The days of rapid-fire commercial construction in the area have passed, but it’s not as if developers have just shut down operations completely.

Some building continues in Asheville and Buncombe, although not the type of massive commercial projects that marked the late 1990s and early part of this decade. Speculative building — where developers erect a structure in the hope of leasing it upon completion — has slowed the most.

“The banks won’t loan any money today unless you’ve got a track record and you’ve been in it for a lot of years,” said Bill Burgin, whose company, Bill Burgin Real Estate, is building 6,800 square feet of retail space next to the Chili’s restaurant on Airport Road in southern Buncombe County. “And you’ve got to have some tenants to go in the building.”

A wine store has signed a lease on part of the building, and a mattress and bedding retailer is close to committing. The project has been in the works for about two years, but building just began about two months ago.

‘Renovations, additions’
Like a lot of developers, Burgin got a building permit extension. The City of Asheville offered an extension to developers because permits were languishing without projects being completed. The state followed with a similar extension.

Shannon Tuch, the city of Asheville’s assistant planning director, said the idea is to try to help “breathe some new life into some projects.” The number of new projects has notably declined over the past 18 months or so.

“Lots of renovations, lots of additions,” Tuch said, referring to new and recent building proposals. “We have been noticing over the last year there’s not as much new construction, but actual permit activity is almost flat. It’s all smaller additions, renovations — it appears that people are kind of hunkering down and making do with what they have.”

The same holds true with the county, said Buncombe County Planner Jim Coman, adding that a crimped lending spigot is the main culprit.

“Even the best builders in town with the best reputations are having trouble getting funding,” he said.

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The owners of the Orchard at Altapass took North Carolina to court when the state proposed acquiring 200 acres of the apple orchard to create the Blue Ridge Parkway in the 1930s.

The owners at the time ran a wholesale apple business and did not see the benefit of having the scenic road come through the middle of their land, said the orchard’s current owner Bill Carson.

“They knew it was inevitable that it was going to go through, but they argued that it would cause more damage than good,” he said. “I don’t know if they ever thought the traffic would be much up there.”

More than 70 years later, the parkway has not destroyed the orchard. In fact, said Carson, it may be the thing that saved it.

Although apple growing in the region has declined, the orchard’s location on the Mitchell-McDowell county line on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Carson’s transformation of the orchard into a place to experience local culture and history, has helped the Historic Orchard at Altapass become a stop for 60,000 parkway visitors each year, about half of which Carson estimates are nonlocal travelers.

A major driver of tourism
“Even if people had been aggressive about keeping it going (as an apple orchard), I think it would be gone by now,” Carson said. “Without the parkway, the orchard would not exist.”

As the nation’s most-visited national park unit, the Blue Ridge Parkway is a major driver of tourism in Western North Carolina and is often said to be a gateway into the 29 counties and dozens of communities along its 469-mile route.

More than 16 million visitors spent more than $340 million in local economies in 2008, according to the National Park Service. One estimate puts the economic impact of the parkway as high as $2.3 billion a year.

“It really does bring more visitors to the small towns of Appalachian North Carolina,” said Richard Starnes, a professor at Western Carolina University. “I will say that because the park took the route it did, it did bring prosperity to areas of WNC through tourism that otherwise would not have experienced it.”

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Some area architects and contractors are trying to get residents and public officials to apply the “buy local” mantra to more than produce.

A group of about 40 building professionals from four Western North Carolina counties have formed a group to encourage the use of area firms for commercial construction in the area.

Some say a large percentage of commercial work done in Buncombe County and nearby areas goes to outside firms ,but that when contractors here seek work elsewhere, they face barriers designed to favor locals.

Members of the group are lobbying local government officials to change policies to help local firms. It is difficult to tell how common such policies in neighboring areas are.

“We just seem … in Western North Carolina to be going by the more (bidders) the merrier,” said Rick Fleming, president of Asheville-based RPF Construction.

But there are questions as to whether giving local companies a leg up for bids for government work is legal and critics question whether any corresponding benefit to the economy would compensate for the higher costs that local taxpayers would bear.

The recession has reduced the amount of work available for commercial construction companies and architects to bid on, making competition tougher in the field. The number of workers in the natural resources, mining and construction sector in the four-county Asheville metropolitan area fell from 11,300 in January 2008 to 9,500 this September.

Ron Duyck Jr., head of Asheville-based Duyck Construction Co., said building permit data show that more than 62 percent of commercial construction work as measured by value went to out-of-town contractors from April 2008 to August of this year. That’s a loss of about $205 million to the local economy, he says.

Local firms would do better work, support other local businesses when buying supplies or hiring subcontractors and preserve or create local jobs, members of the group say.

Those benefits to the local economy and tax base outweigh any loss to taxpayers that would come from less competitive bidding, said David Price, president of Arden-based McCarroll Construction.

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Bart Jones says he wants “to get started right away” on construction of his concrete plant in the quarry off U.S. 25/70 after the Madison County Board of Adjustment voted 4-1 to approve a conditional-use permit for the facility.

The vote came after a five-hour long public hearing last week in the courtroom of the Madison County Courthouse.

Attorney Doug Wilson, representing Jones and Carolina Ready Mix of Swannanoa, told the board that such a plant in Madison would have “no injurious effect” on neighbors in the area.

But during his presentation, attorney Patsy Bryson, who was representing nearby landowners opposed to the permit for a concrete plant, repeatedly objected to information brought up by Wilson or suggestions by Wilson about the safety or condition of the proposed plant.

Bryson told the board that “the burden is on the applicant” to prove that the proposed plant wouldn’t harm property values or put neighbors’ health at risk.

“We believe the applicant will not be able to meet the burden,” she told the board.

But in the end, the board said Jones had the right to build his facility, with Darlyne Rhinehart the only vote against it.

Bryson presented witnesses and experts to try to explain that the location of the concrete plant would cause the value of other property to drop, that the risk of possible toxins would endanger residents, children and patients at the nearby Elderberry Healthcare facility, and that the facility would impact homes that Jones hadn’t considered in his application.

But Luther Smith, a landscape architect and land planner from Hendersonville, said under oath that the McCrary Quarry “is a good location for this facility. I think it’s a very good site.”

Dr. Susan Kask, a professor of economics at Warren Wilson College, countered, saying that the location of the ready mix plant could have a negative impact in the millions of dollars.

“You may be introducing lower property values,” she told the board, “impacting the undeveloped property and future potential use” of other parcels in the area.

A doctor and a nurse told the board they opposed the plant, and Madison County Health Director Carolyn Moser, saying she was “not here on behalf of either party, but as it relates to the health of Madison County,” said “a concrete plant can be a health hazard.”

Jones said he felt the board “really took everything into consideration and made the right decision.”

He said the plant will employ nine to 10 local people and will serve people in a 25-mile radius of the facility.

Source: Sentinel

Dewey’s Bakery has opened a seasonal holiday store in Biltmore Village.

Based in Winston-Salem, Dewey’s opened in 1930 and has become noted around the state for selling baked goods such as Moravian sugar cookies and sugar cake.

The seasonal store, which will be open through December, also will sell gift tins, baskets, ornaments and other holiday items.

The address is 1 All Souls Crescent, and the phone number is 274-4899.

The products are also available at deweys.com.

Source: Asheville Citizen Times

GoMini’s Portable Storage in Asheville has been recognized as one of the area’s fastest growing small businesses by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce.

On Thursday, October 29, the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a Business After Hours at the North Carolina Arboretum attended by hundreds of local business leaders to announce the 2009 Sky High Growth Awards winners. The Sky High Growth Awards recognizes the area’s fastest growing small businesses for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the region’s economy. Businesses nominated for the awards are evaluated on their gross revenue and number of employees. Member businesses from 1 to 300+ employees are recognized at the event.

“We are extremely honored to be receiving this award the second year in a row,” said Asheville GoMini’s owner Robie Campbell. “We are thankful to the community for their support and the opportunity to continue to provide a valuable service to them.”

A convenient, inexpensive portable self-storage solution, GoMini’s became a local storage sensation in 2005 when owner Robie Campbell purchased the Asheville territory. Since that time, Campbell has also purchased the Charlotte, Hickory and Myrtle Beach territories. In 2009, Campbell was named “GoMini’s Dealer of the Year” as well as the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Leader of the Year for business with fifteen or fewer employees.

Source: Gominis.com

By all indications, the closing of Interstate 40 due to a massive rockslide will be more than just a minor headache for many.

Through traffic heading west to Tennessee will be directed to I-26 from Asheville, where cars would have to travel 130 miles to link back up with I-40 across the state line.

Though much of Haywood County will still remain accessible off I-40, it’s feasible that widespread news of the rockslide might turn off visitors to the area.

Most likely to suffer from the road closing are the restaurants, gas stations, motels and tourist-oriented businesses that rely heavily on traffic coming through I-40.

Pilot Travel Center, a truck stop in Waynesville near exit 24, was already feeling the impact of a desolate I-40 on Monday afternoon. A few trucks were scattered here and there, but the vast majority of parking spots sat empty.

Ashley Duckett, an employee at the Pilot convenience store, said business was “dead” on Sunday, the day the rockslide occurred.

“It’s usually booming,” said Linda Henry, another employee at the store, adding that business will definitely hurt without truckers stopping by to fuel up, have a meal, or take a shower.

The people who did walk into the store were only interested in one thing: directions.

Full Story Here: Smoky Mountain News

BOONE—Unemployment rates in Western North Carolina have more than doubled in the past two years from just under 5.0 percent to 12.2 percent. And while the region’s economy experienced positive growth in the spring, the region lost some of those gains in the third quarter of this year.
“Employment continues to be a problem,” said Todd Cherry, a co-author of the Western North Carolina Economic Report and director of the Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis at Appalachian State University. “The region lost jobs in 22 of the last 24 months. The cumulative effect of this trend is tremendous, particularly for the hardest hit areas.”

The Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metro area has lost about 12 percent of its jobs during the past two years, while Asheville lost nearly 7 percent of its jobs during this period.

The region lost more than 19,000 jobs through the first nine months of 2009.

“Two years ago, the region had unemployment rates under 5.0 percent. Today it is 12.2 percent. So, without question, it is a different reality for the region and beyond,” Cherry said.

“Signals are mixed, so it helps to look more at the bigger picture than any single indicator. The latest gross domestic product numbers indicate the national economy expanded,” he said. “This likely is occurring regionally, and may lead to upward revisions of state and local numbers. A broader look indicates the regional economy is on the road to recovery, but we have much to recover and it may be slow and bumpy.”

According to the report, seasonally adjusted employment for Western North Carolina decreased 0.53 percent in September while statewide adjusted employment increased 0.2 percent. Transylvania, Graham and Swain counties had the largest declines in employment (1.57, 1.20 and 0.85 percent). Watauga, Yancey and Polk were the only counties that did not experience job losses.

Seasonally adjusted WNC unemployment registered 12.2 percent in September—up 0.5 points from August. The state unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10.8 percent. The national unemployment rate increased 0.1 point to 10.8 percent.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate within the region’s rural counties registered 12.5 percent, up 0.6 points from August. In the region’s metro areas, unemployment increased 0.3 points in Asheville to 9.3 percent and increased 0.5 points in Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir to 15.1 percent.

Twenty-two of the 25 counties have unemployment rates above 9 percent, 13 counties have rates over 12 percent, and six counties have rates over 15 percent.

During the past 12 months, county-level unemployment in the region has increased an average of 4.87 points.

Caldwell, Graham and Cherokee counties had the highest unemployment rates in the region in September (16.33, 16.15 and 15.93 percent). Watauga, Buncombe and Polk counties had the lowest unemployment rates for the month (8.37, 8.85 and 8.90 percent).

Graham and Burke counties had the largest increases in rates in September (1.15 and 1.09 points). Alleghany County was the lone county with a decline in unemployment rates for the month (0.18 points).

Seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in the region, a leading indicator of unemployment, increased 9.2 percent in September. Initial claims increased 14.4 percent in Asheville and increased 11.0 percent in Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir.

The WNC Index provides a monthly account of economic conditions for western North Carolina and is typically released the fifth week following each month. For more information, visit www.cerpa.appstate.edu/wncindex.php.

The WNC Index and Report is a cooperative effort by AdvantageWest-North Carolina and Appalachian’s Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis.

Source: University News – Appalachian State University

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College is offering a course in advanced customer service next month as part of the governor’s Jobs NOW initiative.

Classes will run from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Mondays-Thursdays, Nov. 9 – Feb. 4 in the Haynes Center at the college’s Enka campus.

Those who complete the course will be qualified for jobs like customer service representative, customer service specialist, call center specialist and inside sales representative.

Gov. Beverly Perdue established the Jobs NOW initiative for North Carolina using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The programs are established so that individuals can complete the training within six months or less and find jobs in industries with projected growth.

The class costs $176.25 and financial assistance may be available for eligible individuals through the Mountain Area Job Link Career Center. For more information, call 254-1921, ext. 5834.

Source: Asheville Citizen Times

Mike Jones has opened Blue Ridge Riders on Tunnel Road.

The dealership offers motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. Two years ago Jones sold Mike’s Bikes, his dealership in Fort Myers, Fla., with plans to retire, but the business drew him back.

“My father taught me that quality and affordability generate more repeat customers,” Jones said in a press release.

The dealership is at 887 Tunnel Road. Call 505-7575 and visit www.blueridgeriders.com.

Source: Asheville Citizen Times