Mar. 2—HIGH POINT — Though he's only been on the job a month, the city of High Point's new economic development director said it's clear to him that he walked into a good situation.
Peter Bishop said he has plenty of selling points to work with when he's recruiting businesses to the city.
"The things you sell are people, place and product, and High Point has great quality when it comes to all of those things," he said. "That's part of what made the job attractive."
Bishop, who previously worked as economic developer for the city of Burlington, brought 16 years of experience in the field to his new job.
He succeeded Sandy Dunbeck, who retired from the city at the end of 2023.
Bishop said he thinks the city's economic development model is working well.
In addition to a city department that he leads, there is the High Point EDC board made up of representatives from the city, the business community and lots of liaisons to outside organizations like Guilford Technical Community College.
"I've been very impressed with the leaders of those organizations," he said. "That is a strong competitive advantage to have this web of resources, and I feel like High Point has that mix. All these other partners have seats at the table."
Bishop said he thinks this type of approach is especially important now that there's more of an emphasis on regional economic development projects.
"Being more urbanized, you're not going to see a Toyota megasite in High Point. But these 100,000, 200,000, 300,000-square-foot buildings will continue to be in demand in this area," he said. "There is a lot of activity in this region. We're going to see more people coming to this region, and I think High Point stands to absorb a lot of the growth."
The spillover effects of the Toyota battery plant and other large projects in the region for High Point will be demand for housing here as well as job opportunities for city residents willing to commute.
"I think we have a lot of good partnerships here for workforce development," Bishop said. "I'm very encouraged by GTCC and the assets they have, as well as Guilford Works."
When it comes to projects closer to home, he pointed out that there are two large industrial parks underway at opposite ends of the city: High Point North and South Point Commerce Center.
The city has received several inquiries about these and other sites from companies in expansion mode and consultants working on behalf of prospects.