By Ben Rappaport
Bladen County wants its money back.
The county gave Elizabethtown $100,000 in April 2023 to create a master plan for a mixed-use project at the town’s industrial park. Elizabethtown then opted to veer from the shared vision of the park and abandon its longstanding relationship with Bladen County’s Economic Development Commission to work instead with a newly formed nonprofit.
The Border Belt Independent reported in November that town and county leaders had competing visions for a planned 33-acre development of homes and businesses at the Elizabethtown Industrial Park off N.C. 87. Since then, the BBI obtained more than 90 pages of email exchanges, letters and site plans that reveal rising tensions that could reshape growth in this rural southeastern North Carolina county.
Chuck Heustess, Bladen County’s economic development director, shared the documents, saying he hopes to shed light on what he considers a bad deal for Bladen County residents.
The Elizabethtown Town Council approved a lease agreement on July 1 with NC Sustainable Futures Inc., a nonprofit created by Robbie Ferris, a Raleigh-based developer the town hired to craft master plans for the park. The agreement includes dozens of stipulations that give Elizabethtown increased control over the industrial park and grant NC Sustainable Futures exclusive rights to lease the property.
The move by Elizabethtown marks a shift from its once-symbiotic relationship with Bladen County’s nonprofit economic development commission, Bladen’s Bloomin’ Agri-Industrial Inc. The groups worked together to develop previous phases of the park, even receiving statewide recognition as a model for industrial progress in rural communities.
The relationship changed when Bladen County Manager Greg Martin retired in January. Heustess says Elizabethtown began to stonewall county officials when Charles Ray Peterson, the county commission chairman, took over as the interim county manager.
“Before all this, we used to make handshake deals and help each other, no problem,” Heustess said in an interview. “No way we’re doing that anymore. Now, it’s all got to be in writing.”
In a letter sent Nov. 4, Peterson and other county commissioners asked for Elizabethtown to repay the $100,000. Peterson called the town’s use of the funds a “glaring misrepresentation and misappropriation.”
New nonprofit
An unsigned version of the lease agreement created by Elizabethtown Town Manager Dane Rideout and Ferris is dated June 28. Three days later, the town council voted 5-1 to approve the lease, with council member Howell Clark Jr. casting the lone “no” vote, according to official meeting minutes.
Elizabethtown Town Council members and Mayor Sylvia Campbell declined to comment for this story.
The lease agreement says NC Sustainable Futures will pay the town $1 a year in rent for the next 180 years. Ferris, who leads SfL+a Architects and Firstfloor Energy Positive LLC, is allowed to bring in any third-party developer without consulting the town, according to the agreement.
“It doesn’t take a contract lawyer to tell you this deal is bonkers,” Heustess said in a recent interview. “This is like a policy that says don’t chop your own head off—I didn’t think it had to be said not to do it.”
Ferris was previously involved in a seven-year investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division over a $220 million school building program in Horry County, The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported. The investigation ended in late 2022, and Ferris was never charged in the case. Ferris did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
Little is known about NC Sustainable Futures. Its board members are Channing Jones, Robeson County’s economic development director, Pembroke Town Council member and new chief executive of Lumbee Tribe Holdings, Inc., and Kellie Blue, the Robeson County manager and member of the UNC Board of Governors, according to a letter Elizabethtown officials sent to the county in early July.
Rusty Worley, Elizabethtown’s planner, was initially on the board but resigned his seat to “allay any concerns about perceived conflict of interest,” according to the letter.
Blue and Jones told the Border Belt Independent they were unaware of the details in the agreement when it was passed by the Elizabethtown Town Council. The nonprofit board still has not signed the lease agreement.
In a letter to Campbell on July 3, Peterson outlined more than 30 concerns about the lease agreement, including its lack of specificity for how the town could make its new plans come to fruition.
Several amendments were made to the lease in response to the county’s letter, including the town accepting increased fiscal responsibility for potential failures of the project, according to a revised version of the lease agreement from July 12.
Soon after the revisions, Heustess and Peterson met with Rideout and Ferris. Heustess said the meeting became heated.
“I wish I had answers for why they’re going about it this way or what’s going on,” Heustess said in a recent interview. “But if I knew, then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
After the meeting, Heustess began compiling what is now a 4-inch-thick binder containing more than 400 documents. He says the documents are to aid Johnson Law Group, which represents the county and Bladen’s Bloomin’.
Change of plans
Near the Curtis L. Brown, Jr. airport, the Elizabethtown Industrial Park has become a hub for commercial growth in Bladen County, home to about 30,000 people.
Original plans for the latest phase of the park were clear: Build between 20 and 30 single-family homes for sale as part of a “live, work, play” community featuring health care and business offices, a day care center, a hotel and a 5,000-seat amphitheater. The park was expected to generate 109 new jobs and $10.1 million in private investment.
The town’s new plans call for a much smaller commercial footprint and 284 rental homes—a big point of contention for county leaders who say homes for sale are better because they would help local families build generational wealth.
In a letter to the county on July 12, Elizabethtown officials explained why they opted for rental homes: “It is crucial to remain mindful of our county’s substantial demand for ‘workforce’ housing. We firmly believe that constructing these homes will significantly alleviate this housing shortage, and generate revenue for both the Town and the County.”
The town cited a portion of the 2022 Bladen County Strategic Plan, which calls for exploring options for more multi-family and affordable housing.
Rideout made a similar appeal in his quarterly newsletter earlier this month. “In the coming years, over 250 new jobs are expected through an aviation manufacturing company and aerospace firms,” Rideout wrote. “However, without adequate housing, we risk missing these valuable opportunities.”
Elizabethtown also says it opted for rental housing after a feasibility study by Bowen National Research, an Ohio-based real estate market analysis firm. The study, which was commissioned by Ferris’ company, Firstfloor, examined the average salary of several local businesses, some of which are no longer in operation, and Census data. The conclusion was that rental housing was a better choice for the county.
Heustess said Bowen did not contact him or anyone else in his office. “Everyone in the county has my cell phone number,” he said. “I’m not hard to find.” The company declined to comment for this story.
Rideout added that purchasing a home is financially unattainable for many Bladen County residents. The median sale price of homes in the county over the past year is $205,000, according to Rocket Homes.
Roberto Quercia, a professor of urban planning at UNC-Chapel Hill who has done extensive research on low-income home ownership, said rental and for-sale homes are both needed in rural, economically distressed communities like Bladen County.
“There is no question that homeownership is important,” Querica said. “But maybe instead of seeing this as an either-or, they need to see rental housing as a step on the ladder towards home ownership.”
Querica pointed out differing demographics. Bladen County has a median household income of $40,476 and a homeowner rate of 69.7%, Census data shows. Elizabethtown, meanwhile, has a median household income of $24,081 and a homeowner rate of 54.7%.
Elizabethtown is an Opportunity Zone, a federal designation that allows investors to receive subsidies and tax credits for building rental housing. Those same tax credits aren’t available to developers who build ownership housing.
“The issue here is not a technical one,” Quercia said. “It seems to me both sides want what’s best for the county and the city. If they can communicate and come to some kind of middle ground, that’s probably what’s best.”
What’s next?
Construction at the industrial park has come to a stop because Elizabethtown needs money that the county isn’t giving it during the stalled communications.
The delay will continue until “appropriate financing is arranged,” according to the letter from Elizabethtown to the county.
Heustess said Bladen’s Bloomin’ has received inquiries from prospective businesses. The county is considering moving the project to another location, he said.
The project’s pause puts millions of dollars in limbo. That includes more than $1 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and more than $400,000 in grants from the Golden LEAF Foundation.
Elizabethtown officials maintain that the project continues to be on track to meet its deadlines.
“This is all just a giant headache,” Heustess said.
