WINSTON-SALEM, NC-Big Hat Co., owned by developers Garry Merritt and Chris Chapman, plans preliminary site work next spring on a two-building, 700,000-sf center on 62 acres in Northbridge Business Park, 60 miles north of Downtown Charlotte. The estimated hard construction cost of the project is $42 million.

RALEIGH, NC-The region around Cary, NC, just west of Raleigh, has become one of the fastest growing office submarkets in the Triangle.

LINCOLNTON, NC-This North Carolina sector, some 40 miles northwest of Charlotte, is flourishing these days by giving tax breaks to new or expanding companies.

LINCOLNTON, NC-This North Carolina sector, some 40 miles northwest of Charlotte, is flourishing these days by giving tax breaks to new or expanding companies.

RALEIGH, NC-The region around Cary, NC, just west of Raleigh, has become one of the fastest growing office submarkets in the Triangle.

CHARLOTTE-Locally-based Employee Benefits Services, a subsidiary of the Key Family of Cos., plans to move its 200-employee headquarters to Rivercrossing, a 150-acre, mixed-use project being developed in York County, SC.

CHARLOTTE-The 25-acre project along five blocks of abandoned land on the city's blighted West Trade and Fifth Streets in the Third Ward will encompass 1.1 million sf of office for the bank's technology center; 75,000 sf of retail; and 600,000 sf of multifamily.

CHARLOTTE-Open areas in major projects are catching on with developers who are selling the idea as a plus to buyers and investors, says Brad Davis, a partner in locally-based Land Design Inc.