We're CAT people

Winston-Salem and Forsyth County won big this week when they landed the Caterpillar manufacturing plant. State and local leaders played hardball with the best of them, welding an incentives package of more than $50 million to bring home a $426-million plant that will provide about 510 jobs and contribute an anticipated $3.6 million annually in property taxes -- enough to eventually repay the city and county incentives. And the highly-respected Caterpillar name should help attract other good companies to our area.

"The truth is, the Cat is in the bag," Gov. Bev Perdue, dressed in Caterpillar's trademark yellow and black, announced yesterday to a room packed with local dignitaries and reporters at Forsyth Technical Community College, whose work-force training reputation played a large role in landing the company.

Our area, quite simply, is on a roll. It's regained its can-do attitude, coming back strong from numerous job cuts, thanks to sound planning and aggressive business recruitment. "You are one of the few places in America that did not hang your heads initially and cry and whine," Perdue told the crowd. "You continue to land wins." She was no doubt referring to the announcement this week of the merger of Winston-Salem's ISP Sports, a sports marketing company, with IMG Worldwide, an even larger leader in that field. The best part of the deal is that the new company's headquarters will be here.

Meanwhile, the Piedmont Triad Research Park on the eastern edge of downtown is humming with a northern expansion, and biotech breakthroughs in the park continue to make news nationwide. The new baseball stadium in downtown Winston-Salem is enjoying large crowds. And the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts, built mostly with private money raised in the midst of the Great Recession, opens its doors downtown next month.

And yesterday came the news from Caterpillar, a well-respected company whose Winston-Salem plant is part of worldwide expansion plans. Caterpillar is already the largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial turbines in the world, according to Perdue's office.

The company will put an 850,000-square foot plant here that will manufacture axle assemblies for large trucks. It will employ almost 400 full-time and more than 100 part-time workers. The plant will be in the Union Cross area, near the Dell plant, which announced last year that it will close. Increased demand for its desktop computers has delayed the closing. Caterpillar, and the fact that a well-written contract with Dell resulted in the refund of more than $20 million in local incentives, will make Dell's departure an acceptable loss. Indeed, much of that money will go to the Caterpillar incentives, and local officials say their incentives agreement with the company will have claw-back provisions similar to its Dell agreement. The city and county were in competition with Spartanburg County, S.C., and Montgomery, Ala., for the Caterpillar plant. Our gain is, unfortunately, their loss.

The incentives certainly played a big role in landing Caterpillar. So did the fact that the company already has plants employing about 1,000 workers in North Carolina. "We did not promise them (Caterpillar) the world, but we promised them the best work force in the world, right here in Forsyth County," Perdue said.

Our quality of life almost surely helped bring in the plant. The fact that the company chose us is further affirmation that our city and county have much to offer, from breathtaking natural beauty to dazzling art shows to a well-qualified work force. Mayor Allen Joines noted that landing the plant "validates Winston-Salem and Forsyth County as a location for future economic-development projects."

There was one sour note in the news this week. A draft list of urban loop projects obtained by the Journal puts Forsyth County's eastern beltway at the bottom of a list of 21 projects, meaning construction and land purchases won't start in the next 10 years. That's unacceptable for a city and county so crucial to the state's economy, as the Caterpillar win once again shows. We'll have more to say about that Sunday.

But for now, we celebrate the arrival of the CAT. It's a coup, one that will enrich our economy and enhance our standing as a city that embraces business. Much hard work remains in recruiting more businesses and keeping those we have. But on this day, the message is unmistakable: Winston-Salem and Forsyth County are roaring back. Welcome, Caterpillar.