Oct. 11--JUST THE NAME -- Dell -- seemed to promise the Triad and North Carolina a future economy driven by clean, high-tech industry.

Local industrial recruiters could practically print it on their business cards, Dell's halo effect was so strong.

By January, however, the company will be gone, leaving behind 905 jobless workers and an empty building that "will essentially be an empty ghost," one company official said.

Just five years ago, the prospect of Dell and the $500 million FedEx hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport were transformational. What once had been an old-world regional economy of smokestack manufacturing was to become a thriving whoosh of companies that build, pack and ship with the speed and precision of modern technology.

Now Dell is on its way out, and the FedEx hub, though newly opened, is not operating at nearly the projected level of flights or employment.

But business experts are taking heart in the regional strengths that recruited those companies. Those strengths, they say, are undiminished.

Even now, economic recruiters say, major companies are scouting the Triad for possible locations. In the past six months, 10 companies have announced expansions adding up to several hundred jobs.

That's not enough to absorb the sting of Dell, but it is enough to prove that our economy has a hearty pulse, said Penny Whiteheart, executive vice president of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, a regional economic development group.

"We thought Dell was a home run," she said. "And we'll just have to continue to hit some singles and doubles to regain those thousand jobs."

'The sweet spot'

Dell and FedEx, many say, remain strong proof that the Triad is succeeding in building a stronger economy despite the strains of a worldwide financial crisis.

It all comes down to:

--A solid work force that has necessary skills and access to quality training. --A highway network that has capacity for the tremendous amount of over-the-road freight needed to supply the Eastern seaboard. --The FedEx hub, which has become a key piece of the region's infrastructure, said John Kasarda, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at UNC-CH.

"You have to remember that Dell's decision (to locate here) was made primarily because they needed an East Coast location, because they needed overnight shipping for their customer base," Kasarda said. "Triad first, Winston-Salem second because of road accessibility. That road accessibility was also a factor in FedEx's decision. ...

"The Triad is in the sweet spot."

High-tech in name only

Although the Triad liked to think of Dell as a high-tech employer, the actual work -- and wages -- inside the plant were more akin to historical manufacturing jobs.

"We looked at the Dell project with rose-colored glasses," said Rob Bencini, a private economic developer who once oversaw economic development for Guilford County.

"We saw Dell as a high-tech operation," he said. "They were dealing with high-tech components, but the actual jobs being performed were not terribly technical in nature."

Those jobs paid about $12 to $15 an hour for workers with basic manufacturing skills.