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Winston-Salem City Council Approves Whitaker Park Funding Proposal

Whitaker Park was once a bustling cigarette manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem. It's been closed since 2012. R.J. Reynolds donated a major part of the site to a local redevelopment group last year. The goals is to turn it into a mixed-use facility that would create thousands of jobs in the coming years. ---- photo credit: R.J. Reynolds/Reynolds American.

A major revitalization project in Winston-Salem is getting a boost. City Council unanimously passed a proposal Monday that will provide aid to the redevelopment of the Whitaker Park industrial site.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company donated its Whitaker Park manufacturing plant to a local redevelopment group last year.  The plant, which is located near Cherry Street and Polo Road closed in 2012, after the company consolidated operations at its Tobaccoville site.

The non-profit corporation known as the Whitaker Park Development Authority Inc. (WPDA) was created by Winston-Salem Business Inc., the Winston-Salem Alliance and Wake Forest University.

The group asked the city and county for a combined $8-million jumpstart on revitalization efforts. Forsyth County Commissioners have also approved their half of that amount.  

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines says the site will be transformed into a mixed-use facility that would include manufacturing.

“We believe that there could be as many as 10,000 to 12,000 new jobs created in the overall park,” says Joines. “Were' excited, we've got the first building turned over to us from Reynolds.  We're almost completed with the renovation of that building and about a third of it is leased by a tenant.”

Joines says the group hasn't officially named the first tenant, but that announcement expected in the coming weeks.

He adds if city council passes the proposal, the money would come from economic development funds that voters approved.

 

*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

 

 

 

 

 

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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