Carolina County has been working with its largest municipality, Tar Heel Town, to  redevelop one of Tar Heel Town’s more dilapidated neighborhoods.  Many of the properties in this neighborhood are owned by absentee landlords who fail to maintain them properly.  Not surprisingly, many of these proper … Read more

Many states have transferred various aspects of their economic development programs to private non-profit or quasi-public organizations.  Rhode Island and Florida were two of the first states to take this approach.  In 1995, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation was launched in order to … Read more

Tonald Drump, a national real estate tycoon, is interested in developing an area in Frugal Village, NC. His proposal includes mixed-use residential and commercial development, located just outside the village’s downtown. Drump is an experienced developer and knows that adequate public infrastructure … Read more

I spent part of this past October weekend among a huge crowd of families enjoying a wonderful combination of North Carolina fall weather, fun, food, entertainment, educational activities, and adventure activities.  Must have been the NC State Fair, right? Actually while the description may hold, the … Read more

In the Town of Elk Park, a rural mountainous community of 453 residents in western North Carolina, the Town Hall currently operates out of an 80-year-old single-family house. Numerous attempts to update the facility have left the building in a state of non-compliance with the Americans with Disabili … Read more

Last month I hosted a webinar here at the School of Government, in partnership with the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (or CEFS for short),  on the topic of local foods and local government. I was fortunate enough to have with me a who’s who of local foods experts to talk about different a … Read more

North Carolina is undergoing a lot of changes with regards to how the state funds regional and statewide economic development efforts. One of these changes involves the role that the seven regional economic development partnerships play in the business recruitment process. These partnerships represe … Read more

Mezzanine financing, or mezz debt, can play a critical role in the funding of a community economic development project and has other advantages discussed in this post, but what exactly is it, and how does it work? Financing the renovation of historic buildings is far more complicated than new constr … Read more

Over the last fifteen years, North Carolina has used hefty incentive packages to get several high profile corporate and industrial facilities to locate in the state.  The projects include many prominent companies such as FedEx, Dell, Google, and Apple.  I discuss the evolution of incentives in North … Read more

Much of the year, the focus on water finance seems to be oriented to how much needs to be spent on water and wastewater systems. The numbers are daunting and the national and local media are rife with reports of what it is going to take to improve our water and wastewater systems. One of my colleagu … Read more