Taking Stock of 2021 and Looking Forward to 2022

For all of us at AnsonEDP, the ongoing and ever-changing pandemic has played a significant role in the past 12 months, and likely will in the coming year as well. 2021 was a year of both concern and determination. While we have learned to adjust and change, one thing has remained constant: our commitment to improving the quality of life for the residents of Anson County. 

So much has happened at AnsonEDP since last December that it would be impossible to recap it all in one email—so let me focus on three major things I believe will have a lasting impact on the Anson Economy:

Product Development: When Big Toys Direct acquired the former Walmart building in July, we celebrated a major win for the community, but we also lost our last marketable industrial building of more than 25,000 square feet. In fact, the day that deal closed, our active projects list decreased by nearly half because those projects were also considering that building. In today's world, a community without a viable industrial building for sale is going to have a tough time attracting jobs and investment. That's why the state funding for water/sewer improvements at Atlantic Gateway and the construction of speculative industrial buildings was so crucial to our future. While the cupboard is going to be a little bare for most of 2022, the infrastructure and spec building projects will put Anson County near the top of the list for new projects going forward.

Entrepreneurship: Our ongoing efforts, in cooperation with the Chamber and Uptown Wadesboro, to create a fertile environment for business startups began to show results in 2021, as a bevy of new entrepreneurial ventures opened in and around Uptown; Studio 356, Bank Shots, A&J Winery, The Restless Writer, a new clothing store, and Sable Toney Law. REV Uptown has been at the center of many of these ventures, and we are excited about how it has brought the community together and served as a launchpad for creative services in the county, and our Bootstrap and Enterprise grant programs have provided the financial boost necessary to bring ideas to life.  

Representation and Commitment: AnsonEDP and our "parent" organization, Anson Economic Development Corporation, added some excellent new Board members in 2021, enhancing an already outstanding leadership team and extending our impact throughout the county. Our Board and staff collaborated to create a new strategic plan that will guide the organization through the next five years. Interested in what's included in that plan? A summary is on our website, AnsonEDP.com, under the AnsonEDP tab.

I am fortunate to be here in Anson County and to work with a great Board and my colleagues at the Chamber of Commerce, Uptown Wadesboro, and the Tourism Development Authority. I hope to see them more face-to-face in the coming year and to see COVID fade as an issue in economic development.

All the best to you for a safe, healthy, and prosperous new year in 2022,

John -