Wadesboro Is Downtown Strong(er)

On June 6th, Wadesboro hosted the last of three sessions with Diane Young, a consultant representing Downtown Strong, an offshoot of Governor Cooper's Hometown Strong initiative. The sessions,  which were attended by members of the Anson County Chamber of Commerce, Anson County TDA, AnsonEDP and Uptown Wadesboro, focused on creating actionable plans for the revitalization of our uptown area. Notably, the meeting was held in the boardroom of the new REV Uptown development, a tangible example of just the sort of revitalization the initiative is trying to promote. In fact, Diane noted that Wadesboro is ahead of the curve in terms of redevelopment compared to some of the other communities she is working with. Still, there is much to be done.

Diane's recommendations to the group centered on two main points, better cooperation between the property owners, community leaders and businesses; and better promotion and a more proactive approach to bringing new businesses to Uptown.

To address the former, Diane suggested we enlist the assistance of an outside property specialist to inventory our available properties, determine what needs to be done to make them viable as retail and office space, and, most importantly, meet with the owners to put together a realistic plan for the building. The Chamber attempted to do something similar to this a couple of years ago, but found the cost of hiring the specialist prohibitive. In this case, a grant from Downtown Strong will pay most, if not all, of the expense. Uptown Wadesboro has engaged the recommended specialist and is working to set a date for her to come to town for an initial meeting. 

Concurrent with property development, Uptown Wadesboro will be working on a promotional package which will be used to recruit specific types of businesses to town. The specialist will help determine what types of businesses are most likely to succeed and what existing spaces are most appropriate for those businesses. There are a variety of different opinions about what businesses the Uptown can support and it will be good to have a fresh set of eyes looking into that. As much as we might like a dress shop, a shoe store or a haberdashery, those may not be viable given our population and demographics.

Having said that, there has been a noteworthy change in Uptown since the opening of Speckled Paw Coffee earlier this week; NEW PEOPLE!!! Over the past few days, we have seen faces that are completely and totally new to Uptown. Most of those are younger, in the 16 to 25 age range; folks who never had a reason to come to town before. This seems to indicate that if you provide the sort of establishments customers want, they are willing to frequent them. I hope that is a lesson that is not lost on property owners.