New Restaurants and Retail Signal Growth
business, economic development, expansion, restaurants, retail, taste of paradise,
In Rocky Mount‚ increasing retail sales reflect the expanding shopping landscape. The growth is welcome here‚ signaling an economy in the upswing following the 1999 flood that destroyed a regional shoppers’ destination‚ Tarrytown Mall.
In the mall’s place has risen a newly opened Sam’s Club at the new Tarrytown Center‚ a $25 million development anchored by the warehouse retail chain‚ with room for additional growth in five out-parcels. Elsewhere‚ Golden East Crossing Mall continues to add to its trendy shops and popular national retailers with names such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Ross Dress for Less. New restaurants are opening their doors‚ including Cracker Barrel‚ one of the anchors of the new 28-acre Winstead Business Park development.
“We actually serve a five-county market that has a population base in excess of 300‚000‚ and that is why companies like Sam’s Club have chosen Rocky Mount to expand their operation‚” says Alan Matthews‚ director of business recruitment for the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce. “They realize the drawing power that Rocky Mount has to consumers that live outside our defined two-county MSA (metropolitan statistical area).”
Tarrytown Center and the Winstead Business Park represent a $50 million capital investment in Rocky Mount‚ which helps explain its steady increase in retail sales. Last year‚ Edgecombe and Nash Counties‚ which make up the Rocky Mount MSA‚ experienced a 9.3 percent increase in retail sales over 2005‚ according to Matthews.
Good news also came from a recent shopping center survey‚ he said. Between 1999 and 2006‚ retail occupancy rates increased 14 percent‚ from 85 to 93 percent. Matthews expects retail growth to continue‚ with an expected 200‚000 square feet of new retail space in the next year and a half.
“We had a number of retail outlets opening‚ but we also had pretty good hiring in the manufacturing and distribution sectors‚” says John Gessaman‚ president and CEO of Carolinas Gateway Partnership. The local economic development corporation harnesses the strength of five public-sector partners in the two-county region.
The number of people employed in the MSA jumped from 62‚875 in January 2006 to 65‚508 in January 2007‚ the largest increase the region has had in recent years‚ Gessaman notes.
The 1999 flood caused by Hurricane Floyd cost the region a large number of its commercial structures‚ leading to a loss of employment. The area also has been hit by downturns in the textile industry since the early 1990s.
Such factors have spurred Rocky Mount’s transition to a more technology-led manu facturing focus‚ Gessaman says.
“It’s exciting that we have this increase in the labor force‚” Gessaman said. “This is taking us back to where we were before we had these tremendous declines in these industries.”
Businesses and industries in the area are well served by the Gateway Technology Center. The center‚ on the campus of North Carolina Wesleyan College‚ opened in May 2006 and now offers job training‚ teleconferencing facilities and business and engineering programs from East Carolina University and North Carolina State University. The center’s facilities are often rented by private businesses.
“The videoconferencing capability we have here‚ the opportunity that offers for business and industry‚ is just incredible. Folks can videoconference with anyplace in the world‚” says Marilynn Anselmi‚ director of the center’s ECU/NCSU Rocky Mount Region Academic Program.
Story by Kay Brookshire
Photo by Ian Curcio
