2021: A year in review

By Jenna Shackelford, posted Jan 11, 2022 on BizFayetteville.com

EVENTS MAKE A RETURN TO REGION

After a tumultuous year of limited in-person activities and constant cancellations, COVID precautions were in place to ensure the safety of individuals attending events, and organizations felt comfortable hosting events once again. We saw the return of summer concerts, the fall Dogwood Festival, The Holly Day Fair, A Dickens Holiday, sporting events and more. Businesses that support events, such as venues and caterers, flourished.

CHAMBER AND FACVB CEOS COME TO TOWN

The Greater Fayetteville Chamber and the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau welcomed a dynamic duo to town. Shari and Randy Fiveash moved to Fayetteville from Connecticut to serve in their respective roles, with Shari taking the spot of president and CEO of the Chamber and Randy becoming the new president and CEO of the FACVB.

HORNE BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION SALE

Pine Gate Renewables launched Blue Ridge Power, a new EPC company; then, Blue Ridge Power acquired the solar division of Fayetteville-based Horne Brothers Construction, Inc. Jack and Charles Horne joined the company’s leadership team, and Chris Dunbar, who served as Pine Gate Renewables chief construction officer, became president of Blue Ridge.

AMAZON COMING TO FAYETTEVILLE

In early May, the Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development Corporation announced that an Amazon delivery station would be coming to the region at 1005 Dunn Road – the previous location of the Soffe outlet store. (Greater Fayetteville Business Journal provided in-depth coverage of the announcement in the inaugural edition.) RealtyLink helped broker the deal for the property, which included the 127,750 square-foot building and almost 24 acres with the plan to lease much of the facility to Amazon. Since then, another economic development project referred to as “Project Bronco,” has been progressing in the Military Business Park. It is rumored to also be an Amazon site, although that has not yet been confirmed by the FCEDC. “Progress is moving forward with the announced Amazon facility on Dunn Road, and Fed Ex has also started operating there as well,” Robert Van Geons of FCEDC said.

“We anticipate more than 2M square feet of new distribution space being constructed over the next year/18 months (including Project Bronco) and that these new facilities will add more than 2,000 jobs to the local economy.”

USPS NEW TENANT OF LIBERTY POINT INDUSTRIAL PARK In September, Liberty Point Industrial Park gained USPS as a tenant, located on Corporation Drive, adjacent to the area of Interstate 95. Although technically not within the town limits, Hope Mills Mayor Jackie Warner said that she was excited for the arrival as she believed it would poise the area for a “‘business boom’ that will invite neighboring counties and states from everywhere for fast connections to our entire area.”

FAYETTEVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY ACQUIRES BRONCO SQUARE

FSU kicked off its homecoming week with the announcement that it had acquired the Bronco Square strip mall debt-free. The school also announced that it would build a standalone Chick-fil-A and a standalone Starbucks, totalling five million dollars in debt-free assets for the school. The book store, Chancellor Allison said, will move out of Bronco Square and that space will become a new hub for entrepreneurial activities – a one-stop shop for businesses.

FTCC RESCUE TRAINING CENTER, ANNOUNCEMENT OF AQUATIC ADDITION T

he final steel beam for the first phase of construction of the FTCC-Cumberland County Regional Fire & Rescue Training Center was hoisted into place. Careful planning went into the training center with legislators and local officials hearing from Dr. Keen on what was in store for the Center throughout the year. In November, the school announced its plans to open an indoor swift water rescue training facility in the building. The state-of-the-art technology being implemented in the 88,000-gallon tank will allow emergency personnel to train for a variety of swift-water and floodwater rescue situations upon completion.

ELKAY EXPANDS OPERATIONS INTO ROBESON COUNTY

In June, Governor Roy Cooper announced that Elkay Manufacturing, the leading producer of sink and water delivery products, would invest $5.5 million dollars into the Lumberton area by becoming the first tenant of the Lumberton/Robeson County I-95/I-74 Industrial Park. In early December, ground was broken at the site for the distribution center and construction is anticipated to be complete by October.

BERNHARD CAPITAL DEAL DISCUSSION

A private equity company based in Louisiana, Bernhard Capital Partners discussed the possibility of managing the Fayetteville Public Works Commission. In the summer of 2020, BCP offered $750 million to the city. Near the beginning of May 2021, PWC withdrew from the deal, publicly announcing that it had ceased communications with BCP because it had not established the “transparency and trust” to continue the discussion. In early December 2021, Greater Fayetteville Business Journal was told that PWC has not yet been released from the nondisclosure agreement with the firm. Greater Fayetteville Business Journal will continue to report on how utility companies are choosing to handle these sorts of deals and on any future deals that may arise with PWC.

CUMBERLAND COUNTY LEGISLATORS BRING $412 MILLION BACK TO REGION

Upon the signing of the state budget, Cumberland County was set to receive an investment of over $412 million dollars from the state budget. This is the largest allocation from the budget that the area has ever seen. The community investments were allocated as follows: $198,020,000 for higher education; $64,085,801 for local government; $11,100,000 for health care; $4,250,000 for economic equality; $550,000 for human services; $27,512,162 for military and veterans; $19,440,350 for flood mitigation and resiliency; $87,625,000 for other capital investments. Corporate income tax will be eliminated by 2030, state income tax on military pensions will cease and personal income tax rates will be cut.

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