEO of the Research Triangle Regional Partnership (RTRP), told attendees May 27 at the seventh annual State of the Research Triangle Region event. The annual forum, hosted by RTRP with naming sponsor Triangle Community Foundation, provided an update on the economic health and competitiveness of the region and the results of its economic development strategy.
“The difference for our region is that, even during this time of global recession, a record number of companies are choosing to invest here to build their future,” Hayes said. “We’re encouraged by the diversity of companies announcing expansion plans and delighted at the prospect of new jobs being created for our citizens.”
The Research Triangle Region, home of The Research Triangle Park™ (RTP), comprises the 13 north-central N.C. counties of Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Orange, Person, Vance, Wake and Warren.
Regional investment announcements in 2009 came from both new and existing companies, domestic and international, in a broad range of industries and from across the region, in both rural and urban areas.
Among the companies announcing investments in 2009 were:
• EMC Corp., world-leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions, planning a $280 million construction of a new research facility and data center in Durham County, adding nearly 300 jobs, as well as adding 100 new jobs at its manufacturing plant in Wake County.
• IEM, an international risk management and disaster modeling company, moving its global headquarters from Louisiana to RTP in Durham County, creating 430 jobs over the next six years.
• Palziv North America, a global leader in development and manufacturing of thermoplastic cross-linked polyethylene foam for consumer and industrial uses. Palziv purchased a plant in Franklin County formerly used for traditional manufacturing and is investing nearly $8 million to renovate the space for its state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing operation and new North American headquarters, creating 80 to 100 jobs.
• Talecris Biotherapeutics, a home-grown life sciences company based in The Research Triangle Park that discovers, develops and produces clinical-care treatments for people with life-threatening disorders in the areas of immunology, neurology, pulmonary and hemostatis. Talecris plans a $269 million expansion of its manufacturing plant in Johnston County, creating more than 250 jobs.
• Carl Zeiss Optronics USA, the Germany-based global provider of optical and optronic products and services for defense and security uses. Zeiss is establishing its U.S. headquarters in Wake County to support current and anticipated contracts with the U.S. military. It plans to partner with the N.C. Military Foundation, private industry, regional universities and defense-oriented business support organizations to pursue research and development and supply contracts with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and other agencies.

New Year Brings Signs of Recovery
The Research Triangle Region was not alone in the 2009 economic downturn. Employment declined in all three major markets in North Carolina – the Research Triangle, Charlotte and Triad regions – as did employment in regions across the nation and globe.
Layoffs climbed to 9,000 in 2009, not the 18,000 figure experienced in the region during 2001 but a significant number for a region with a diverse industry base that typically cushions it during economic downturns. Regional unemployment remained around 9 percent in 2009 over the year before. Wages rose only 1.2 percent during 2009.
Despite the one-year employment decline, the region posted a net employment gain of 50,000 over the past five years, with the fastest-growing jobs in healthcare, professional and technical services and educational services. These job categories reflect the strength and growth of the region’s world-leading life sciences and technology clusters, particularly pharmaceuticals and advanced medical care, as well as its major healthcare facilities and many institutions of higher learning.
The new year has brought signs that economic recovery is under way. Through the first quarter of 2010, companies in life sciences, technology, defense and other industries have announced more than $93 million in investments for projects that will create another 1,000 jobs over the next few years. In addition, regional economic developers are now working with 58 companies who seek a location for their investments. These companies represent more than $2.7 billion in investment and 13,000 jobs.
Airlines that serve Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) expanded service to several key locations for the region’s business travelers this spring. Midwest added service to Milwaukee in April; JetBlue added two flights to Boston and Southwest added St. Louis service, both in May. Delta plans to add service to LAX in June. Expanding air service was the No. 1 priority identified by companies in the region in 2004, when RTRP launched its first five-year strategic plan. RDU leads the effort to aggressively market the region to airlines to expand service to destinations that are a priority for regional companies.
Strategic Initiatives Yield Results
RTRP moved forward in the past year to implement its new five-year strategic plan for regional economic growth, called The Shape of Things to Come. It calls for creating 100,000 jobs in the region and boosting employment in all 13 counties by July 2014 using a three-part strategy of business growth, product development and regional collaboration.
RTRP implements the plan in collaboration with economic developers from its 13 member counties, RTP, the N.C. Department of Commerce and 90 partner organizations in business, government, academia and the nonprofit sector that voluntarily align their strategies to support the region’s economic development vision and action plan.
Among the strategic initiatives and results during the past year:
• Promoting Business Growth – Business-development activities continue to focus on expanding the region’s life sciences and technology clusters as well as three emerging clusters: clean/green technologies, interactive gaming and e-learning, and defense technologies. The region uses a balanced economic-development approach that includes recruiting companies, supporting the growth of existing companies and encouraging the startup and growth of new ventures related to these clusters.
• Ensuring Quality Growth – More than 40 cities, counties and organizations in the region have endorsed three guiding principles for quality growth to help ensure the region maintains its superior quality of life as it welcomes an estimated 1.2 million new people over the next 20 years. Triangle Tomorrow, RTRP’s quality-of-life program, and the Triangle District Council of the Urban Land Institute lead the effort to mobilize communities and leadership to promote the three guiding principles – improved transit, vibrant centers and green space – developed during the 2009 Reality Check visioning exercise.
• Linking PreK-12 Education with Business Growth – RTRP teamed with Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and the state’s Joining Our Businesses and Schools (JOBS) Commission to develop recommendations for how the state’s high schools can align themselves more closely with the economic development needs of their regions. The region’s new strategic plan includes a tactical effort to link PreK-12 education with business growth to ensure the region maintains a workforce that meets the needs of its knowledge-based economy.
• Improving Air Service – RDU continues construction on the second phase of its state-of-the-art Terminal 2 and other improvements. The new terminal is one of the main reasons the National Hockey League All-Star Game will be played in the region in January 2011, bringing both economic impact and a boost to the region’s global brand.
• Promoting Rural Development – RTRP led marketing for Triangle North, the innovative rural job-creation effort in the region’s northern tier that is developing a network of business parks to attract jobs and economic growth in Franklin, Granville, Vance and Warren counties. RTRP and developers in the region’s southern tier – Harnett, Lee and Moore counties, in particular – continued collaboration with the Base Realignment and Closure Regional Task Force to leverage the U.S. Army’s growing presence at Fort Bragg for defense-related business growth.

The Research Triangle Regional Partnership (RTRP) coordinates economic development for the Research Triangle Region, home of The Research Triangle Park and the 13 central-North Carolina counties of Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Orange, Person, Vance, Wake and Warren.
The State of the Region presentation text and slides are available for download at www.researchtriangle.org/SOR2010.
For learn more or get involved, contact RTRP at (919) 840-7372 or rtrp(at)researchtriangle.org or visit www.researchtriangle.org.

BY BARBARA BARRETT - www.newsobserver.com

The Raleigh metropolitan region got a little younger, a bit smarter and a lot more populous in the 2000s, but the median income fell amid the economic S-curves that repeatedly wracked the country in the past decade.

Still, a new report by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., labels Raleigh one of the country’s “New Heartland” cities - a sort of new Middle America that is home to more families and to employees in the kinds of jobs that economists say are going to propel the United States in the coming years.

In its report, “The State of Metropolitan America,” the Washington think tank crunched a variety of demographic data for the nation’s largest 100 metropolitan areas. The Durham-Chapel Hill metro area was classified separately and not among the 100 biggest metropolitan areas. It was not included in the study.
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The report concluded that nationally, the wage achievement gap between high- and low-wage workers widened even before the most recent recession hit. Low-wage workers saw their hourly earnings decline by 8 percent from 2000-2008, while high-wage workers saw their hourly earnings climb by 3 percent.

Raleigh was the second-fastest-growing metro region in the country, after Provo, Utah - but the largest among the nation’s top 50 metropolitan areas.

“Clearly people see a lot of opportunity there, and an opportunity for a high quality of life,” said Alan Berube, a senior fellow at Brookings and one of the report’s authors.

And though the median income decreased by 6.5 percent, that was better than the national average, Berube said.

The Raleigh region saw a nearly 60 percent jump in the percentage of its nonwhite population, the eighth-largest increase in the country.

Still, Berube said, the community’s racial and ethnic breakdown is largely a black-white divide, although Hispanics form a growing - and young - chunk of the populace.

The region is helped by the nearby Research Triangle Park and the metro area’s technology niche and higher education opportunities. The challenge for local policymakers, Berube said, will be to build on Raleigh’s success.

“Growing their capacity in that regard and hanging on to some of the talent that goes through some of the universities from abroad to create economic value in that region,” he said, “there’s big potential there.”

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/09/474125/raleigh-area-is-poised-to-flourish.html?storylink=misearch#ixzz0npXYcHTl

-newsobserver.com

Wake County will pass Mecklenburg County as the state’s most populous in the next few years, if current growth trends continue, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

The Census Bureau released the estimated populations of every county and metropolitan area in the country, as of July 1, 2009. Starting with 2000 census data, the bureau uses administrative records, including death and birth data, to come up with updated population estimates.

How close are they? We’ll have to wait until April 2011, when the Census Bureau is expected to release data from this spring’s census.

Highlights from the new estimates:

Wake County’s population was estimated at 897,214, compared to 913,639 in Mecklenburg County.

Wake’s population has grown 43 percent since the 2000 census, and at that rate Wake will exceed Mecklenburg in about 2012.

Wake has more residents than the next three most populous counties in the Triangle region combined: Durham (269,706), Johnston (168,525) and Orange (129,083).

Among counties with 10,000 or more residents, North Carolina had six of the fastest-growing 100 counties in the country since 2000. They are: Union (14), Brunswick (38), Wake (45), Johnston (66), Hoke (95) and Currituck (98).

The estimated population of the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan statistical area, which includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties, was 1,125,827, up 41 percent since 2000.

The estimated population of the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan statistical area, which includes Durham, Orange, Chatham and Person, counties was 501,228, up 18 percent since 2000.

The estimated population of North Carolina was 9,380,884, up 16.5 percent.

-www.wral.com

The federal government on Wednesday recommended an endangered-species listing for the loggerhead turtles in U.S. waters, a decision that could lead to tighter restrictions on fishing and other maritime trades.

The massive, nomadic sea turtles have been listed since 1978 as threatened, a step below endangered, but federal scientists proposed ratcheting up the designation after reviewing the state of the species.

Researchers said primary threats to the loggerheads include injury and death from fishing gear and damage to their nesting areas.

The joint proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not a final decision. If approved, it puts loggerheads on track for an endangered listing by the summer of 2011. The proposal now enters a public comment period.

Environmental groups who’d been pushing an endangered listing said the proposal was a “turning point” they hope will lead to greater turtle protections.

“I think it’s huge day for loggerhead sea turtles,” said Elizabeth Griffin, a marine wildlife scientist at Oceana. “I think it really draws attention to the fact these turtles are not doing well and more needs to be done to protect them.”

No one really knows how many loggerheads there are, or how many are being killed by fishing gear or other activities. A species doesn’t need falling numbers to be endangered, it can get the listing if it’s shown to be threatened by one of five factors, such as disease or “manmade factors affecting its continued existence.”

Griffin cites a 40 percent drop in the number of nesting females in Florida over the last decade as evidence of trouble. But the Fisheries Survival Fund, an East Coast scallopers group, said in a letter early this month that nesting beach surveys can’t provide good evidence of decline because they measure only mature females, who take at least 30 years to reach breeding age.

Shaun Gehan, an attorney for the Fisheries Survival Fund, said an endangered listing is unneeded for a species there’s no evidence is in danger of extinction. If new protections are mandated for the turtle, it could affect not only fishermen, but maritime traffic, coastal development and waterfront use, Gehan said.

“We are extremely disappointed that they’ve taken this approach,” he said.

Loggerheads are named for their large heads, which contain potent jaws that can crush the hard shells of prey such as conch. The turtles are about the size of a fist when they hatch and make a frenzied dash to the surf. But they typically grow to more than three feet in length and 250 pounds. The animal can log thousands of miles as it travels across oceans.

Barbara Schroeder, national sea turtle coordinator for NOAA’s fisheries division, said the biggest threats to the North Pacific loggerhead include damage to primary nesting sites, which are mainly in Japan, as well as accidental snaring of the turtles in fishing gear.

Andrea Treece of San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity said the turtles get hooked by Hawaiian longline fishermen targeting swordfish and tuna and can be injured or drowned.

On the East Coast, the main threat to turtles is gear from the region’s various fisheries, Schroeder said.

Gehan said that scallopers have developed dredges to keep the turtles out with a chain mat that covers the opening. Critics say the dredges keep turtles out, but also crush them, though survival fund officials say there’s no evidence of that.

A primary benefit of the endangered status would be increased public pressure on protecting the species, Griffin said. But the government would also have to determine “critical habitats,” such as where the turtles reproduce or forage. Such places could be subject to additional protections for the turtles, including restrictions on maritime development or fishing.

A balance needs to be found to help a species Griffin called “the ambassadors of our oceans” because they travel great distances and can be seen up close when they venture on land.

“I think that really gives people an appreciation for our turtles and marine life,” she said.

-wral.com

Teachers know that children often learn best when they’re having fun.

That’s the idea behind a hands-on nutrition exhibit at Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh that’s designed to help kids make healthier food choices.

“Physical activity is a crucial part of keeping a healthy body, and what we say is, ‘We need to fuel up to have fun,’” said Natalie Taft with the Raleigh Dietetic District Association.

The association assembled the exhibit with registered dietitians scheduled to answer questions from children and parents. A common question is how to get children to eat vegetables.

“With children, often times they need to be presented with some food a number of different times, and maybe one of those times will be the time that makes it work for them,” Taft said.

Dietitians said they hope that by pairing the nutrition exhibit next to so many fun, physical activities, kids will catch on to their special message.

“It’s important for kids to be exposed to healthy foods often and around a fun environment, so we want to make an association between healthy food, healthy habits and having fun,” Taft said.

The nutrition exhibit will be at Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh for 18 months.

-newsobserver.com

Changes are nothing new when it comes to taxes. Each year, there’s a tweak here, a tweak there and occasionally a punch to the gut.

This year, more of the changes are designed to help taxpayers with an eye toward helping the economy. New laws add a variety of credits and deductions that could put more money in your pocket. But first you have to help yourself by learning what’s new. You may want to go to a tax specialist, use software, read a tax guide, consult the Internal Revenue Service’s Web site or actually read the 1040 that comes in the mail. We’re going to get you started by highlighting some of the major changes.

Change for everyone

Personal exemptions have increased - $3,650 each for the taxpayer and dependents, up $150 from 2008.

The standard deduction has increased: $11,400 for married couples filing jointly, $5,700 for individuals and $8,350 for heads of households.

And tax brackets have been adjusted upward by about 5percent since 2008, said Greg Rosica, tax partner at Ernst & Young and a contributing author to the “Ernst & Young Tax Guide 2010.” That means youmight not jump to a higher tax bracket if you earned more.

Change for earned income

Income limits for the earned income tax credit have been raised, and there’s a new category - families with three or more children. The Internal Revenue Service says one in six taxpayers claim the credit.

Change for higher incomes

The exemption for the alternative minimum tax has been increased once again, this time to $70,950 for joint returns and $46,700 for individuals. If your income is higher than these amounts, you could be subject to the AMT tax.

Change for the standard deduction

The standard deduction isn’t so standard this year. Some taxpayers may be able to increase their standard deduction if they paid property taxes, bought a new car and paid sales or excise taxes on it or were the victim of a federally declared disaster.

You can claim all these things if you itemize as well, but if you opt for including them in the standard deduction, you’ll have to fill out Schedule L. Here are the details:

Victims can add their net losses to the standard deduction.

Homeowners can increase their standard by a maximum $1,000 for joint filers or $500 for individuals for state or local real estate taxes paid on their principal residence.

People who bought a new car, truck, motorcycle or motor home (used vehicles don’t count) after Feb. 16, 2009, can add the sales or excise tax they paid if the vehicle cost less than $49,500. The deduction begins phasing out for individuals with incomes above $125,000 or joint filers earning more than $250,000.

Change for homebuyers

If you bought a home last year, you may qualify for a tax credit under one of three federal programs - it just depends on when you bought. In each case, the home has to be your main residence, not a vacation home, and it can’t cost more than $800,000.

If you bought your first home between April 9, 2008, and June 30, 2009, you got a long-term, interest-free loan that has to be paid back over 15 years. The maximum credit was $7,500.

If you bought between Jan. 1, 2009, and Nov. 30, 2009, you don’t have to pay back the credit, which also has a higher maximum, $8,000. Again, you had to be a first-time buyer.

If you buy between Nov.7, 2009, and April 30, 2010, first-timers still get a max of $8,000, but longtime homeowners who buy a new house also qualify for a credit, but at a reduced value - up to $6,500.

To claim the credit, you’ll have to fill out form 5405 and submit a copy of your settlement statement, usually Form HUD-1, with the names and signatures of all parties, the property address, the sales price and date of purchase.

To avoid refund delays, the IRS recommends that longtime homeowners who purchase a new home also provide documents to prove they’ve lived in the house consecutively for five of eight years. These can include mortgage interest statements, or property tax or homeowner’s insurance records.

Because of the extra paperwork provided, those who file for the homebuyers credit will not be able to electronically file their returns.

Change for college students

There’s new help for students. The American opportunity tax credit offers a bigger maximum credit - $2,500 - than what was available under the Hope credit. Also, it’s available to students for the first four years of college; the Hope credit could be used only for the first two years.

On top of that, 40 percent of the credit is refundable - even if that’s more than you owe.

To claim the maximum credit, a student had to spend $4,000 on qualifying expenses, such as tuition and fees, the cost of course materials and text books.

The credit begins phasing out for individuals whose modified adjusted gross income is more than $80,000, or $160,000 for married couples filing jointly.

If the opportunity credit doesn’t work for you, you may qualify for:

A lifetime learning credit for up to $2,000. It’s for undergraduates in their fifth or sixth year of study, students attending school part time and graduate students. The credit phases out for people with higher incomes. This is the one you’ll probably qualify for if you had to retrain or learn a new skill.

A tuition deduction of up to $4,000 for eligible tuition and fees for higher education. Again, there are income eligibility limits.

A deduction up to $2,500 for interest paid on student loans. To qualify, your modified adjusted gross income must be less than $75,000. The income limit on a joint return is $150,000.

A business deduction for a work-related class required by your employer. Claim it in the miscellaneous column of your itemized deductions, but to take it, the total of all miscellaneous deductions must exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income.

Change for the unemployed

The first $2,400 in unemployment compensation is not taxable, but that’s for 2009 only.

If you are paying for continuation of your coverage under COBRA, you can only deduct the premiums if you can take them as part of a medical expense deduction and you itemize your taxes. If your premium cost plus other medical expenses exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income, that would qualify.

Bad change

There is one possible whammy this year. The Making Work Pay tax credit kicked in last spring. Tax withholding tables were revised downward to give individuals up to $400 and couples up to $800. The result: more take-home pay for about 95 percent of working families.

People with more than one job, couples in which both spouses work and some Social Security recipients may have received too much of a credit because of the way the program was set up. “It may wind up that they owe taxes, or the big refund they expected might not be as big as they thought,” said Barbara Weltman, author of J.K. Lasser’s “1001 Deductions and Tax Breaks 2010″ and “Small Business Taxes 2010.”

The credit also requires a new form, Schedule M. Weltman said the form isn’t that complicated. “The shock is going to be whether you owe more than you think,” she said.

The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration estimated that more than 15 million people could be affected. The extra tax bill could be up to $400 for individuals or couples or $250 for Social Security recipients.

Overlooked deductions

In its tax guide, Ernst & Young lists 50 of what it says are the most overlooked deductions. They include:

Accounting fees for tax preparation or IRS audits.

Casualty or theft losses.

Employee moving expenses.

Dues to labor unions.

Long-term care premiums.

The cost of doing charitable work, including driving there.

There also are deductions for removing lead paint, health insurance premiums if self-employed, and alcohol or drug abuse treatment.

Common mistakes

Failing to include your Social Security number or those of your dependents.

Claiming the wrong number of personal exemptions.

Simple math errors.

Picking the wrong filing status.

Final thoughts

Remember, a tax credit directly reduces the taxes you owe. A deduction reduces the income on which your tax liability is based. In some cases, credits are refundable. That means you’ll get the money back even if the amount exceeds what you owe in taxes.

Keep records for any income, credit or deduction claimed, for at least three years. Longer still if you own securities, a home or other property.

And, if at the end of the day you find you owe the IRS money or want a bigger refund, you may be able to contribute to an individual retirement account until April 15 and take a deduction on your 2009 taxes.

If you’re covered by a plan at work, you may be able to deduct a contribution of $5,000 - $6,000 if you’re at least 50 - if your modified adjusted gross income is less than $65,000 if you’re filing status is single, or $109,000 if you’re married filing jointly.

The Associated Press

-wral.com

With unemployment numbers at some of their highest levels, temporary work is becoming an attractive option to those without jobs.

Michael Lane, branch manger of AccountTemps in Raleigh, says more people are seeking temporary work, and experts agree that companies seem to be making temporary workers permanent employees.

Jeannette Moss, director of job placement at Wake Tech, says she is seeing more companies that want to hire candidates on a temporary basis. The challenge, however, is that with more people turning to temporary work, the competition to get those jobs is much greater, she said.

“A lot of the employers are nervous about hiring permanent folks, so they would much rather hire a temp,” Moss said.

Right now, directors say the best fields for finding temporary work are in health care, IT or financial services.

“It is an opportunity to kind of audition for a permanent job,” Lane said. “So don’t necessarily think of a temp job as just a temporary position.”

Theresa Cochran became a permanent hire through a temporary job. Nearly two years ago, she lost her job as a data analyst for GlaxoSmithKline.

“It was very difficult, especially after spending 21 years of your life with the company that meant so much to you,” Cochran said.

With the help of a temporary-employment service agency, she eventually found work at a bank. Within three months, she was hired full time as an executive assistant.

“I really love it where I’m at,” she said. “I’m at home.”

-wral.com

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Big Blue is touting its efforts to go green with its new $360 million data center.

On Thursday, IBM unveils its massive collection of data processing computer servers that the company says uses half the energy of a typical complex.

The new data center in IBM’s largest worksite in the world was designed to support companies moving into cloud computing, where the operating and other software are stored at a remote site and used as needed instead of stored on a user’s computer.

IBM owns or operates more than 450 data centers worldwide.

Data center consultant John Boyd Jr. said he expects demand for data centers to grow because financial services reforms and electronic health care records will likely add new record-keeping requirements.

N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue will be among the guests attending Thursday’s unveiling. Bob Greenberg, IBM’s senior executive in North Carolina, is serving as host for the event.

Also attending will be IBM’s Pat Kerin, the general manager for global technology services in North America.

Perdue will meet with media and other guests for an IBM “Town Hall” session about the center at 2 p.m. before touring the facility at 3 p.m.

-starnewsonline.com

A Missouri hotel developer submitted a proposal this week to build a 250-room Embassy Suites hotel adjacent to the Wilmington Convention Center.

It was the only hotel proposal the city received by Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline that met the requirements of the city’s request for qualifications, said Steve Bridges, the city’s convention center project manager.

John Q. Hammons Hotels, of Springfield, Mo., proposes a 14-story Embassy Suites, with a restaurant and lounge, top-floor meeting rooms, an indoor/outdoor pool and other amenities, Bridges said.

The proposal, on first glance, appears to meet the requirements set forth by city council, he said.

The city also received a letter from CMC Hotels, of Cary, Bridges said. That company didn’t propose a specific hotel, but rather sought to sit down and talk to the city about the project.

“There’s nothing that we can do with it, quite frankly,” Bridges said.

City officials will review the proposals during the next few days to determine how to proceed, city spokeswoman Malissa Talbert said in a news release.

In September, Wilmington City Council terminated its contract with Wilmington River Group LLC, the company the city had chosen to build a 150-plus-room Hotel Indigo next to the convention center. After repeated deadline extensions, Wilmington River Group failed to purchase the hotel land from the city and meet the financial requirements of the city regarding financing for the hotel.

That left the city in a pickle: The convention center will open in the second half of 2010 without an adjacent hotel for its guests. So late last year, the city solicited proposals again from hotel developers.

John Q. Hammons Hotels operates 83 hotels in 25 states, with additional properties under construction or in planning, according to its Web site, www.jqhhotels.com. Its North Carolina properties include Embassy Suites in Cary, Concord and Greensboro, Homewood Suites in Greensboro and Renaissance Suites in Charlotte.

The company submitted a similar proposal to the city in 2007 but wasn’t chosen to develop the hotel.

“They were asking for the city to provide certain things that we couldn’t legally do,” Bridges said.

Bridges cautioned that any proposal would be contingent on the company securing financing.

“The market today for financing commercial projects is tough, very difficult,” he said.

Bridges said the city would form a small committee to review any proposals, conduct interviews of company representatives and make a recommendation to City Manager Sterling Cheatham, who would make any developer recommendation to city council.

Bridges said he hoped to have a recommendation to council within three months at the most.

“We’re going to do it as quickly as we possibly can,” he said.

The convention center is expected to open later this year, with a hotel as much as two years behind. Convention center marketers have expressed concern that not having a headquarters hotel will affect the city’s ability to bring in large, out-of-town groups, which is a primary reason the city is building the convention center.