THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 23, 1996 TAG: 9604230341
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
The city and county are making IXL cabinetmakers an offer they hope the company won't refuse.
The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to give the company - which announced this month it was pulling out of the area - 25 acres of land to stay.
Pasquotank County voted last week to donate the land, which the governments own jointly.
``We want to let IXL know that if there's a possibility to stay in the community . . . we're offering them the land to stay,'' said Randy Harrell, executive director of the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County Industrial Development Commission.
The land, off U.S. 17 South behind the Museum of the Albemarle, would be turned over on the condition that IXL build a new manufacturing plant there.
It remains to be seen how IXL's parent company, Dallas-based Triangle-Pacific Corp., will respond. Harrell said company officials have not indicated how interested they are in such an offer.
IXL has occupied a huge former blimp hangar in Weeksville for about 30 years. But it recently sold that structure to TCOM, a manufacturer of lighter-than-air equipment whose similar hangar burned to the ground last year.
Nearly 150 IXL employees could lose their jobs if the company leaves town. That's why the city and county are offering up land to keep IXL here.
``A lot of the employees were concerned,'' Harrell said. ``It really comes down to the jobs and the people.''
Elizabeth City Mayor H. Rick Gardner said the property is valued at around $2,000 an acre. He said nearly half the property is wetlands and cannot be built on. by CNB