Industry insiders fear the sun will set on the subsidy that makes solar such a bright spot in a dreary economy.

A Greensboro developer has backed off an idea to turn the Reynolds Building in downtown Winston-Salem into an upscale hotel.

After Superstorm Sandy hit, Bostic-based Defiant Marine Inc. — a marine salvage company Ferris founded in 2010 — sent a crew to New York City to pump out the Montague Tube, which carries the subway under the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn

Small Business of the Year Runner-up: Prima Tech USA Inc. is the nation’s largest maker and distributor of animal-health applicators.

The economy is better, but top contractors are still suffering in the recession's wake.

Top private companies in North Carolina are growing by acquisitions, reinvesting, rebranding, introducing new products and gaining new partners.

Shareholder return is rising faster than CEO compensation, our list shows. And that’s without a nay say-on-pay vote

Shareholder return is rising faster than CEO compensation, our list shows. And that’s without a nay say-on-pay vote

The tepid growth of the Top 75's market value reflects the recovery's current sluggish pace.

SunEnergy 1 LLC, a Mooresville-based solar-panel installer, has taken advantage of the spike in solar-energy tax breaks, with contracts jumping from about $50 million last year to an estimated $130 million in 2012.

For the eighth time in 10 years, Statesville-Mooresville in Iredell County was Site Selection magazine’s top U.S. micropolitan area 

When Bob Geolas was a boy, his father took him to see construction at Research Triangle Park. Now he's the president and CEO of the Research Triangle Park Foundation of North Carolina.

Business North Carolina's annual ranking of the state’s largest employers shows many have more jobs, indicating less unemployment ahead.

Once again, G.D. Gearino reviews the year that was, putting such a spin on it that 2011 feels quite dizzy.

Small Business of the Year Runner-up: In 2008 and 2009, Marvin Mercer scrapped for clients, calling on everyone he knew. Once, he heard two strangers talking about engineering in a restaurant, so he just walked up to the table and laid down his card. Nothing seemed to make a difference. Money was so tight that he and his wife, Wendy, who together own Mercer Design Group PC, were scrimping on paper and ink, and he had taken to nagging employees about turning out the lights. They even considered filing for bankruptcy. “We were probably within a week or two weeks of closing the doors,” he says.

2011 Top Contractors: Anxious for an upturn, top contractors keep their companies stoked with whatever work there is, wherever they can find it.

Feature: Two Tar Heels injured in Iraq prove charity starts at home by building and renovating houses for disabled vets.

When Julian Clayton was a kid, the family computer was so heavy and bulky that the only place to put it was the granite countertop of a bar in the basement. Now his Salisbury-based company Crescent Construction Services LLC relies on a device that weighs less than 2 pounds.

In the television series Father Knows Best, patriarch Jim Anderson often served up the wisdom of his experience to solve some problem caused by the inexperienced youth of his three children.

In plain talk, a pyrrhic victory means: “We burned down the house, but at least we got rid of the cockroaches.” That might apply to builders and developers whose lawsuit caused the state Court of Appeals to overturn Union County’s impact fee on new homes.

Steve Zelnak, 65, became president of Martin Marietta Corp.’s aggregates division 27 years ago and led it through its spinoff and initial public offering as Martin Marietta Materials Inc. in 1994.

In good times, Doug Allen’s company needed to beat only two or three other contractors to win an industrial construction project. But when Asheboro-based J.H. Allen Inc. recently went after a job in Eden, it was one of 60 companies looking for work.

I’m gonna ask you a couple of silly questions,” an emergency responder tells the small, gray-haired man settled into a metal chair on a sidewalk. “Do you know what today is?”

Three years ago, David Joyner got into his car and went to see some mayors in western Wake County about making a planned bypass around Raleigh’s west side a toll road.

On Sept. 17, 2007, a for-sale sign was jammed into the front yard of my home, which I had bought just 2 1/2 years prior (which is to say, near the peak of the housing market). Thus began my education in real estate.

EpiCentre, with its 15-story hotel, movie theaters, bowling alley, bars, stores and offices, covers a block of downtown Charlotte. Developer Afshin Ghazi estimates it has cost about $180 million.

Floridians have long flocked to western North Carolina, so when a cloud settled over the Sunshine State real-estate market, Florida developers moved up, too (“Take the High Ground,” December 2007).

For more than two years, Stock Building Supply LLC offices occupied one of three floors in Colony Corporate Center in north Raleigh.