“You won’t be in the game.”Īuthor and Stanly County resident Ken Russell, who recently retired from nearby Pfeiffer University, says consulting the community was the perfect answer for Albemarle when it formed the Citizens Economic Development Task Force. “If you don’t have that space, either flex space or land, it’s a nonstarter,” he says. The Urban Institute’s Jeff Michael, who is the mayor’s first cousin, says available industrial space is a must for rural communities. Ronnie Michael says he expects Albemarle City Council will approve a shell building for the business park but it’s too early to discuss details. The city bought the land two years ago for $1.8 million. The first lots should be available in mid- to late 2020, and there’s room for up to 12 manufacturers and up to 4,000 new jobs for the city. Highway 24/27 that can hold up to 2.5 million square feet of industrial and warehouse space. In June, construction starts on Albemarle Business Center, a 282-acre business park at the crossroads of U.S. “We have very little product left,” Ronnie Michael says. Then Donham and others realized the town would have to find a solution to the limited commercial real estate options - either prepared land or available buildings - that would attract new industries. “So we can react and move more quickly to serve everyone’s needs.” “This is a good example of why we are structured for economic development as we are now,” Ferris says. Enforge remained and the city saved 100 jobs. Albemarle, the state and Stanly County responded with the offer of incentives to keep the company, which had opened in the city in 2009. In 2018, Enforge considered moving away from Albemarle with its jobs and its new hot-forging process for steel auto parts. “Most of our success has been working with existing industry,” Donham says. Donham focused on a jobs base that would keep graduates from nearby Pfeiffer University in the area. “It just felt like we needed to take more control of our economic destiny versus the antiquated model that a lot of cities our size use,” says Albemarle City Manager Michael Ferris.ĭonham arrived to find a City Council, city staff and others ready to bring Albemarle into its own as an employment and residential center. Donham had served as economic development director for the city of Monroe in the late 1990s and in city government in Monroe and Oxford, North Carolina. Expand the city’s Planning and Community Development Department to include tasks directly related to economic development.ĭecision-makers in Albemarle: Left to right, Mark Donham, director of economic development Mayor Ronnie Michael City Manager Michael Ferris and Assistant City Manager Nyki HardyĪlbemarle has taken action on virtually all of those recommendations, starting with the hiring in 2014 of Mark Donham as director of economic development.Rebrand Albemarle to attract new residents.Bring on a staff person to support existing businesses in Albemarle.Hire an economic development director for the town rather than rely on recruiting by Stanly County.“We can’t wait on someone else.”Īmong the top recommendations in the report prepared by Elkin-based Creative Economic Development Consulting: “Our future is going to depend on us,” Ronnie Michael says, describing the suggestions included in the report. Mayor Ronnie Michae lsays the report - funded in part by a grant from electric co-operative ElectriCities of North Carolina Inc. “They are likely have to work a little harder to create incentives for economic opportunity.”Ī report by Albemarle’s Citizens Economic Development Task Force, completed six years ago, was a wake-up call for the city. There was little sign of growth opportunities to keep young people from moving away.Īlbemarle native Jeff Michael, director of UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute, says communities outside the ring cities surrounding Charlotte often don’t benefit from a dynamic urban center. Its population had stagnated at slightly less than 16,000. Stanly County’s jobless rate had spiked back up to 9.9% after falling from a high during the Great Recession of 14.8%.

So, they decided to change it.ĭetermined to avoid the state of atrophy facing other rural textile communities dotting the Carolinas, the Stanly County town 40 miles east of Charlotte first sought to identify its major issues. – Senior Staff Writer, Charlotte Business JournalĪlbemarle leaders saw the future in 2013. Following a roadmap set out in a 2013 study, the town has invested in recruiting, developed its own business park and launched a marketing campaign. Pictured is Main Street in downtown AlbemarleĪlbemarle leaders were determined to avoid the fate of other textile towns in the Carolinas.

Charlotte business journal population