Where Do We Go From Here? (Now That All Of The Children Are Growin’ Up)

The bright future of Anson County was clouded a little last week as voters defeated a referendum which would have legalized alcohol sales in unincorporated areas. As stated in previous posts, Anson County was in an unprecedented position for transformational growth spurred by combination of factors - the opening of the Monroe Expressway, an unusually robust national economy and the rapid growth of the Charlotte region - which are unlikely to occur again in the same combination anytime in the near future.

There was a very narrow window of opportunity to completely change the lives of Ansonians in a positive way and, unfortunately, that window has now closed. So, where do we go from here? While the sort of transformational change we had hoped for in new hotels, stores, restaurants and homes in the western part of the county is almost certainly out of the picture now, there are still some positives. So far in 2018, the county has added more than 100 new manufacturing jobs and companies have invested more than $30 million in new facilities and equipment. Those are very good numbers for a county of just 26,000 residents, and I believe numbers in that range should be sustainable on a year-in, year-out basis if the economy remains strong.

Utility upgrades at the Wadesboro Inudustrial Park made possible by a $1.7 million state grant should help our efforts to bring a major employer, perhaps in the Food & Beverage sector, to Wadesboro, and we are currently securing the funding for an AnsonEDP-owned shell building in the park which would further enhance that opportunity.

We also have strong preliminary interest in the 100-acre site adjacent to the landfill, and believe that a new company could be locating there in the very near future. And the purchase price of that land, which is owned by the AEDC, would go toward funding the shell building project and beginning the process of developing the Atlantic Gateway Logistics Park along US 74 in the eastern part of the county.

So, in short, no, we aren’t going to be getting the Holiday Inn Express, Applebees, Lidl or QT we had hoped for in the Peachland area, and there won’t be a boom of $300,000 houses (and the tax revenue they generate) going up off White Store Road, but there are still a lot of positives to be found in the local economy. Although we muffed the chance for a transformational change, we are still chugging along in a positive direction, and there are certainly worse fates than that.