“Some cities have bet the bank far too long on a single economic engine. We are economic engine repairmen; we help rewire the city and university engine to drive better, faster, farther.”
— Tim Elliott
INTERSECT EAST VISION
REMEMBER
TOBACCO?
Greenville, North Carolina was once the epicenter for leaf tobacco farming and auctioning. Then, well, tobacco took a nosedive and took the main economic driver of the city with it. In the years that followed the exodus of tobacco, the hospital grew to care for 12 counties in the surrounding area, propelling it to become a preeminent teaching hospital in the region with 9,000 employees. The university, East Carolina University, also grew tremendously and now boasts 30,000 faculty and staff. Both the hospital and the university are conveniently located in downtown Greenville and it just so happened that sitting between the two were 19 acres of vacant and dilapidated tobacco auction warehouses.
ECU bought those vacant, historic warehouses and expanded the land around them to be known as The University Warehouse District. But the university in the east and the hospital in the west weren’t linked. So in 2017, a 10-year vision reached completion in the form of the 10th Street Connector; a five boulevard, straight-line link with 19 acres of land and vacant warehouses squarely between the two.
There’s a movement currently among universities to create innovation centers for technology, biotech, life sciences, and research and development. East Carolina University shares this vision and asked Elliott Sidewalk Communities to be the master developer for its innovation hub in downtown Greenville.
THIS IS WHERE IT
GETS REALLY GOOD!
INDUSTRY
MAGNETS APLENTY
As a master developer, ESC doesn’t just place buildings randomly, we place them with informed strategy. By paying attention to champion businesses and industry in the region, we can build a hub that provides direct collaboration with university resources, specific to local industry needs - and Greenville is teeming with them. Within a 30-mile radius from Intersect East, you’ll find headquarters galore for such companies as ThermoFisher Scientific, Grady-White Boats, Hyster-Yale forklift manufacturing, and more.
ESC elevated the entire concept from an innovation hub to a Pacesetter Innovation Hub – an Olympic training center for champion businesses that encourages these industries to relocate R&D to Intersect East. Why? By doing so, they’ll achieve more direct collaboration with the university while utilizing the vast resources already in place: laboratories, professors, grad students, cost-effective land. They’re also training their future workforce with the best and brightest from ECU – and that’s not just blowing smoke!
ESC'S PACESETTER
INNOVATION HUB IS BORN!
HISTORIC TIE
THAT BINDS
Whenever we dive into a project with historic roots like this, we never know what we might uncover and at Intersect East, we were in for a real treat. Within this project lies an old-abandoned rail line that once connected Greenville to Richmond, Durham and beyond. Those long-vacant rail lines weave throughout this project serving as an historic ‘tie that binds’ past and present. Our vision is to repurpose the main central line and convert it into a hiking and biking trail with access points throughout this growing cultural district of restaurants and shops. We’re even remodeling an old train car and transforming it into a “food train” – not a food truck – a food train – for a full-service restaurant like no other.