Rural N.C. town gets assist charting a path to economic growth
Like many small towns throughout rural North Carolina, Enfield is home to many historic homes with interesting architectural features.
A recent study by researchers at the Kenan Institute's Carolina Center for Competitive Economies shows those beautiful old homes may hold more value than meets the eye.
Enfield's historic homes have been identified as "heritage assets" in a recently completed Enfield Economic Development Master Plan, a year-long research project and investigation conducted by the center with funding from the Golden LEAF Foundation.
The plan identifies Enfield's long-term economic development goals and recommends ways to achieve them.
"This plan identifies underutilized assets Enfield can capitalize on and provides key strategies the town can use to move forward," says Jason Jolley, senior research director.
Plan leverages town's unique assets
Enfield, a town of just over 2,300 residents in southern Halifax County, is one of only seven counties in North Carolina that lost population over the past decade. The recession compounded the impact of that loss, Jolley reports.
Town leaders hoping to reverse that trend formed the Enfield Partnership for Tomorrow to serve as a catalyst for growth. They turned for help to the Center for Competitive Economies. It helps communities address the challenges of global competitiveness to create solutions that build on their unique assets and aspirations.
"Enfield is a small town in a great area and we want to return it to be a more prosperous community," says Charles Guerry, chairman of the Partnership for Tomorrow and executive vice president and general manager of Halifax Electric Membership Corp. "We wanted to know what we needed to do to accomplish that."
Center researchers took five key steps to identify Enfield's most valuable assets and promising economic opportunities. They scanned its available economic and demographic statistics; characterized its regional industrial clusters; compiled a comprehensive inventory of workforce development assets; engaged community members in prioritizing economic development goals; and, finally, created the master plan.
The research team also conducted a retail leakage study to determine how much of the area's retail sales dollars are spent within the area and how much is spent elsewhere.
"In studying the surroundings and talking to residents, we found an acute shortage of consumer choices for retail goods and higher-than-average prices, which drives people to other areas," Jolley says.
"We concluded that retail expansion was a priority and that the area could support some expansion, particularly in restaurants and in general retail," he says. "We also discovered that Enfield is home to a large number of heritage assets—historic homes that could appeal to retirees coming to North Carolina and to former residents returning to the area."
Examples include a historic art deco Masonic lodge and theater that is being renovated into a community arts center and two historic homes that were recently refurbished into bed-and-breakfast inns. The center is helping Enfield catalog and market its heritage properties.
These are the beginning steps in a long-term process envisioned for the community, Jolley says.
"The town does face challenges and we don't sugarcoat that. But, ultimately, we have given Enfield a strategy and actions to take in the next year to begin to expand business in the area," he says. "These are important steps to creating jobs and opportunities to help the community move forward."
Town leaders mobilize for action
People often think of economic development as focused only on recruiting large new employers to a community, Guerry says. But Enfield's opportunity lies in its unique assets and calls for other strategies.
"This plan shows us the best mechanism for development specific to our community and gives us a list of steps to take," he says. "It is the information we need."
Cathy Scott, executive director of the Halifax County Economic Development Corp., says the center is an important resource to help communities, like Enfield, focus on feasible strategies that result in achievable results.
"The center's work over the years has helped support a more global vision and focus on sustainable economic development opportunities for North Carolina," she says. "Working with small towns in overcoming structural changes in their economies is not an easy task, but their work is based on key insights that, with proper implementation, can result in measurable achievements."
For more information, contact:
Jason Jolley, Ph.D.
Senior Research Director
Carolina Center for Competitive Economies
Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute
of Private Enterprise
Campus Box 3440, Kenan Center
Chapel Hill, NC 25799-3440
919/843-6287
Center for Competitive Economies