GREENSBORO, N.C. — More than 24 hours after Boom Supersonic announced it's putting down roots at Greensboro's Piedmont Triad International Airport, the excitement is still flowing.
While Boom's announcement is big news, the big projects that bring big jobs to the Triad date back to the 1990s.
"What happened yesterday doesn't happen without the work of people that had the foresight 10, 20, 50 years ago to be planning for that kind of thing to happen," said PTI Executive Director Kevin Baker.
The move to bring big companies to the area is intentional with the potential for future growth.
"Some of the first companies that came here were Cessna and Timco, which became HAECO later on," he said.
Not far behind those companies was FedEx, then Honda, and soon after that came a plan.
"It became very much a long-term strategy to attract more and be ready to say yes. So, that if a company comes to us and says they need 100 acres and it needs to be next to a runway or an interstate and have all the utilities there. If we're not ready to say yes right then, then we lose, and they're ready to go somewhere else," said Baker.
There is room for more. Baker said the airport has 1,000 acres of land.
"This is just a first step. There's room for plenty more companies out there," he said.
The big economic announcements will have a chain reaction, growing the area, creating more jobs, and in turn, one day, adding more flights.
"As the community grows the airport will grow," he said.