Wednesday, Mar. 30, 2011

Garner announces 250 new jobs

A Tennessee company will build a residential behavioral center for teens.

With a dreaded highway expansion no longer scaring away business prospects, economic development is sprouting again in Garner.

Strategic Behavioral Health, based in Memphis, Tenn., announced Monday that it will build a $12 million residential behavioral center in town. The company will bring more than 250 new jobs at an average annual pay of about $50,000.

"This gives us fresh hope for the future of even more new jobs in our town," Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said. "[Strategic Behavioral Health is] the type of high-end business that will be a long-term community and state asset."

Strategic Behavioral Health, or SBH, will offer residential care to teens with emotional and behavioral disorders. The building phase is expected to take 10 to 12 months, and SBH plans to open the facility in Greenfield Business Park during the summer of 2012.

SBH's decision build in Garner came after N.C. lawmakers' vote to kill the so-called red route as an option for an extension of the Triangle Expressway.

"As the red route issue surfaced in the middle of our land search and due diligence, it was the unified effort of the community and its leaders that convinced us to stay and hope that the route would be removed so that we could move forward with this project," SBH President Jim Shaheen said on Monday.

"Quite frankly, these guys were very welcoming," he said of Garner leaders.

Until the General Assembly passed a bill barring the Turnpike Authority from considering the red route expansion of the Triangle Expressway, the mood in Garner had been somber. One major black cloud: ConAgra plans to lay off hundreds of remaining employees during the next two months as it closes its Slim Jim factory on Jones Sausage Road.

And when the Turnpike Authority said in January it would continue to study the red route, spirits in Garner sank even lower.

Garner had been in talks with Strategic Behavioral Health for nearly two years, and in December, the company nearly purchased 10 acres in Greenfield Business Park. But with the park in the path of the red route, the company reconsidered.

In February, Beasley said SBH would build elsewhere if the Turnpike Authority didn't officially abandon the red route by March 28. Beasley had said the company had "certain obligations it has to meet by early 2012" and had broadened its search to include sites in Western North Carolina and Virginia.

With nowhere else to turn, Garner leaders asked local legislators for help. And on Monday, they saw their efforts rewarded.

"Part of the reason we passed the legislation [was because] various officials in Garner indicated it was stalling their economic development efforts," said state Sen. Dan Blue, a Raleigh Democrat. The announcement "ratifies our decision to approve that legislation. To get that many new jobs in this economy is certainly something to be thankful for."

Staff Writer David Bracken contributed to this report.