The author, John Marek, is executive director of the Anson Economic Development Partnership.
Like any other aspect of community life, economic development has its share of myths and legends. These generally center around game-changing opportunities that “got away,” usually due to the actions (or inaction) of “local leaders.” In Statesville, where I spent 10 years before coming to Anson County, the economic development myth was that “they” wanted to build the retail complex that would eventually become Concord Mills just outside of town at the junction of Interstates 40 and 77, but the city refused to let them build it there.
The 900-acre property where “they” supposedly wanted to build is referred to locally as the Peppercorn site, and I will admit that Peppercorn Mills does have a nice ring to it, but that’s about the only part of this myth that has any validity. Peppercorn was one of perhaps a dozen sites in the Charlotte region which met the development company’s basic criteria of a least 700 available acres and high interstate visibility, so, yes, it was listed among potential sites early in the process. But it was never seriously in play. It was always considered too far from a population center and road access to the interstates was problematic. Legend had it that local officials were against the project for a variety of reasons ranging from corruption to stupidity, but in truth, they had nothing to do with the decision. The Concord site off I-85 already had a very robust local road infrastructure which provided access to the nearby Charlotte Motor Speedway and was much more centrally located in the region.
Here in Anson County, the great economic development legend is that back in the ’80s, a well-known beer company wanted to locate a brewery on the banks of the Pee Dee River near Lilesville, but the county would not let them because the officials were against the production of alcohol. I will not pretend to know the details of this because it was well before my time and there aren’t any records, at least that I can find, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the brewery legend is probably similar to Peppercorn Mills in that a site meeting the company’s criteria was identified, but didn’t make the cut for technical reasons. Given the rancor which last year’s county-wide alcohol referendum stirred up, I have no doubt that a brewery would face some opposition, but I have a very hard time believing that the community leaders at the time would have sacrificed hundreds of great jobs with an iconic company and tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue over some philosophical brouhaha.
To give you a more contemporary example, I submit three or four responses to requests for information from companies looking to locate in North Carolina every month. Of course, every other economic development office in the region is also submitting on those. We win our share, as evidenced by the dozen major announcements we have made over the past three years, but we also lose our share. That’s simply the nature of the business.