A quarter-century after its launch, the Global TransPark continues searching for a strategic plan that works. The General Assembly in June ordered the North Carolina Global TransPark Authority to develop another strategic plan for its underperforming industrial park and deliver the plan to a transportation oversight committee by January 15. The GTP — a 2,500-acre,...
RALEIGH — The General Assembly’s top economist on Tuesday told legislative budget writers that the state had a “steady as we go” economy that is now faring better than most other states. “We now have reached a point where we are now surpassing the average growth of the nation as a whole,” said Barry Boardman...
RALEIGH — Even though the Global TransPark has landed an “anchor tenant” in Spirit AeroSystems, a Wichita, Kan.-based company that is set to start manufacturing large aircraft components later this year, government incentives to Spirit mean taxpayers will subsidize employment at GTP to the tune of $200,000 per job.
RALEIGH — The N.C. Global TransPark might go bankrupt because of its inability to pay an outstanding loan, according to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the State Auditor.
RALEIGH — A Federal Aviation Administration official disputes a recent Triangle Business Journal story about the Global TransPark that said the General Assembly must continue providing $1.6 million in annual funding or pay back $21.6 million in federal grants. The story attributed the legislature’s position to comments made by Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland. “Rand says lawmakers concluded they had little choice but to keep the operation going. Pulling the plug now, he says, would have required the state to pony up $21.6 million to repay the Federal Aviation Administration.
The pathetic Global TransPark project near Kinston may finally be nearing its end, but a recent decision by the Council of State to make a costly land purchase for the TransPark should emphasize that it will take vigilance to ensure the project doesn't remain on state life support indefinitely.
The latest plan to keep the Global TransPark alive was unveiled Thursday at a forum in Greenville, reports Carolina Journal Associate Publisher Don Carrington. Isaac Manning, a consultant recently hired by the GTP Foundation, told a select group of invitees to the forum that a team of five college students is developing a business plan for the project. The students working on the project also doubled as well-dressed parking attendants who greeted them in the parking lot before the event, forum attendees interviewed by CJ said.
N.C. DOT officials have apparently overstated potential financial obligations in a recently released report on the Global TransPark, according to federal officials, reports Carolina Journal Associate Publisher Don Carrington. Federal airport grants to North Carolina fall under the authority of the FAA Airports District Office in Atlanta. Manager Scott Seritt told Carolina Journal that there appears to be a lot of misinformation being put out about the GTP in Kinston.
An inquiry from a first-term state House member revealed that the Global TransPark has an $11.2 million outstanding loan, information which was not part of the study recently presented to a legislative committee inquiring about the future viability of the GTP, reports Carolina Journal Associate Publisher Don Carrington.
When Charles Edwards took over as the latest executive director of the Global TransPark, he told The Free Press of Kinston, “I’m overwhelmed and trying to figure out what I’ve gotten into.” Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington says his comments seem to reflect what so far has been a confusing year for the GTP. There have been conflicting studies, conflicting proposals for the use of the facility, and perhaps most confusing: conflicting and ever-changing leadership.
Imagine: You and your family board a jetliner at the Global TransPark in Kinston for a trip to Disney World. Halfway onto the plane, you hear an explosion. Out on the Tarmac you see masked men brandishing weapons, surrounding another airplane. Surprise: Make-believe terrorists have commandeered a nearby flight. That scenario could become reality if proposals by state officials are accepted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, reports Carolina Journal Associate Publisher Don Carrington.
