Advanced Tech Training Center Opens To Attract Industries, Jobs

By Emily Weaver
Daily Record of Dunn

A new day dawned in Harnett County Friday as leaders gathered to officially open an advanced workforce training center envisioned to bring high-paying, high-demand jobs closer to home.

An estimated 40,000 workers (of the county’s 80,353 laborers) currently travel outside of the county for work each day. Leaders hope that will change when they show other industries how great their workers can be. The new Harnett Advanced Technology Training Center opened with the cut of a ribbon Friday afternoon at 600 S. Magnolia Ave. in Dunn. The ribbon-cutting marked the completion of the old Magnolia Avenue Grammar School’s transformation into the center that was years in the making to grow an impact for years to come.

“This is an exciting day,” Harnett County Manager Brent Trout said as he welcomed a crowd to the new center on an otherwise lucky Friday the 13th. “This historic school has now been transformed into a modern workforce development and training center designed to support our county by preparing residents for high demand careers and strengthening industry partnerships.”

The new center will provide short-term training for new or existing industries in the biotech, ag tech, and computer science fields of artificial intelligence, software programming and more. It features computer labs, biotech and agtech labs as well as office space to support the small business incubator offered by the Dunn Area Committee of 100.

Central Carolina Community College will lead the training offered at the site, sharing the new center with the Committee of 100 and the I-95/I-40 Crossroads of America Economic Development Alliance that led the efforts of its creation. That creation began when leaders realized how valuable a skilled workforce can be in industry recruitment and growth.

Alliance Chairman Harold Keen said they saw the proof of that when Clayton’s burgeoning biopharmaceutical market flourished with the help of a training center in Johnston County.

Power of trained workers

Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company known for its work in diabetes care and GLP-1s, and the aspirin-creator Bayer (now Grifols) came to Clayton in the ’90s, but the companies found themselves in need of a skilled workforce.

“… The truth is they’ve grown because they said we’ve got to have trained workers and so at that time Johnston Community College and the county put together a training effort there for the pharmaceutical plants,” Keen said. “Well, it took a while for it to happen, but five years ago, Novo (Nordisk) announced a $2 billion expansion and then a year and a half later announced a $4 billion expansion and oh, by the way, Grifols Bayer became Grifols and Grifols, it seems like every two or three years does another million or $2 million expansion on their products and they just keep rolling …

“We said, ‘we’re not going to reinvent the wheel. We’re going to look for training centers.’”

The alliance’s first advanced manufacturing training center opened in Four Oaks last year. The state-of-the-art center houses Johnston Community College’s welding, applied and mechanical engineering, and machining programs, giving students access to hands-on instruction with the latest industry technologies.

Central Carolina Community College plans to begin its BioWork certificate program in the new Harnett Advanced Technology Training Center starting April 15.

“The program is aimed at helping students secure entry-level jobs as process technicians, kickstarting careers in North Carolina’s thriving Biotech industry,” the college announced in a release Thursday. “To earn the widely-recognized BioWork certificate, students will take one class that lasts about two months. Students take part in flexible online learning and also participate in hands-on, in-person instruction two evenings per week.”

That in-person learning will take place in the new center on Monday and Wednesday evenings, but it’s just the first of many training opportunities on the way.

‘Regionalism’

Transforming the center cost $15 million and took the help of funding partners that included Harnett County ($5 million) and the alliance ($10 million) by way of the North Carolina General Assembly and a federal appropriation.

“My favorite word for the last three years has been ‘regionalism’ …. We found out very quickly if you go to Raleigh or you go to Washington and you ask for money as an individual town or individual county then you’re just one of everybody else doing the very same thing,” Keen said. “… They’ve got to say yes or no to somebody, but if you go to them as a regional effort, then they get to say yes, hopefully, at some level to everybody.”

The alliance includes the Town of Benson, the City of Dunn and the Town of Four Oaks working with local, state and federal partners to promote economic growth along the heart of the East Coast freeway linking New York to Miami. The new alliance triangle sits about 50 miles south of Research Triangle Park, considered to be North America’s largest high-tech research and science park.

“It is a tremendous day for the Dunn community. It is a tremendous day for Harnett County and for the 20-mile stretch along I-95 here from Dunn to Four Oaks,” said Dunn Mayor William Elmore.

Renovations to the old Magnolia Avenue school building began in early 2024 and wrapped up this month. The new front of the center faces Clinton Avenue while the original face of the old school is preserved on the Magnolia Avenue side of the building.

Talking walls

“If these walls could talk, imagine the stories they would share. For more than a century since 1918 this building has stood as a witness to hope, to learning, community and transformation,” said Nancy Blackman, director of the Dunn Committee of 100. “Picture the children who once filled these classrooms at Magnolia Avenue Grammar School. Generations of young minds walked these halls carrying dreams far bigger than they knew. Many Dunn leaders began their journeys right here, in the first grade, guided by teachers and principals whose dedication shaped not only students, but the future of this community.

“From 1918 to 1984, this school was a place where knowledge took root …,” she said. “Then came a quieter chapter. From 1984 to 1986, the building sat empty, home only to pigeons and a few who had nowhere else to go. But even in silence, these walls waited for their next purpose, and purpose arrived through vision. Mayor Abe Elmore, [father of Dunn’s current mayor], together with the Dunn Area Committee of 100, saw a possibility …,” she said.

With the support of Harnett County, the North Carolina Technological Development Authority and $250,000, she said, “this building was reborn in 1987 as a business incubator. What a rebirth it was. More than 170 businesses have launched or operated here, creating over 2,000 jobs, 2,000 opportunities for families, for growth and for stability.

“To strengthen that mission, the committee established a loan fund with the USDA Rural Development and resources and over $22 million in loans have been made helping to create or save over 2,500 jobs. The committee expanded its reaches in loan funds in Kinston and New Bern and now serves clients from Wake County all the way to Carteret County,” Blackman said. “From the very beginning, the committee’s leaders understood that partnerships were the heartbeat of this center. Harnett County stepped forward with central funding and labor, building maintenance. Central Carolina Community College became a cornerstone partner, bringing small business support, GED classes, adult high school programs, (and) computer training, opening doors for those seeking a second change for a new beginning.

“The building has been many things: a school, a shelter, a symbol of renewal and a launch pad for dreams. Today, with the support of Harnett County, I-95/I-40 coalition, the city of Dunn and Central Carolina Community College, we began another chapter with the Harnett Advanced Technology Training Center,” Blackman said. “Your leadership, partnership and belief in the future of this community has ensured these walls will continue to inspire and uplift for generations to come. It also stands as a testament to what a community can accomplish when vision means commitment and when people choose to invest not only in a building, but each other.”

Lisa Chapman, president of CCCC, echoed that the college has had a presence at the old Magnolia Avenue school for many years.

“What is so exciting about this is that we get to continue that presence, but expand on what we’re able to do,” she said. “We have amazing talent in Harnett County. What this facility is going to allow us to do better is help that amazing talent see their opportunity, have the skills that they need and connect them with those businesses and industries that want to be here, because it’s such a great community. … We all benefit from this.”

Chapman said that CCCC will be targeting biotech training at the new center, but it will also offer “customized training for the specific needs of businesses and industries that are here and that are coming. … We’ll continue to help folks upskill wherever they are, because the amazing people here deserve it.”

Harnett County Schools Superintendent and Commissioner Brooks Matthews thanked all of the many partners who played a role in the new center coming to fruition. “(I’m) just excited for the opportunities it’s going to bring,” he added.