By Ben Rappaport
Hip-hop music blared from speakers on a humid August Saturday night. People were sweating from dancing, and the lights pulsed to the beat of the music.
It’s been a long time since downtown Fairmont has seen this kind of energy. The Robeson County town, where more than half of the 2,500 residents are Black, has struggled since the loss of the tobacco industry decades ago. But there are signs it’s finally ready to turn a new leaf.
“We’re putting Fairmont back on the map,” said Maurice Townsend, owner of The Picnic Sports Bar, the site of the party. “We’ve been dead for so long here but I finally feel like that’s changing.”
The Picnic, which opened earlier this year on South Main Street, is among a slew of new businesses to fill once-vacant spaces downtown. Many of the business owners, including 32-year-old Townsend, are young entrepreneurs who want to enliven and modernize Fairmont.
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A nail salon and a wig shop have also opened in the past year on South Main Street, the town’s main drag. A new public library opened in June, and the town added a mural honoring its tobacco roots in July.
The changes are the result of a newfound entrepreneurial spirit combined with public investment from the town. Fairmont’s Job Opportunities and Business Support (J.O.B.S.) initiative has helped bring the town at least half a dozen new businesses, resulting in more than 200 jobs.
Most of the work is done by a 13-member team of town council members and Robeson County officials who meet monthly to discuss potential grant opportunities and ways to help entrepreneurs get their business ideas off the ground.
Mayor Charles Kemp implemented the program when he took office again in 2021 after previously serving as mayor from 2005 to 2013.
“Anybody doing something to help this community should be appreciated,” Townsend said. “And I feel like the local officials like Mr. Kemp are really understanding that.”
“Tornado Tank,” one of the program’s initiatives, allows hopeful business owners to present to the team and get feedback and possible financial assistance from the town. Kemp said the event isn’t quite as “vicious” as the popular TV show “Shark Tank,” but it’s a creative way to give business ideas more energy. More than 30 business ideas have been pitched.
The town also regularly hosts job fairs. The event in June set an attendance record with nearly 250 participants.
“The vibe here is more positive than I have ever felt,” Kemp said. “I’ve never felt the goodwill, the lack of acrimony and the positivity that we’re expressing in this town.”
Townsend agreed. He grew up in Fairmont and said the renewed focus on bringing young people downtown is a much-needed change.
“When I left here after high school, I saw a lot of the luxuries that real cities had to offer,” Townsend said. “I started looking around our downtown being like, ‘Why can’t we bring some of that here?’”
Along with owning The Picnic, Townsend also works as a real estate agent in town and owns several spaces along South Main Street. He’s poured countless hours and thousands of dollars into fixing up once-dilapidated buildings. It wasn’t long ago that South Main Street was lined with crumbling brick buildings.
“When people start to see the physical condition of the town change,” Townsend said, “we start to see momentum build.”
Kemp spearheaded revitalization efforts in 2022 with the condemnation of nine buildings downtown, after many were abandoned and damaged during Hurricanes Matthew and Florence. The town hoped the spaces would one day be filled with new businesses. Some are still vacant, but there’s been a huge improvement.
“If we want to see this streetscape full again, we need to keep moving with the times and get over the past.”
Maurice Townsend
Jay Smith opened Wig God & Goddess in May. The shop is adorned with a hot pink awning, and inside the walls are painted hot pink and silver with colorful LED lights on the ceilings.
Smith, 31, is originally from Rowland, but Townsend recruited him to Fairmont.
“I’ve seen this community growing and I wanted to come be part of it,” Smith said. “We’re building here and it’s going to keep being bigger and greater.”
Mike Nguyen, co-owner of Cherry Nail Bar and Tea, opened his salon in January and said the community has welcomed him with open arms.
“We see a lot of opportunity here,” he said. “The town is clearly trying to grow and bring in new business owners and we wanted to be part of that.”
Nguyen, 34, moved to Fairmont five years ago from Vietnam with his wife and three children. He works as a chicken farmer for Mountaire Farms, but his wife, Cherry, always had dreams of owning a nail salon.
Now the business plays traditional Vietnamese music on its speakers and serves boba tea.
“It hasn’t been hard for us to become a part of the town here,” Nguyen said.
But Townsend has had to push for some changes. He asked town leaders to change what he considered an outdated ordinance that prevented loud music and the sale of alcohol after 11 p.m. They agreed, pushing the time to 12:30 a.m.
“If we want to see this streetscape full again,” Townsend said, “we need to keep moving with the times and get over the past.”
The median age in Fairmont is 48, compared to 39 statewide. But to Townsend, it makes sense to focus on young people in town.
“My prayer is this: I want to see life back here,” he said. “I want nightlife and people and commerce. I want people to keep the party going for Fairmont.”
