NC Commerce Tier changes - Fayetteville is now 'distressed'

[Chris Martin]

North Carolina, via statutory changes to the Development Tier Designations, changed the way NC Commerce identifies Tiers in their County Distress Rankings. The latest rankings show that a bunch of the coastal plains counties (map below) have dropped 1 tier level and that a comparable number of small mountain counties gained a level. Cumberland county, home of Fayetteville, is now a Tier 1 (most distressed) county. The N&O also did a story worth reading about the changes a while back. Below I annotated the counties that dropped a level. 

So what? Martin, who cares? 

Well, it depends. For those who are looking for opportunities from new development to urban revitalization to even worker retraining, the tier rankings matter when seeking government assistance. Water and sewer infrastructure for example. What I do/have done is observe what small towns and counties are doing in reaction to the state incentives, which may or may not lead me to potentially approach these communities in developing their plans. But the key here is to know what opportunities are available and what organizations want. The only way I know to do that is to actively engage with the town managers, city council, or county economic development team and figure out if and where you (or your company) fit. 

Yes, most of the NC Commerce grants are for municipalities, not for REI and their companies. But the net effect helps real estate investors with new opportunities that didn't exist without the grant programs. Funds to create or expand water and sewer projects to reach new areas, for instance, create development and redevelopment opportunities. Real estate investors should be paying attention.

Examples:

State Awards Grants to Rural Communities to Attract 153 New Jobs and More Than $69 million in Private Investment 

North Carolina received approximately $43,300,000 in CDBG funds for 2017

The game here is to work with county economic development leaders to assess their needs and help them with their real estate goals. Planting seeds for future developments starts when the traditional real estate market is strong, so that by the time the market slows down you'll have a running start. Contractors receive a big benefit because they are doing the work. But real estate investors with vision and motivation are defining and bringing the projects to life, putting the pieces together, and executing plans that benefit them and the communities. 

Since someone will ask (or wonder), no, I have not directly benefited from NC Commerce grants. Indirectly, maybe, in a very remote and general sense. My ~$800K development project (commercial) in a tier 1 county resulted from county initiatives, and the economic development group helped me with permits and plans but not financially. My current project (commercial, will end up ~$300K+) is the same way... except the county is now in the list of Tier 1 counties. Maybe the future will be different.