Golden LEAF Foundation - Select Projects

Select Projects

1. One of Golden LEAF's earliest grants was to Surry Community College to begin programs in viticulture and enology, essentials of wine-making. Within a few years the region that encompasses Yadkin, Surry, Forsyth, Davie, and Davidson counties would become known as the Yadkin Valley wine region. Land previously used to raise tobacco is now producing wine grapes for sale to privately owned wineries and for the wine cooperative for which Golden LEAF provided the seed money. In 2005, Golden LEAF continued to help the wine industry grow and improve by making grants to market the region and to provide equipment to help owners detect and control diseases and maintain quality.
2. The Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) on North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus opened in 2007, giving the state a new tool for supporting a growing biotechnology industry. BTEC is the largest facility of its kind in the nation. Through partnerships between N.C. State, North Carolina Central University and the Centennial Campus, BTEC's distance education and on-site programs will train as many as 2,000 students and prospective employees per year. BTEC will simulate a biomanufacturing pilot plant facility capable of producing biopharmaceutical products and packaging them in a sterile environment. It also will include training and education classrooms, laboratories, building and process utilities. The facility is outfitted so that students will gain hands-on experience using the same large-scale equipment they would use on the job. Golden LEAF provided about $38 million to design, build and equip BTEC, as part of an overall initiative grant of about $68 million. In addition to BTEC, the initiative establishes biomanufacturing training capabilities statewide at NCCU and five regional skill centers in the Centennial Campus, which will also operate the BioNetwork Capstone Center within BTEC.
3. Golden LEAF, in conjunction with the U.S. Navy, Cherry Point MCAS, the Defense Logistics Agency and other interested DoD agencies, state educational institutions, and North Carolina companies, assisted in creation of the North Carolina-Aerospace Alliance to assist entrepreneurs in three areas: certification and engineering, work-force training and access to capital. Golden LEAF made $11 million in grants available to support training and the development of capabilities targeting replacement parts for aging military aircraft and other defense related contracting opportunities.
4. The foundation recently approved spending $100 million for a new manufacturing plant at North Carolina's Global TransPark (GTP) to be built by Spirit AeroSystems that will eventually employ more than 1,000 people. Spirit said it will invest $570 million in the project over the next six years and that the facility, which will manufacture the center portion of the fuselage of the Airbus A350 Xtra WideBody airplane, will be operational by 2010. State grants totaling about $125 million include a $5 million grant and more than $20 million, payable over 12 years, tied to the job creation.
5. The Golden LEAF Foundation also provides scholarships to the colleges in the University of North Carolina system, the North Carolina Community College System, and the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities.