KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- A job magnet in Cabarrus County loses some of its strength.

Financing difficulties at the North Carolina Research Campus caused one future tenant to cancel its agreement to locate there.

From the ashes of the Pillowtex plant rose the North Carolina Research Campus with the promise of saving the area's struggling economy.

"That campus is more of a symbol right now than it is a whole of a lot of jobs, and so I think it hurts that symbol," said Rowan Cabarrus Community College President Carol Spalding.

The Rowan/Cabarrus area has seen massive layoffs over the last year. That translates to lots of action at nearby schools. If the college's parking lot is any indicator, classes are full.

In fact, with all of the layoffs in Rowan and Cabarrus counties over the last year, Spalding says, "Our enrolment is up." And many of those students have their sights set on working in or around the Research Campus.

It's obvious to most who have been by the area in the last year that the campus was growing at super speeds. But the credit crunch proved to be the project's kryptonite.

Spalding says she's not that surprised. "I'm sorry that it's not going exactly how everybody had hoped, but it was on such a fast and incredible timeline that it was amazing in and out of its self. This is probably more reality."

When the project couldn't secure financing to start construction on a new building, Wilmington-based pharmaceutical company PPD announced it wasn't going to move in. It's a loss of 300 potential jobs.

A spokesperson for the company says, "Despite this development we have informed NCRC that we would like to continue to work closely with them to evaluate ways in which we can participate in the campus."

Spalding says this is a sign of what's to come, at least in the near future. But she insists it's only a delay.

"We think that company or other companies like it will be back when the economy turns around," Spalding said.

That's why she says it’s a good time to be in school.

We also found out that Carolina's Medical Center signed on to be a tenant in that same building as PPD. A spokesperson for the hospital tells me they only found out about the announcement a day ago and have not decided what their next move will be. But they did say, like PPD, CMC wants to be involved in the NCRC.