MEDICAL COMPLEX FANS CITY'S GROWTH
Business North Carolina March 2003

excerpts from the article:

Beauty and Brains.  Not a bad combination.  And Greenville is a wellspring for both with a thriving student community and world-class health care, education and business. 

The eastern North Carolina city is home to 20 parks and six museums.  That's the beauty.  And some of the world's leading academic, health-care and industry professionals call it home.  That's the brains.  It adds up to a spot in Money  magazine's Top 50 places to live. 

One of its hospitals, Pitt County Memorial, also recently was named among the nation's top 100 centers for treatment of cardiovascular disease by Evanston, IL based Solucient Leadership Institute's 2002 100 Top Hospitals:  Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success.  This ranking should turn heads and make North Carolinians take another look at Greenville -- which is a far cry from the hog-farming, tobacco-growing stereotype usually associated with Eastern North Carolina....

Greenville, population 60,966 is one of North Carolina's fastest growing cities.  Now the state's 13th-largest, its population has grown nearly 36% since 1990.  Pitt County's 2001 population was about 135,000, the 14th largest in the state, and officials expect that number to grow to nearly 200,000 by 2030.

The driving forces behind Greenville's growth and development have been East Carolina University, its Brody School of Medicine and Pitt County Memorial Hospital... 

According to rankings compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education, ECU was in the top 10 in the nation for success in research leading to patents, licensed inventions and the creation of spin-off companies...

Pitt County Memorial Hospital is the largest component of University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina.  PCMH, a 731-bed hospital, is a private nonprofit medical center that also serves as the teaching hospital for ECU's medical school. 

The other seed for Greenville's big economic push was planted in 1968 when drug maker and researcher Burroughs Wellcome built a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant.  In 1997, Catalytica Fine Chemicals purchased the plant.  Today, it is owned by DSM Pharmaceuticals, a Dutch drug developer and manufacturer...

ECU, University Health Systems and DSM Pharmaceuticals, which employs about 1,250, are Pitt County's three largest employers... University Health Systems serves 29 counties...and employs about 6,000 people... "University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina is one of the most wonderful treasures in Pitt County.  Its continuous expansion of facilities and services not only ensures excellent health care, but also provides a ripple of business opportunities through out the community." says Susan Nobles, vice president of Institutional Advancement at Pitt County Community College...the seventh-largest community college in the 58-member North Carolina Community College System...

Tourism expenditures in the county were nearly $135 million last year.  That industry, which employs about 2,000, is positioned to expand with the completion of the new Greenville Convention Center in May 2002...It offers more than 74,000 sq foot of meeting space, 40,000 sq ft of exhibit area...

Retail also is thriving.  Greenville ranks 11th in retail sales across the state.  "Most communities in Eastern North Carolina rely heavily on one type of industry," says Susanne Sartelle, president of the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce.  "The diversity of our economic base gives Greenville added strength"... With restaurants to suit anyone's fancy, a short drive to the coast and strong cultural activities, Greenville is a booming, beautiful and smart place. 

article by Kristen Burnett, a free-lance writer from Raleigh