Is the thrill gone?

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by on June 23, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Business, Downtown Chapel Hill, Economic development, Land Use, Lifestyle
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Posted by Nancy Oates on June 23, 2014

http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/23/is-the-thrill-gone/

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2 Comments

  1. Deborah Fulghieri

     /  June 24, 2014

    Businesses are founded in Chapel Hill, (Southern Season, Cackalacky, Phideaux, et al) in part because they are not overwhelmed and squelched by chains right off the bat. They grow, hire, expand into other markets, and that just isn’t what the town council and its staff define as economic development.

  2. many

     /  June 25, 2014

    Deborah,

    Many medical and technical start ups in the area are created by local business school graduates and scientists. They get their start up funds from Angel investors (IMAF, RTP Captial, Triangle Angel) or Venture Capital (Aurora, Cato, IDEA, Hatteras, Golden Pine) etc. A lot of this activity is reliant on public-private partnerships between government, education and private capital.

    It has long been my opinion that this sort of incubation c/should take place on the local level with the same “feed stock” enabling and encouraging local business school graduates and other disciplines to partner with local entrepreneurial people. This should be funded through private capital, and I would think that at least some of the above funds might be interested in such an endeavor.

    Chapel Hill leadership could help orchestrate this fusion by creating a foundry to attract creative people and local private capital.

    Do I think this alone solves the “economic development want”? No, I do not. However as you point out one or two successes could have significant impact on the local economy without the low energy sameness and lack of imagination in strip malls and “big box” stores.