By Ben Rappaport
Bladen County and Elizabethtown have worked together for years to spur economic development with help from a local nonprofit aimed at bringing jobs and increasing the local tax base.
But new plans for a mixed-use development of homes and businesses have strained the three-way partnership, raising questions about the project and future collaborations at the Elizabethtown Industrial Park.
Bladen County gave Elizabethtown $100,000 toward the design of a 30-acre “live, work, play” project that initially called for about 20 single-family homes for sale, seven commercial facilities and an amphitheater to accommodate 5,000 people.
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Elizabethtown officials, however, decided to go in a different direction, according to Chuck Heustess, director of the Bladen County Economic Development Commission. He said the town hired a Raleigh-based developer and quadrupled the project’s proposed footprint, nixing the homes for sale and adding 300 to 500 rental homes instead.
“No longer will these homes be available for Bladen County residents to purchase and own a part of the American Dream,” Bladen County officials said in a press release on Oct. 16. “Instead, they will be for rent, ultimately filling the coffers of a landlord.”
Heustess said the new plans fractured communication between the county, town and nonprofit, Bladen’s Bloomin’ Agri-Industrial, Inc. that formed in 2002.
“The town eventually blocked Bladen’s Bloomin’ and the county from being able to do anything in the (industrial) park,” Heustess said. “You can’t move forward or fix anything if you can’t even communicate.”
Elizabethtown Mayor Sylvia Campbell and Town Manager Dane Rideout did not respond to requests for comment for this story; neither did city council members or Bladen County commissioners.
The county and Bladen’s Bloomin’ have hired Johnson Law Group to help resolve the matter. Attorneys from the firm declined to comment.
“The Town has worked diligently to promote economic development in our Industrial Park as well as residential development to provide affordable housing,” H. Goldston Womble, the attorney for Elizabethtown, said in a statement. “We will continue to prioritize the best interests of our citizens and businesses in all of our actions and decisions.”
The Elizabethtown industrial park near the Curtis L. Brown, Jr. airport has become a hub for commercial growth in Bladen County, home to about 30,000 people in southeastern North Carolina. Gov. Roy Cooper announced in February that Sovereign Airspace, an aviation management company, would invest more than $4 million and bring 33 jobs to the site.
Because Elizabethtown owns the land and the water and sewer systems leading into the industrial park. Heustess said the county and Bladen’s Bloomin’ can’t move forward with their plans for the“live, work, play” project if discussions continue to stall. The opening of a day care facility is already delayed, along with the construction of other commercial properties.
“We can’t open them because the roads aren’t built around them,” Heustess said. “Elizabethtown was supposed to build the roads, but they haven’t. So we have commercial projects that are going to be ready to go, but we can’t open them.”
Heustess said Bladen’s Bloomin’ can’t respond to prospective business occupants because it no longer has access to the property.
“Not having Bladen County’s financial backing and BBAI’s expertise will no doubt result in a huge loss to the current and future citizens of Bladen County and Elizabethtown,” county officials said in the press release.
Heustess said if this industrial park continues to stall, the county is considering moving the project elsewhere in the county. But that would take years of planning and millions of dollars, and negate years of progress.
“We have been concentrating all our efforts here (in Elizabethtown) because we’ve been successful here,” Heustess said. “If we’re not working together, then growth is completely stunted.”
