TRIAD – If 2009 is any indication of what may be forthcoming for the economy, 2010 could be a good year for those who are unemployed in the Triad, local economic developers say.

“We’ve had more projects, more requests for information, and more folks we are showing buildings to than we have had in a long time,” said Loren Hill, president of the High Point Economic Development Corp. “It appears many companies are beginning to take out of moth balls projects they had been considering before the national economic downturn. It appears things are moving. It will be awhile before that’s widespread felt, of course, with all the bad news we’ve seen over the last 15-plus months, but we are optimistic.”

Bonnie Renfro, president of the Randolph County Economic Development Corp., also has noticed an increase in traffic.

“In the last month, my office has been extraordinarily busy with new projects, companies across a variety of business sectors that include manufacturing and energy projects,” Renfro said.

“We are very, very busy. If the kind of activity that we are seeing near the end of the fiscal year continues and results in projects next year, then we certainly will see our economy improve and the unemployment rate come down because jobs will be created, and that includes construction jobs as well as people who may be hired by companies who are locating to the community,” she said.

Steve Googe, executive director of the Davidson County Economic Development Commission, also is hopeful for a turnaround in 2010.

“I think typically in a manufacturing-based economy ... when the cycle turns down, the manufacturing folks are usually the first people who come back,” Googe said. “The question is, ‘When is the economy going to have an upward turn?’ I think there are some forecasts and some numbers that kind of tell us we are at the bottom, but we don’t know how long we are going to be parallel that before we start the upward turn.

“I think we have seen a lot of activity in probably the last quarter, but that activity is more informational gathering for companies to pull the trigger on making investments and being able to add jobs and expanding. You have some projects that we have been working on that look like they could come to fruition in the first quarter of 2010. We continue to work with folks.”

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