From Tobacco to Human Organs: The Public/Private/Academic Partnership that is Driving Winston-Salem’s Revitalization
Until the 1970’s, Winston-Salem reigned as one of the tobacco centers of the United States, anchored by the factories of Richard J. Reynolds. For over a century, starting in the 1870’s, Reynolds provided most of the jobs in Winston-Salem and bankrolled the growth of the city. With the decline of tobacco and the consolidation of several large corporations, Winston-Salem lost thousands of jobs in the following two decades. In the last thirty years, Winston-Salem suffered the loss of two of its largest corporations. Reynolds moves its headquarters to Atlanta in 1987 and in 2001 Wachovia Bank moved to Charlotte. Thankfully, some alliances were formed that allowed the city to come back.
In 1941, the leaders of Reynolds lured Wake Forest University from its original location in Wake Forest, NC. The relocation of Wake Forest University proved to be Winston-Salem’s salvation. In 2001, several business and civic leaders formed the Winston-Salem Alliance as an economic development group. They raised $44 million and launched the Millennium Fund to develop the city’s downtown and invest in targeted projects. The most significant project was developing a research park in coordination with the Wake Forest School of Medicine. Along with the research park, the city worked on several initiatives to attract a younger population to revitalize downtown. Artists, musicians, and small businesses such as breweries and coffee shops were attracted by the low rents and some key people in city government helped bring the former warehouses up to code so they could be used by this new workforce. The resurgence of residents and small businesses in the downtown area made it more attractive and drove residential development. All of these factors were necessary to fill up the buildings that had been left empty. As Wake Forest Baptist CEO McConnell said “We’d driven residential, residential had driven the downtown revitalization, and it was all feeding back on itself.” As Kodrzycki and Munoz describe in Lessons from Resurgent Mid-Sized Manufacturing Cities, “economic redevelopment efforts in resurgent cities spanned decades and involved collaborations among numerous organizations and sectors”. Winston-Salem’s success exemplifies the importance of a long term strategy developed across several sectors in the city.
References:
- How Tech Helped Winston-Salem Quit Tobacco, Politico Magazine Website, October 20, 2016 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/winston-salem-technology-tobacco-town-214377
- Yolanda Kodrzycki and Ana Patricia Munoz, Revitalizing American Cities, Chapter 1(University of Pennsylvania Press 2014)
