The research and product development occurring within downtown Winston-Salem’s Innovation Quarter produced an overall $1.66 billion economic impact in Forsyth County during fiscal 2022, the organization reported Tuesday.
The economic analysis was commissioned by the organization and conducted by TEConomy Partners, a provider of advanced economic and functional impact studies.
IQ is a key part of the local Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Wake Forest University School of Medicine systems.
The district contains 2.1 million square feet, 115 companies or institutions, and more than 2,000 degree-seeking students.
“As a thriving public-private partnership and a major innovation engine of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, it’s important to measure and communicate Innovation Quarter’s impact on the local and regional economy,” said Lindsey Schwab, director of community relations.
People are also reading…
“This snapshot of our impact as a district of how far we have come gives us momentum to continue building the kinds of partnerships and creating more positive growth in the years to come.”
The economic impact — as has been the case with similar analyses — is divided into three categories:
- Direct effects, primarily people employed by tenants in the IQ;
- Indirect effects, defined as how and where businesses in the iQ purchase goods and services; and
- Induced effects, how wages earned by workers within IQ have a ripple effect in where they are spent, thus spurring hiring in non-IQ sectors of the local economy.
Induced also is defined as revenue, wages, jobs generated by industry-to-industry transactions, and employee and supplier spending on local goods and services, such as shopping at Hanes Mall.
The induced economic totals in these kinds of studies have drawn some criticism for inflating the overall impact. Similar economic-impact studies involving the state’s airports also have included induced spending.
The IQ analysis cites not only the induced ripple effect on spending effect, but also on local employment.
IQ said there are 3,883 full-time employees working in the district at the time the analysis was conducted.
An additional 4,427 indirect/induced jobs were attributed to IQ.
TEConomy said in estimating the induced ripple effects, it used what it called “an input-output model.”
“This technique models economic relationships between sectors and how Innovation Quarter expenditures within the regional economy flow through suppliers and vendors as additional inputs are purchased and through employees, faculty, staff, and other Innovation Quarter-based workers who spend their wages in this economy.”
Officials said that the overall investment in the IQ since its founding is at $876 million.
That includes: $650.8 million in private investment from Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Wexford Science + Technology and private developers; $157.1 million in public investment from federal, state and local governments; $68.1 million in investment immediately adjacent to Innovation Quarter proper, including the Goler District, Plant 64 Apartments and Lofts and the Winston Factory Lofts.
“This economic impact study validates decades of work by a broad range of partners in reimagining Winston-Salem’s future,” says Mark Owens, president and chief executive of Greater Winston-Salem Inc. “The development of this district has been one of the most important projects that put Winston-Salem on a growth trajectory.”
“It not only encourages investment within the district itself,” Owens said. “It has also redefined the value proposition of Winston-Salem as a whole being an ideal place to locate.”