Innovation is key to UNC-Town of Chapel Hill development strategy, says exec leading the effort

“I live on and look out on Franklin Street, and I see its beauty and its challenges. Chapel Hill and UNC, and their brands, they’re intertwined, they’re inseparable.” – Doug Rothwell, Chair, Chancellor’s Economic Development Council and Executive in Residence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

CHAPEL HILL – The Town of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are embarking on a long-term partnership aiming to boost economic development and develop an innovation district while driving up the number of professionals working from and supporting businesses in the heart of the city. And a veteran business executive with strong UNC roots is spearheading the effort.

Called the Carolina Economic Development Strategy, it is a comprehensive initiative to increase economic impact by leveraging UNC-Chapel Hill’s assets and resources. Coordinating the effort is an Economic Development Council chaired by Doug Rothwell, who is volunteering for the role and also serving as the executive-in-residence for economic development at the university.

Doug Rothwell photo from his LinkedIn site

“We have vacant retail storefronts, we don’t have enough people who work downtown, we don’t have office space, we are still too student-dependent, so it’s not a very diverse residential base or office worker space, therefore, it’s too seasonal and too student-centric,” said Rothwell in an interview with WRAL TechWire.

Rothwell, who attended the university and earned a master’s degree in public administration, recently relocated to Chapel Hill after serving the past 15 years as the president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan. His new residence overlooks Franklin Street, the downtown corridor that serves as a primary connection point between the Town and the University.

“I live on and look out on Franklin Street, and I see its beauty and its challenges,” said Rothwell. “Chapel Hill and UNC, and their brands, they’re intertwined, they’re inseparable.”

That’s the thrust of the mission that Rothwell said is the foundation of the strategy: ensuring the University is an anchor institution in the community and leveraging the network of contacts and the talent base from the institution to reimagine Chapel Hill.

UNC, Chapel Hill team up to drive economic development in the Town, Triangle

The effort comes at a time when the university is focused on getting through a challenging period, said Rothwell, including the financial challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s been like a year or so of a time warp that we’ve been in,” said Rothwell. “If we could get on the other side of that, the next few years could be a really exciting time, because there are going to be people who want to make investments.”

That’s what the newly formed Council is tasked with addressing: the opportunity for future growth, investment, and expansion. To do this, the Council will develop and implement a long-range development plan for downtown. It will include the planning of a larger innovation district, attracting businesses, workers, and startups that choose to grow their business in close proximity to the university.

Needed: More diversified economy

“One of the things that Chapel Hill lacks right now is that we don’t have a very diverse industry base,” said Rothwell. “It’s dominated by the university and the hospital.”

Though there’s a university connection for 786 startup companies founded since 1958, not many have chosen to remain located in downtown he noted. “The infrastructure isn’t available to them,” he added.

According to The Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurs, their businesses, and their employees were “dramatic,” with 43 percent of small businesses across the United States closing for a period of time or permanently, 75 percent operating with less than two months of operating capital to cover expenses, and more than 70 percent terminating at least one full-time employee.

“The pandemic has forever altered the global entrepreneurial landscape,” said Greg Brown, executive director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, in announcing the Frontiers of Entrepreneurship virtual conference. It will be free to attend and will be co-hosted by the Kenan Institute and The Entrepreneurship Center at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, occurring later this month.

“Our goal is to provide an open forum for discussing both current challenges and future solutions. I hope attendees will leave the conference equipped with ideas that are both innovative and actionable,” said Vickie Gibbs, executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center.

Chapel Hill economic development in the works: a look at two major projects

One actionable step the university’s Economic Development Council will enact is the development of a downtown innovation district that will accommodate startups and businesses across industries, Rothwell said.

“What it does is creates more opportunities for startups to be better able to interact with potential customers, as well as be able to tap into the talent network that those companies also help create and foster,” he explained.

Talent is critical for business growth and businesses that establish and maintain a close relationship with the universities in their regions are better able to tap into resources and talent, he added. “That’s one of our greatest appeals in Chapel Hill, we’re a source of talent,” said Rothwell. “We’re a growing market, and business loves to be in places that are growing.”

Yet just because the Triangle is in an expansion phase right now doesn’t mean it will always be that way, cautioned Rothwell. “One of the most frustrating things for me in Michigan, as Michigan was one of the states that did have growth for a very long time and was an economic leader in the nation, but we took it for granted, and it’s hard to turn that ship around.”

The Triangle, and Chapel Hill specifically, are competing with so many regions for talent, business investment, and access to funding, said Rothwell, including Washington, D.C., Austin, Tx., Charlotte, and Richmond, Va.

“Who are we not competing against,” asked Rothwell. “We’re kind of competing with everybody, and because of what ‘s happened with COVID, not that you can work anywhere, not that everywhere can compete, but that the ability to work from home or ability to tap into smaller markets that have pockets of talent that have been unable to be tapped in the past, well, the playing field has gotten bigger.”