Durham, North Carolina.  Components For General Purpose Lighting Expand Cree Sales.  Cree is the LED lighting company that I have talked about several times.  While earnings declined they had a substantial increase in sales of components used for general purpose lighting.  While the production of light-emitting diodes reamins an important part of their business the ability to produce products that save energy is becoming more and more important to the company and certainly more important to the end users.  LEDs are more expensive than fluorescent and incandescent lights but prices are coming down as their markets widen and the technology improves.

Cary, North Carolina - SIEMENS BUYS MACGREGOR PARK BUILDING.   The 30,000 Square Foot Building Brings $4.1 Million.  The building, at 211 Gregson Drive, is part of Siemens plan to add 300 jobs in the area during the next five years.  Siemens is a German electronics company.  Their medical solutions unit makes patient-monitoring systems and medical gear.  That unit is where the job growth will occur.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website:  www.JohnFish.com

Cary, North Carolina.  Epic Games may be small in size as a game developer but it is a powerhouse in what it produces.  It has just announced that in November it will release a personal computer version of its blockbuster hit “Gears of War“.  This will enable gamers to create more levels using the same users tools as the Unreal Engine.  The Epic engine has been licensed to many game developers for big budget titles.  Also, Sony announced that it has signed a deal with Epic and game publisher Midway, a Chicago company, to bring “Unreal Tournament 3″ to PlayStation 3.  The Sony deal makes it possible for players to upload levels made on a PC to PlayStation 3. 

Listen up!! If you think you have talent along the lines of computer game development let me know. Epic is looking for “quality” talent.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Electronic Arts, the world’s largest video game maker, is looking for space in Raleigh.  The Orlando based company is the producer of the Tiger Woods and Madden NFL video games.  The Raleigh area is attractive to Electronic Arts because of successful video game companies that are already here such as Cary’s Epic Games and Virtual Heroes and Chapel Hill’s Emergent Game Technologies.  Also, they want to take advantage of the students in the computer science and design programs at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina. During 2006 Electonic Arts had revenues of $2.5 billion.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Cary, North Carolina.  The Triangle’s first five star hotel (of size) is due to open in Cary within the next ten days.  It’s the result of the dedication and drive of Ann Goodnight, the wife of SAS co-founder Jim Goodnight.  The $80 million hotel will be called the UMSTEAD.  Standard room rates will, for openers, be from $295 to $350 per night until April and then increase to $350 to $425 per night.  Suites start in the low $400s.  The 1,700 square foot Presidential suite will set you back a cool $2,200 per night. 

The Umstead will offer a 14,000 square foot spa, 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a 6,000 square foot rear lawn for weddings and other open air events and a three acre pond.  South American Anegre wood panels the interior walls and art works by North Carolina artists will line the corridor outside of the meeting rooms.  Guests may bring their pets.  An outdoor elevator will handle guest luggage.  No eye clutter here.

John Fish (919) 696-3474     Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website:  www.JohnFish.com

Cary - During the dot com bust in this area, Cary’s office vacancy rates dropped to more than 20%.  Now, it is about 13%.  Demand for space is so strong that neighboring markets are in heavy demand as well.  Strangely enough,  while developers are building more than 1.7 millions square feet of new office space all across the Triangle area, there are currently no leasable offices under construction in Cary.  By the same token, half of the 2 million square feet of proposed offices in the Triangle are planned for Cary.  As hot as the market is developers may want to wait until companies commit to space before building.  I rather imagine that problems in other areas around the country are making them a bit timid.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: wwwJohnFish.com

Cary North Carolina - It is always a pleasure to see good friends prosper.  Last Wednesday, Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein (Epic Games) rolled out their new video game offering, “Gears of War“.  The game was exclusively developed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game player.  The Reviews have been excellent.  In fact, Yahoo Games calls it the best 360 game of 2006.  Great going guys I hope you have a blockbuster!

John Fish  (919) 696-3473   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: wwwJohnFish.com

On September 29, the new ‘Flyboys’ video game will be released.  However, you don’t have to wait until then to preview it.  A free download is available at flyboysgame.com.  IEntertainment Network of Cary is colaborating with MGM in a deal that will see the producers spend $50 million to promote the ‘Flyboys’ move and which will let IEntertainment Network fly along with it.  While the success of the game depends to a considerable extent upon the success of the movie, the movie’s producer, Dean Devlin, has previously had winners with ‘The Patriot’ and ‘Independence Day’.  Thus, IEntertainment’s CEO J.W. Stealey is confident that ‘Flyboys’ will be another winner and that both companies will benefit by its success.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Web Site:  www.JohnFish.com

Cary, North Carolina.  If you could do without “fret and frown and you shop for your crown” (Victoria that is) in North Carolina’s summer heat, you might want to wend your way to Crossroad Ford’s huge new indoor showroom in Cary. Crossroads Ford is one of Fords top ten dealerships nationally.

Crossroads claims their three acres of air conditioned automotive delights is the largest indoor showroom on the east coast.  You could get out your tape measure and challenge their claim or just go see the 350 cars the showroom houses and enjoy.  At a cost of $5.5 million I would say they have earned the right to make about any claim for it they want.  The showroom has playrooms for children and, since the cars in inside, they are all unlocked to make it easier for you to get in, out and around them. 

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com