Today (Thursday, Aug. 1), the Golden LEAF Board of Directors awarded a total of $18.9 million in funding across two Golden LEAF Programs and an $8 million for a special initiative. The Board awarded $1,300,000 to support four projects through the Open Grants Program and $9,614,500 in funding for seven projects through the Shell Building Pilot Program.

The Golden LEAF Board of Directors awarded $8 million to Methodist University for instructional equipment and other costs related to the new Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, which will create 260 new jobs. At full enrollment, the school will graduate 120 doctors each year, many of whom are expected to enter residencies across seven Tier 1 counties and one Tier 2 county throughout Southeastern North Carolina and remain and practice in the region, creating additional jobs and addressing severe healthcare shortages.  

“Research has shown that resident doctors trained in rural areas are more likely to practice in rural areas,” said Golden LEAF Board Chair Ralph Strayhorn in a press release. “The funding to Methodist University will not only help build hundreds of jobs throughout southeastern North Carolina, but also increase the number of physicians serving the region. This project will substantially move the needle for rural healthcare in North Carolina.”

Additionally, the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $10 million to the Golden LEAF Foundation to implement the Golden LEAF Shell Building Pilot Program. Under the authorizing legislation, governmental and charitable nonprofit entities in Ashe, Bladen, Columbus, Franklin, Halifax, Robeson, and Scotland counties are eligible to apply for funding. The program is intended to provide grants to increase the number of available  publicly-owned industrial buildings suitable for new or expanding businesses, other than retail, entertainment, or sports projects.

Long term real estate projects that received grant funding in Bladen and Robeson Counties include: 

$1,350,000 to Bladen’s Bloomin’ Agri-Industrial, Inc. in Bladen County to construct a 20,000 square-foot shell building located in the Aviation Park contiguous to the Elizabethtown airport. Bladen’s Bloomin’ Agri-Industrial, Inc. expects that construction of a shell building could attract a business that would invest $2,500,000 in private capital and create 40 new jobs with an average annual salary of $50,000.

$1,375,000 to Robeson County to develop a preliminary design plan to construct a 80,000-square-foot shell building expandable to 142,000 square-fee at the COMtech Business Park. The County expects that construction of a shell building could attract a business that would invest $9,152,000 in private capital and the creation of 75 jobs with an average salary of $45,000.

Since 1999, Golden LEAF has funded 2,292 projects totaling $1.3 billion supporting the mission of advancing economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural, tobacco-dependent, and economically distressed communities.