The cancellation of Carolina North’s Innovation Center offers some important lessons in navigating the current economic climate, particularly in managing development in unfavorable circumstances.
Rather than making due with an unwieldy plan, a wholesale re-evaluation is necessary. Trying to execute an old plan in a new climate is asking for disappointment.
Though it will take some time and, well, innovation, to rework the original idea into a new, feasible plan, such are the hazards of carrying on a construction campaign during difficult economic times.
The Innovation Center was slated to be the inaugural project at the Carolina North site, which has been beset by delays. Now there won’t be one.
Even worse, the law school — the second building scheduled for the site — is dependent on state appropriations for funding. It’s highly doubtful that it will meet its 2012 scheduled completion date.
These challenges amount to more than just an opportunity for the University to make the best of things given the current circumstances; they are an opportunity to demonstrate the ability to know when to go back to the drawing board.
The University is faced with a catch-22. Partnering with private investors, as was the plan for the Innovation Center, leaves the University at the mercy of an unpredictable market.
On the other hand, relying on the state for funding, which leaves them at the mercy of our legislators, can be even more hit-or-miss.
But true innovation involves refining the ideas themselves — not merely the ways in which they are funded — in order to ensure that they can come to fruition in a timely manner.
