WilmingtonBiz Magazine - Fall 2018

Wilmington B iz M A G A Z I N E

BI G CAPE FEAR’S NEXT

BREAKOUT Quality Chemical Labs’ Yousry Sayed quietly builds a roaring enterprise 2018

SPARK

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT + INNOVATION

VERTEX STRUGGLES TO LIVE UP TO ITS HYPE PAYOFF FOR PENDER’S INDUSTRIAL PARK BET

FALL 2018

Published by

Greater WWilmington G Published by

reater ilmington BUSINESS BUSINESS JOURNAL JOURNAL

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT + INNOVATION

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TRACKING VERTEX RAIL

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ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT

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PENDER’S GAMBLE PA Y S O F F

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VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATE

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C O V E R S T O R Y: HOMEGROWN

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BROADBAND’S GAP

EVENT PLANNING GUIDE

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR BEHIND THE NUMBERS SOUND OFF NEWS DIGEST THE TAKEAWAY

F E AT U R E S

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'MIDTOWN' CATCHES ON IN PROFILE: WANDA COLEY WILMINGTON HEALTH CHECKUP RESTAURANT ROUNDUP: KEITH RHODES

ON THE COVER

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Yousry Sayed, president and CEO of Quality Chemical Laboratories, started the company 20 years ago and has expanded on both its services and Wilmington facilities.

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Alpha Mortgage Corporation is the local leader in home mortgages, a position we have proudly held since 1983.

WE LEAD the market in innovation and extraordinary customer service.

WE PROVIDE in-house processing and underwriting and timely closings.

WE PROTECT our customers’ financial interests every step of the way.

T O L E A R N M O R E , C A L L U S T O DAY AT 9 1 0 - 2 5 6 - 8 9 9 9

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1320 AIRLIE ROAD, WILMINGTON, NC 28403 • 910.256.8999

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Alpha Mortgage is licensed in North Carolina (L-113831), Virginia (MC-4927), & South Carolina (93265).

Alpha State Corporation Commission as MC-4927 http://nmisconsumeraccess.org lNMLS#93265 m i n g t o n BMortgage i z M is A licensed G A Z I by N Virginia E

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

SPARKING A

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DISCUSSION

he great thing about starting a magazine from scratch is you get to start with a blank slate, a tabula rasa of whatever ideas might connect to readers.

The daunting thing about starting a magazine from scratch is there’s this blank slate facing you.

Coming off a strong response to our inaugural issue of the WilmingtonBiz Magazine in the spring – an issue that focused almost entirely on the real estate industry – we said, “Great, what’s next?”

In some ways, deciding on the next area to focus on was the easiest part of putting together this follow-up second issue.

Economic development is at the core of any community’s business identity. It’s a broad term that can encompass both legacy industries that could bring major projects and startup efforts with the potential to grow into large operations.

At its root, it really just means economic developers, elected officials, business leaders, school administrators and the rest of a community is paying attention to creating a place where companies want to invest and employees want to live.

Toss in the debate over how those efforts should be funded and pursued as well as what types of industries to target, and you’ve got plenty of material to talk about.

That all leads to this, our annual special section on economic development issues as well as innovation efforts in the region.

Turn to page 37 for this – Spark – section.

So: Spark. What’s this? An app that should be spelled Sprk (not to be confused with Spork)? A satellite radio channel? A YouTube star’s brand?

Nothing can send a group of writers down a rabbit hole quicker than brainstorming a new feature’s name. We settled on spark because it’s a word that conjures a sense of activity in both

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the traditional economic development field and innovation upstarts. Plus, sometimes you only need a spark to light a fire.

With this special section, we’re also launching Spark Ideas, a regular series of opinion columns about ideas for economic growth in the region.

These occasional columns will run in future issues of the WilmingtonBiz Magazine, the Greater Wilmington Business Journal and our daily business news coverage on WilmingtonBiz. com.

Speaking of future issues, let me go ahead and announce that based on the strong reception we’ve had this year with the new WilmingtonBiz Magazine, we are committed to quarterly publications in 2019.

So as you flip through these pages, feel free to reach out with feedback or future story ideas; consider penning an op-ed; or even just take a minute to share your thoughts on our social media pages.

You never know what might spark the next big idea.

VICKY JANOWSKI, EDITOR vjanowski@wilmingtonbiz.com

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CONTRIBUTORS

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Publisher

C H R I S BREHMER CHRIS BREHMER is a Wilmington-based photographer whose work has appeared in WILMA and the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. He specializes in portraits, corporate photography, editorial, and weddings. Brehmer photographed Quality Chemical Laboratories Yousry Sayed for this issue’s cover. chrisbrehmerphotography.com

Rob Kaiser

rkaiser@wilmingtonbiz.com

President

Robert Preville rpreville@wilmingtonbiz.com

A s s o c i at e P u b l i s h e r Judy Budd

jbudd@wilmingtonbiz.com

Editor

Vicky Janowski vjanowski@wilmingtonbiz.com

A s s i s ta n t E d i t o r Cece Nunn

M E G A N D E I T Z MEGAN DEITZ turned her love of photography into a full-time career in 2003 as a sports photographer. Today, she specializes in portrait and commercial photography but can be found fueling her true passion for landscape and wildlife photography through her travels around the world. In this issue, Deitz photographed Wilmington Health CEO Jeff James for the practice’s update on PAGE 83, Lapetus’ Karl Ricanek Jr. (PAGE 50), and chef and restaurant owner Keith Rhodes (PAGE 86). megandeitz.com and @megandeitz_photograpphy on Instagram.

cnunn@wilmingtonbiz.com

Reporter

Christina Haley O'Neal chaley@wilmingtonbiz.com

VP of Sales/Business Development Melissa Pressley

mpressley@wilmingtonbiz.com

Senior Account Executive Craig Snow

csnow@wilmingtonbiz.com

Account Executives Polly Holly

pholly@wilmingtonbiz.com

Lynn Murphy

CHRISTINA H A L E Y O ’ N E A L CHRISTINA HALEY O’NEAL is a reporter for the Greater Wilmington Business Journal, covering regional topics such as the local economy, major employers, transportation and film. She previously reported for Port City Daily, covering crime and courts and general news topics.

Haley O’Neal outlines the year’s biggest economic development news on PAGE 44 and checks in on Pender Commerce Park in “JumpStarting a Park” (PAGE 46).

lmurphy@wilmingtonbiz.com

Business Manager Nancy Proper

nproper@wilmingtonbiz.com

Events Director Maggi Apel

mapel@wilmingtonbiz.com

E v e n t s / D i g i ta l A s s i s ta n t Justine Bledsoe

events@wilmingtonbiz.com

D e s i g n & M e d i a C o o r d i nat o r Molly Jacques

production@wilmingtonbiz.com

Content Marketing Editor Hilary Snow

hsnow@wilmingtonbiz.com

C E C E N U N N CECE NUNN has been writing and editing for more than 20 years, currently working as the assistant editor and real estate reporter for the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. She lives in Wilmington with her husband and two daughters. Nunn details midtown’s development on PAGE 22 and Vertex’s ups and downs in “Can Vertex Get Back on Track?” (PAGE 38).

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Contributing Designer Suzi Drake

art@wilmingtonbiz.com

C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Chris Brehmer, Megan Deitz, TJ Dreschel, Michael Cline Spencer, Terah Wilson

Subscribe

To subscribe to WilmingtonBiz Magazine,visit wilmingtonbiz.com/subscribe or call 343-8600 x201. © 2018 SAJ Media LLC

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1430 COMMONWEALTH DRIVE I SUITE 102 I WILMINGTON, NC 28403 I 910.350.1200

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BizBites BEHIND THE NUMBERS |

THE DIGEST

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SOUND OFF

ARTFUL ATTENTION

Local business owner and restaurateur Billy Mellon created the “I Believe in Wilmington” mural last year with the help of artist Ryan Capron. The mural, at the intersection of North Second and Princess streets, became a picturesque destination for social media users with the #secondstreetmural hashtag.

Mellon said merchandise is being sold with the mural’s image with profits given to local charities.

“What motivated us,” he said, “is the opportunity to kind of say thank you to Wilmington for letting us live here, work here and also invite other people to come see our city.” photo by TERAH WILSON

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MILLION

THE INCREASE IN NEW HANOVER COUNTY'S TAX BASE

WITH GROWTH COMES MORE TAX DOLLARS IN NEW HANOVER COUNTY

BY CECE NUNN

LOVE IT OR HATE IT, DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES in the Wilmington area, with new homes, commercial hot spots and institutional growth on the rise.

More development means tax base growth for New Hanover County.

The county that includes the city of Wilmington is expected to have a tax base increase of more than $481 million for the fiscal year 2018-19.

“Our biggest area of residential development has been over in RiverLights this past year,” said Allison Snell, New Hanover County’s tax administrator.

RiverLights is a 1,400-acre community off River Road in Wilmington where more than 300 homes have sold since the master planned development’s grand opening in December 2016.

There are more than 200 families living in the community, leaving roughly 100 homes currently under construction, RiverLights spokeswoman Kace Coble said in August.

Snell said, “There has also been a lot of new commercial properties, apartment buildings, a new movie theater, marinas downtown and more.”

The movie theater The Pointe 14, which Stone Theaters opened in the Port City last year, anchors The Pointe at Barclay, a dining and entertainment complex at Independence Boulevard and South 17th Street developed by Cameron Properties Land Co. and Charlotte-based Collett. The theater’s land and building have a tax value of nearly $7 million.

Two major new contributors to the tax base also include Element Barclay apartments (a partnership between Cameron Properties and Childress Klein Properties, also of Charlotte) with a tax value of more than $24.2 million, and the Embassy Suites by Hilton Wilmington Riverfront hotel at the Wilmington Convention Center, valued at $22.6 million.

The total New Hanover County tax base for the 2017-18 fiscal year that ended in June was $33.7 billion, with this fiscal year’s tax base projected to be $34.2 billion.

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+24.8% INCREASE IN IT JOB POSTINGS IN JULY 2018 OVER JULY 2017

NEW HANOVER, BRUNSWICK & PENDER

$481.4 FISCAL YEAR 2018-19

NEW HANOVER COUNTY

NUMBERS

NEW HANOVER COUNTY

BEHIND THE

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745 UTILITY PATENTS GRANTED (2000-15)

HOTEL

$12.9 MILLION

ROOM OCCUPANCY TAXES FOR FY2017-18

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AVERAGE TRAVEL TIME TO WORK

Sources: NC Technology Association, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Wilmington and Beaches CVB, U.S. Census

IT’S ALL ON THE AVENUE LUXURY SHOPPING

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LUXURY LIVING

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LUXURY OFFICES

The Avenue will be the Wilmington area’s premier living, shopping and working community.

A NEW BENCHMARK FOR LUXURY AND STYLE IN THE SOUTHEAST. The Avenue will sparkle with shopping, dining, office, lodging and living architectural gems strung together on a beautifully landscaped thoroughfare.

Featuring exclusive boutiques, specialty shops, unique retail and culinary hot spots. The impeccable luxuries of a Westin Hotel and spa.

Class A office space. Graciously appointed apartments. Countless other lifestyle amenities.

Modern style. Old world charm. It’s all on The Avenue.

www.theavenuewilmington.com

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Westin on The Avenue will feature an upscale, unique spa. The hotel will also provide extensive, premium conference space for the Wilmington area.

the

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SOUND OFF REVIVE THE MICROR E G I O N C A M PA I G N

BizBites

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HE WILMINGTON REGION HAS A NUMBER OF GREAT ASSETS TO ENTICE INDUSTRIES TO THE AREA. THE CHALLENGE IS FINDING THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO MARKET IT. There are a number of entities that have, in the past, attempted to market the area and their respective industrial sites. Such organizations as Wilmington Business Development (WBD), North Carolina’s Southeast (NCSE), Brunswick County Economic Development Commission (now BID), N.C. Ports and commercial/industrial real estate firms.

It can become confusing as to which organization a site consultant or industry should contact if they want to review available sites or buildings in the Wilmington region.

NCSE has 18 counties with industrial sites to market besides the Wilmington region. WBD markets New Hanover and Pender counties. Brunswick County BID promotes their industrial sites exclusively. And N.C. Ports endorses port-related sites throughout the state.

When industries are looking for a new site/building, they do not look where county/city lines are. They want to be assured that the infrastructure and utilities are in place for their facility, that the labor is there and trainable, that the community colleges can train

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J I M BRADSHAW their employees, that there are reliable transportation modes, that the port can support their needs, and that the site and community are the most affordable for their company to locate there.

In 2014, NCSE approached WBD, N.C. Ports and Brunswick County EDC (now BID) to recommend creating a “micro-region marketing campaign.”

A representative from each organization met and collectively discussed ways on how they could jointly market the entire Wilmington region, which had never been done before.

The group selected the type of industries they wanted to jointly target.

By marketing themselves as a package, they could leverage marketing resources, share costs of printed materials, jointly meet with site consultants, attend targeted industrial trade shows, meet with industries they had heard were looking for industrial sites, encourage expansion of workforce training programs in the local community colleges and jointly sponsor site consultant FAM tours. (A FAM, or familiarization, tour lets site consultants get up-close and personal with an area’s economic development officials, existing industries, port and airport officials and local colleges.)

These marketing efforts showed the state and site consultants a united

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effort to make the Wilmington region a great destination for targeted industries to locate.

One of the first efforts that was undertaken by the group was a FAM tour.

The consultants were given a tour of regional assets by SUVs and helicopters including industrial sites, available buildings, the port and points of local interest.

Lunch and dinners were held on such venues as the battleship, the airport boardroom and oceanfront restaurants. All expenses were paid by private sector contributions.

There were two FAM tours held, the latest in 2015.

They were successful since the site consultants who attended the tour became familiar with the regional assets, and then they told other consultants about the Wilmington region.

The result was an uptick in site consultants’ prospect visits.

2018

SPARK

S PA R K IDEAS

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Greater Wilmington Business Journal is launching a regular series of op-eds, opinion columns about ideas for sparking economic growth in the region. If you have a column topic to be considered, email editor@ wilmingtonbiz.com

BizBites

NCSE, WBD, Brunswick County EDC and the N.C. Ports jointly attended targeted trade shows and mutually manned a booth at each show; collectively traveled to Atlanta, Chicago and other cities to meet with some of the top site consultants in the country where we promoted the entire Wilmington region; met with state economic development officials to make sure they were aware of the region’s industrial sites and available buildings; and promoted the region’s assets to major commercial/industrial real estate firms at special events in Charlotte and Raleigh.

The joint marketing campaign was a success in introducing a number of industrial location decision-makers to the attributes of the Wilmington region.

The result was more industrial prospect visits and new industrial announcements.

In the past couple of years, this joint marketing effort has laxed due to multiple changes in the Brunswick County economic development organizations, Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s successful regional marketing efforts for the 2017 Wells Fargo Golf Tournament and few coordinated marketing trips between the ED organizations.

With Brunswick County’s economic development efforts now focused on BID, and the successful completion of the golf tournament, now would be a good time to reinitiate this joint regional marketing effort.

It was a success in the past and could be again in the future.

The result would show site consultants, industrial real estate companies, industrial prospects, the state ED office and the region that the Wilmington area and its communities can work together to effectively market the region to the world and save the ED offices much needed money for their marketing budgets.

Jim Bradshaw served as director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission from 2007 until his retirement in 2015.

CROWDSOURCING REACTIONS, OPINIONS AND QUOTABLES FROM OUR ONLINE SOUNDING BOARDS

O N FA C E B O O K . C O M / W I L M I N GT O N B I Z WHEN IT COMES TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, WHAT COMPANY OR INDUSTRY WOULD YOU WANT TO SEE COME TO THE CAPE FEAR REGION? “LET’S GET THE FILM INDUSTRY BACK and some high-tech firms. More importantly, make sure we have the infrastructure in place to support future growth.” – TERRY L. LOVE “WE HAVE AN OVER-ABUNDANCE OF SHOPPING and retail. We need to bring in corporations to employ more people at acceptable salaries. More retail is not the answer.” – LARA SUE “CRUISE SHIPS … Wind power farm” – BO DEAN

“GAS, MANUFACTURING, HIGH TECH, less service industry jobs … Cut corporate taxes to the bare bone and let companies make that decision for themselves.” – ISON CATES “INDUSTRIES: HIGH TECH, CLEAN ENERGY, distribution. And Nordstrom.” – WENDI HILL

T W I T T E R P O L L : @ W I L M I N GT O N B I Z HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TRAFFIC AROUND WILMINGTON?

IT’S OUT OF CONTROL

IT’S A NECESSARY EVIL

WHAT TRAFFIC?

53%

41%

6%

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READER REACTIONS

CAPE FEAR CROSSING STUDIES MOVING FORWARD “HOPE TO SEE A SECOND CF RIVER BRIDGE, one for Dawson and one for Wooster, and each bridge being one way to and from Eagles Island. If we build another, would like to see a nice pedestrian passage added to the new bridge.” – RON MAYS MORE PORT PROJECTS ON THE WAY TO SUPPORT FUTURE GROWTH “WHAT CONSIDERATIONS ARE BEING GIVEN TO PROTECTING the shorelines of Oak Island and Bald Head Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River? Deepening the channel at this narrow entrance will cause additional undermining of the shorelines to these two barrier Islands. The Army Corps of Engineers has been responsible for dredging and replenishing sand on the shores for many years. Would there be stabilizing granite and/ or rock type material placed along the river’s edges to prevent greater destabilization of these shorelines?” – JOHN FISHER SIGN UP FOR DAILY NEWS UPDATES AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE GREATER WILMINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL AT WILMINGTONBIZ.COM

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SOUND OFF

BizBites

AN EVER-ELUSIVE BALANCE

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AVE YOU EVER TRIED TO STAND ON ONE FOOT FOR ANY PERIOD OF TIME? It doesn’t take much to knock you off balance. One bump (or just some time), and you dab your other foot to regain your balance or put out a hand to push back the other way.

Community development faces the same challenge in the search for an ever-elusive balance. According to the most recent population estimates, 30 people per day are moving to the three-county region of New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, making balance difficult to achieve.

To put that number into perspective, that is 10 new cars driving into Southeastern North Carolina every day, and they aren’t leaving!

Demographic and economic trends will continue driving growth our direction and will put pressure on our physical and social infrastructure – our balance.

While the demographic and economic forces are out of our control, how we manage them is up to us.

Balanced growth, a loaded term to be sure, means a mix of residential, commercial, industrial, physical infrastructure and public-sector growth, together, in coordination.

Ideally, all the sectors would expand in coordination, but growth is lumpy as budget and economic cycles cause development to take shape in uneven patterns, often not in our preferred order.

Infrastructure funds often aren’t available until after new development strains existing infrastructure, and

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A D A M J O N E S improvements usually come in large chunks, not small marginal improvements to match incremental growth.

For example, DOT cannot build a half a bridge as an intersection starts to become congested. Congestion must justify the whole project, just as developers must build the whole hotel, not just one room at a time.

Through this lumpy development process, one thing is constant: Blame is unfairly placed on policymakers who would be roundly criticized for wasting taxpayer money if roads were proactively built and are also criticized for approving development without first building the infrastructure.

In reality, policymakers are doing their best to strike a difficult balance.

As the population continues to migrate to urban areas, regions such as ours have two choices: grow or risk slipping into a pattern of urban decline.

The choice is clear; the execution is difficult.

We would all be well-served to keep in mind the importance of “balanced” growth and extend our support to local officials trying to grapple with, oftentimes, difficult trade-offs in the policymaking process.

Viewing our region as an economic ecosystem, the necessity of growth across sectors becomes apparent.

Residential development is needed to house the 30 new residents a day, or home prices and rents will be bid M A G A Z I N E

up even further. But residential land use is costly to local governments as police, fire and a quality education system are expensive.

Residential land uses require about 20 percent more in services than paid in taxes and, thus, need to be balanced by commercial and industrial development whose taxes subsidize government services for residents, not to mention creating jobs for those 30 new daily residents.

In addition, well-placed commercial development can help shorten vehicle trips, reduce strain on infrastructure and open time for more rewarding endeavors than sitting in traffic.

Furthermore, we must consider balance within the mix of development.

Housing must accommodate a wide range of income levels, family sizes and lifestyles. Employment opportunities must be available for different ages, experience levels, educational backgrounds and interests.

Tech jobs aren’t enough, manufacturing is only one part of the puzzle and retail-hospitality isn’t the only answer.

All of this economic and community development must be done while balancing environmental and social quality-of-life factors.

Maintaining our balance is a constant challenge and a series of tradeoffs, often between short-term inconvenience and long-term viability.

Undoubtedly, we’ll slip and lean, but as a community, we can dab a foot, change direction and regain our balance.

Adam Jones is a regional economist with UNCW’s Swain Center and an associate professor of economics in UNCW’s Cameron School of Business.

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BizBites

DIGEST THE

A R O U N DU P O F R E C E N T NE WS

MORE APARTMENTS COMING DOWNTOWN

ILM’S TERMINAL E X PA N S I O N P L A N Wilmington International Airport is looking to start its $54 million terminal expansion project in October.

That’s when ILM’s first construction contract is set to begin, three months ahead of the initial schedule.

“By 2022 we should be complete … but getting a jump, getting three months ahead of schedule, is certainly a plus,” Gary Broughton, deputy airport director at ILM, said about the project, which will grow the terminal from 96,000 square feet to 160,000 square feet.

The first round of work, set to take until the spring, includes moving TSA baggage screening devices to get ready for future construction and allowing the airport to begin expansion-related tasks while the remaining portions of construction are still in design.

Travelers will see “very little of this work,” said Granseur Dick, the airport’s planning and

development director.

The estimated cost for the first portion is between $1.5 and $2 million.

The second round of construction, estimated to begin in March and cost about $12 million from mostly state funds, includes expanding the terminal building to provide new airline ticket offices and a larger ticket lobby. It will also include a new outbound baggage area, Dick said.

“We’ll also have new ticket counters to facilitate a fourth airline that may come in the future that we, of course, hope to have at some point,” he said. The airport now has American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines flights.

The project’s third portion, estimated at $40 million in construction costs and expected to begin in fall 2019, will include work on a new concourse and expanded gate areas and inbound baggage handling area.

TO STAY I N T H E LO O P O N T H E L AT E ST AR E A B U S I NE S S H A P P EN IN G S , CHECK OUT OUR DA I LY A F T ER NOON NE W S L E T T E R . S I G N U P AT WILM IN GTON BIZ.COM .

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The Flats on Front, an estimated $35 million project, is expected to feature 300 apartments on nearly 6 acres at 111 Cowan St., adjacent to Sawmill Point Apartments.

The Flats on Front will capitalize on downtown’s growth and the latest apartment trends, D. Porter Jones of Charlotte-based DPJ Residential said. The project is under development by Flyway Residential, a joint venture partnership between DPJ Residential and Chaucer Creek Capital.

“We believe downtown Wilmington is in the early stages of a major resurgence that many other cities in the Southeast have been experiencing over the last decade,” Jones said. “We believe Wilmington is on the cusp of this revitalization, and we want to get in while it’s in this growth mode.”

<

Asheville-based organic and natural foods grocery retailer Earth Fare is expected to bring

100 JOBS

when it enters the Wilmington market with a new store at 943 Military Cutoff Road. The store, under construction, is slated to open in November.

OUR PASSION IS MAKING SURE YOU CAN PURSUE ALL OF YOURS

910.794.0616

pwcpath.com 4018 Oleander Dr. Ste. 102 Wilmington, NC 28403 Securities and advisory services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network, member FINRA/SIPC, a registered investment adviser.

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THE MAKING OF

MIDTOWN A FASTGROWING AREA GETS A NICKNAME THAT’S STARTING TO STICK

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BY CECE NUNN

n 1956, 5-year-old Rachel MacRae donned her favorite patent leather shoes, a dress and hair bows to help cut the ribbon to open Hanover Center, Wilmington’s first suburban shopping center developed by her father, Hugh MacRae II. The moment is captured in a photograph archived at the Oleander Co.’s office at Hanover Center.

Hanover Center these days is one of the oldest landmarks in what is now an area of town that some in the community, especially those in the real estate industry, have increasingly referred to as “midtown Wilmington.”

The phrase isn’t used as frequently as the “Monkey Junction,” “Mayfaire” or “downtown” monikers, but “midtown” has started showing up on more and more signs and business names in a rapidly expanding area.

“That’s going to be your largest population growth in the city because of the amount of land availability

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COM M ERC IA L A REA S REC REATION B A RC L AY P ROP ERTIES

map c/o Lanier Property Group

photo by CECE NUNN

photo c/o OLEANDER CO.

One Midtown apartments on Independence Boulevard opened in 2015, one of the first high-profile projects to use the area's "midtown" nickname. RIGHT: With her father, developer Hugh MacRae II (second from left) looking on, Rachel MacRae, cuts the ribbon for the grand opening of Hanover Center in Wilmington in 1956.

and redevelopment opportunities that are going to take place down there, probably in the next decade,” Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said.

There aren’t any municipal boundaries that mark exactly where midtown Wilmington is, but in 2015, an effort to define the area began among some of the businesses and institutions that call the area home.

In collaboration with others interested in the project, Stephanie Lanier, broker in charge and CEO of Lanier Property Group, embarked on a project to create a midtown map.

This year, Lanier has updated that map to reflect growth.

“It’s been helpful certainly in residential and commercial real estate for marketing purposes, and it was also helpful just because we knew there was going to be a lot of development in the area and wanted to sort of get ahead of that and build a bit of an identity around midtown,” Lanier said. “So many of the best parts of Wilmington are here.”

A few of the landmarks included on the map were in place even before annexations over the years placed the area in the middle of the city. Two examples: New Hanover Regional Medical Center opened in 1967 on South 17th Street, and Independence Mall, which is being rebranded as The Collection at Independence, opened in 1979. Cameron Art Museum relocated to property at the intersection of South 17th Street and Independence in 2001.

Last year, The Pointe 14, the

movie theater anchor of The Pointe at Barclay, began welcoming patrons.

The Pointe is a 34-acre commercial complex that also includes restaurants and services. Cameron Properties Land Co. partnered with Charlotte-based Collett on the project.

The Pointe and surrounding development are drawing even more attention to midtown.

“It’s fortunate from a geography perspective that it happens to be smack dab in the middle of the city.

Midtown is a combination of infill with greenfield, too, with large swaths of land,” said Hill Rogers, broker in charge with Cameron Management.

More residential and commercial growth is coming to The Pointe and adjacent property in the near future.

“The Element Barclay is expanding, and the first building at Midtown Park at Barclay is coming online,” Rogers said, referring respectively to the 402-unit apartment community next to The Pointe, and an office park where Wilmington Health has leased 30,000 square feet.

Another developer, Graham Land Management, is planning a mixeduse development at Independence and Shipyard boulevards that will be called Midtown Village.

Lanier said the area’s draw can also be seen in the number of real estate offices that have come along.

That includes locations for two of the area’s largest agencies.

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage opened a midtown office

w i l m i n g t o n b i z m a g a z i n e . c o m

at Barclay Commons in March, and Intracoastal Realty opened an office at The Pointe at Barclay next to Starbucks in February this year.

Lanier Property Group has been in midtown since 2012, most recently moving to 3724 Shipyard Blvd.

“Now you’ve got so much more interest in the area, and I think that is a really strong sign of the growth,” Lanier said.

With no official boundaries, the area that makes up the midtown label can depend on who’s looking at it.

For example, though it wasn’t included in the boundaries of the map project, Saffo said he considers the University of North Carolina Wilmington part of midtown.

He describes UNCW as a major player in the city that can sometimes be overlooked as a source of population growth.

“They’re smack dab in the middle of the city, smack dab in the middle of the county. There is no other subdivision that I’m aware of that brings us 1,000 additional people a year,” Saffo said.

As infill and new development increases in the middle of Wilmington, a number of redevelopment projects are also in the works.

The projects, including a revamping of Independence Mall, will add more live-work-play-shop options to midtown.

“You don’t really have to leave midtown,” Lanier said, “unless you want to.”

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PROFILE

LEADING

WITH CARE

BY TERESA MCLAMB | PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER

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PROFILE

When

tragedy s t ru c k

W e ll C a r e

H e al t h la s t y e a r , W a n da Coley found h e r s e lf o n a n

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u n e x p e c t e d pa t h runswick County native Wanda Coley knew from an early age that she wanted to work in

accounting.

After graduating from West Brunswick High School, she earned a degree in accounting at University of North Carolina Wilmington. While there, she worked as an administrative assistant at a home health care company, learning the ins and outs of that business and how the various segments of it worked in concert.

While pursuing her master’s at Webster University, she was employed by New Hanover Home Health, which was owned

by New Hanover Regional Medical Center. When Well Care Home Health founders Wayne and Tanya Long purchased that business in 2000, Coley became a Well Care employee.

She’s been there ever since, moving into the position of president and chief operating officer after Wayne Long’s death at age 60 last year.

The Longs initially started the business in 1987, and last year it updated the parent company name to Well Care Health to reflect an expanding umbrella of services.

Coley had been the company’s controller since 2000 w i l m i n g t o n b i z m a g a z i n e . c o m

when the position was created.

After 10 years, she advanced to chief operating officer.

The added responsibility of president makes her responsible “to drive the vision and make sure the strategic initiatives are implemented and achieved,” she said. “I have responsibility for the overall financial health of the organization.”

It’s a position that suits her strong interest in accounting and reflects the emphasis she puts on family. While she and her husband both work in Wilmington, they choose to live near family in southern Brunswick County.

“The older I get, the more I realize how important family is,” she said.

That personal emphasis on family and the quality time she spends with her’s spills over into the expectation she has for the care of Well Care’s clients and their families.

The added responsibility comes at a time when Well Care is expanding.

Based in Wilmington, it has 11 offices, more than 1,000 employees and coverage in much of North Carolina.

The most recent opening was in Myrtle Beach, and the company plans to move into more of South Carolina, where the different certificate-of-need requirement for home health agencies makes the industry a competitive business model there.

States use the certificateof-need process to regulate the building or acquisition of health facilities, as well the expansion of certain medical services, as a way to try and contain health care costs and prevent over buildout in an area.

And in North Carolina, regulators are not issuing additional licensing through June of next year for home care agencies that want to offer in-

home aide services.

“The important part for us is that we provide high-quality care and maintain our integrity, regardless of whether we’re in a state that requires a certificate [of need] or not,” Coley said.

“Our values do not change.”

Well Care also is launching hospice services after acquiring a business in Davie County that was licensed for hospice care.

The initial services, a beta test so to speak, will be in the Triad, she said.

That outcome will determine whether hospice care will be offered in all service areas.

“Hospice is all-encompassing – nursing, chaplain, social workers, volunteers, medical directors…, ” Coley added.

The big challenge Coley sees in the expansion efforts is the “significant nursing shortage in North Carolina.”

The state is expected to rank second in the nation in the shortage by the year 2025, according to a report from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

“Without the human capital, it limits our ability to grow,” Coley said.

To address that issue, the company “has recruited a chief people officer to focus on recruiting the best talent,” she said.

Perhaps an equally important challenge she sees is maintaining the culture in which people can develop and where they care and work collaboratively with each other – one that reflects the company’s mission to keep patients and their families happy and healthy at home, Coley said.

“We also have to keep our employees engaged and not lose sight of our purpose,” she said.

The company’s education team orients new staff members to the company culture while covering topics such as clinical FA L L 2018

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competency, bedside care and home health care requirements.

They partner with an online company for continuing education courses, which vary by license.

Growing the organization responsibly means keeping the patient at the center, Coley said.

Home health service is intermittent.

“The goal is to take care of you and get you back to your highest level of potential,” Coley said.

Home care is longer term and involves certified assistants in the home, assisting the patient with daily activities such as bathing, meal preparation and errands.

This also can involve private duty nursing for around-the-clock care at home as an alternative to hospital care.

“Often people don’t know the resources are there until there’s an event. I fell in love with home health care because we are able to bring care to the home,” Coley said.

“We can do chemotherapy at home, IVs, antibiotics; we do X-rays in the home.

“I want to see our company be able to provide the hospital in the home.”

Coley said she has several longterm goals that would result in caring for patients throughout their lives.

She expects continued growth across North and South Carolina. Through acquisition or partnerships, she sees moving into new lines of service such as delivery of medications.

The possibilities for expansion are numerous.

The company’s culture and goals for the future – tones set by its founders – guides Coley’s approach to her job.

“I think Wayne’s legacy speaks for itself,” she said. “When you are the owner of an organization and something like this happens, the organization continues on, and you have a legacy that will live on.

“I feel that Wayne’s presence is still there. He was such a big part of Well Care. His presence is still here and is ingrained in the organization.”

C-SUITE C O N V O

C-SUITE CONVERSATIONS

HEAD IN THE CLOUD

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BY VICKY JANOWSKI

ANKING SOFTWARE COMPANY NCINO LAUNCHED IN 2012 AS A SPINOFF OF LIVE OAK BANCSHARES. The company, whose cloud-based Bank Operating System is built on the Salesforce platform, has since signed on more than 200 banks worldwide, 11 of them among the top 30 U.S. banks by asset size.

Headquartered in Wilmington, nCino has about 550 employees with plenty of room to grow. CEO Pierre Naudé has been with nCino since its early days. Below is an excerpt from a recent conversation about the company’s rapid rise and future plans. To read more, go to wilmingtonbizmagazine.com.

FROM DAY ONE WITH NCINO, YOU GUYS ENVISIONED IT BEING THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN CLOUD BANKING. SO TO START OFF, WHERE ARE YOU ON THAT GOAL?

“I wouldn’t say we’ve achieved it, but we are well on our way. If you look at the company’s growth, we started actually as a commercial loan origination solution – to solve that one problem for a bank. …

If you look at the growth of the company, it literally was become the very best in a commercial loan solution. And then [after we did] that for community banks, then we moved on in late 2014, early 2015 to do it for larger banks in the U.S. to span the full market. And then we start adding solutions. …

In 2017, we opened the London

PIERRE NAUDÉ CEO of nCino

office. We’ve got people in Toronto now. We just opened the Sydney, Australia, office, and out of London we cover South Africa as well. …

So I would say in the U.S., we are clearly the market leader today.

I would say internationally, we have to prove that, but the signs are very good.”

THIS GROWTH TRAJECTORY, HAS IT GONE FASTER THAN YOU EXPECTED?

“We certainly saw the potential of it. But we also know that banks are very conservative, and to move a whole industry to adopt new technology takes time and effort. So, you know, I would say we were optimistic realists.

We knew we had something special here, but it’s gonna be blood, sweat and tears to get there. But it’s paid off very well. I’m pleasantly surprised, but I stay focused.”

WE’VE COVERED THE INVESTMENTS IN THE RECENT YEARS WITH SIGNIFICANT ROUNDS OF FUNDING. HAS THAT PANNED OUT THE WAY YOU HOPED?

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“We are very, very fortunate. We’re

actually almost too well capitalized … In the very early years we did the friends and family in Wilmington and got some fantastic support in the local community.

And then after two years, Chip [Mahan, Live Oak’s chairman and CEO] had great connections in the market. He is the best I’ve ever seen at raising capital. So we got Wellington Management and Salesforce Ventures in. Then after that, you know it really comes down to execution because you project the future as you sell to these people why to invest in the company. …

And the proof was in the pudding, and how the company was growing, that actually drives the subsequent investment rounds. Right now we are well funded and don’t need more funding at this stage unless there’s some strategic events. But for the way we grow the company organically now, we will not need another round of funding.”

IS THERE ANY INTEREST IN GOING PUBLIC AT SOME POINT?

“I would say it’s more of an option. … Why do people go public? It’s either because their early investors want to cash out at some point, take their money off the table, the company gets too mature for them, or you want to raise capital to do some strategic things.

At this stage, we don’t need any of those events to do that. We’ve got the patience. We’ve got great investors; they will let us ride this thing as long as we can. Being private gives you that flexibility to maneuver as fast as you want to. We’ll see what the future holds, but there’s no imminent reason to do it.”

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H E AT H C L A R K General Manager, Bill Clark Homes of Wilmington

MAR K J O H N S O N Founder, Mark Johnson Custom Homes

M AT T S C H AR F Owner, Ritz Development, LLC

DAV E S P E T R I N O Founder, PBC Design + Build

C RAI G STEVE N S President and CEO, Stevens Fine Homes

C H A R L I E T I P TO N Coastal Carolinas Division President, Pulte Group

[ Discussion Moderator ] S C OT T BY E R S President and CEO, Majestic Kitchen & Bath Creations

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(910) 762-2225 | www.GoMajestic.com

LAND, LOTS AND LOCATION: OUR REGION’S HOME BUILDING INDUSTRY

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he Cape Fear region has seen an explosion of growth in recent past, and it’s a vibrant community in which Scott Byers, President and CEO of Majestic Kitchen and Bath Creations, wants to be an integrative part.

For a quarter century, Majestic has offered a wide selection of products for homebuilders from counter tops, shower enclosures, shelving, door hardware and accessories for kitchens and bathrooms in North and South Carolina. Acquisitions just within the last year of many well-established companies – including Builders Glass & Hardware Inc. in Wilmington and similar businesses in Greensboro and Charlotte – allow Majestic to support builders across the Carolinas.

As a growing company in a burgeoning area, Majestic aims to be the most professional trade partner with those it serves. To that end, Byers recently sat down with six local builders to talk trends and challenges in the building industry. The following is an excerpt of their conversation.

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We’re all hearing talk about labor shortages, but I think available land and lots are going to the biggest challenges for us.

Craig Stevens Owner & President, Stevens Fine Homes

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ISSUES THE BUILDING INDUSTRY IS CURRENTLY FACING OR WILL FACE OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS? CRAIG STEVENS: We’re all hearing talk about labor

shortages, but I think available land and lots are going to the biggest challenges for us. We’re really seeing the lots evaporating. With labor, you can pay them more, right? But if there are no lots, there’s no building.

panies from the mid-Atlantic and northeast flying in to look at this land. Then, I’m watching guys go out to Bluffton [South Carolina] and pick up a parcel of land.

So, there is land. I think it really may be about getting land at a certain price point for your particular demographic and buyer.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CURRENT TRENDS IN OUR AREA? MATT SCHARF: In terms of apartments, all the rents are

es, as well. And there’s no land. I’m looking. There’s nothing that somebody’s willing to sell to you for a reasonable price.

You have to be creative if you’re going to buy any land in Masonboro or Monkey Junction. There, it’s $65,000 an acre, $70,000 an acre. That’s what you’ve got.

high, and everybody is occupied. Maybe October will spell something different; that’s when things tend to slow down.

But it’s crazy. I’m friendly with the guys in the [county] planning department, and they can’t get my little 12-unit remodel passed because they’ve got nine other developments and communities.

I think it’s great; I can’t wait to go those restaurants in those mixed-use communities. Not everybody wants to live in a house, so they need apartments.

DAVID SPETRINO: There is an obscene amount of land

CHARLIE TIPTON: There are a lot of buyers who are

HEATH CLARK: We develop land and we build our hous-

that hasn’t been developed yet. And they’ve got com-

moving closer to family – the kids or grandkids live

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in that location. Or they want to convince the kids or grandkids to move where they are. I think the overall master plan of RiverLights is going to benefit from that multi-generational aspect.

SPETRINO: I’m still not seeing the inflation I expected

to see. I’m not seeing artificial inflation on pricing, nor am I seeing an unsophisticated buyer in the market.

Something we’re not really acknowledging is the Apiture/Live Oak canopy. I have an unbelievable number of people that I’m running into that are tied to Live Oak on the periphery. And these aren’t service jobs; these are people who are selling a house for seven figures in Jersey, Connecticut or Massachusetts and they’re buying with a lot of cash.

So, I don’t know when the apartment thing comes to roost. I don’t know when all the growth and all those projects that are teed up get saturated. We all know a lot of those projects that are sitting right now may not get billed.

CLARK: You start to see compression by price range.

Our buyers are getting compressed. They’re getting squeezed with interest rates.

HOW DO YOU ATTRACT AND RETAIN RELIABLE LABOR? MARK JOHNSON: One of the things we try to do is

increase pace. I think that’s number one – keep them busy. We don’t keep them that busy; we only do a few homes a year. But we absolutely pay them faster than we typically would.

Not cherry-picking labor from house to house and adding some sort of expectation level – so they know what we want, and we know what they want – and staying ahead of them through project managing software really helps us.

SPETRINO: One of the things that is hard to do but

is imperative in our industry is starting more at the source. The Home Builders Association has been extremely active this year in trying to find a path to attract people to our industry. The stigma still exists that working with your hands is not something you should end up doing. It’s something the guy who drops out of high school should do.

We went to middle and high schools in Columbus, Pender and Bladen counties and started reaching kids at seventh and eighth grade. And,

The stigma still exists that working with your hands is not something you should end up doing. It’s something the guy who drops out of high school should do.

Dave Spetrino Founder, PBC Design + Build

with SEA-Tech here in New Hanover County, too.

These kids come to RiverLights and we take them through three homes – one is foundation framing, one is in sheet rock and one is finished. Or, we do it in reverse and they see this finished property that a model home now. Then, we show them the sheet rock and we show them the foundation.

Half these kids want to be architects or engineers.

But all the sudden, one of those may say, “Hey, I want to do what you do. Where do I start?” I don’t need 100 of these kids. I just need one.

That’s the long-term fix. The short-term fix is we are finally paying people enough for them to want to work. But that only works when your consumer is willing to pay that increased price.

HOW DO YOU MINIMIZE RISK IN THE BUILDING INDUSTRY? STEVENS: I completely redid my whole business model because of land here. Instead of going for 300 or 400 a year, I decided that I can do 150 in this area and ramp up in a great year when land is available to maybe 200, but I can scale back to 100.

So, instead of trying to ramp up to 300 or 400 to

take advantage of the good years, we decided to play it safer, sleep at night, pull back to 150 and, with the overhead, toggle up to 200 or down to 100.

On top of that, we’ve got a business plan now to do even flow construction and we start no less than three homes and no more than four every week. By always starting at least three every single week and never starting over four, our efficiencies have skyrocketed.

And we can work better with the subcontractors and vendors because they know what they’re getting every week. So, they can put crews together to handle my workflow and by doing that and guaranteeing that to the subcontractors we were able to get a lot better deals. The end result is you’re doing better by doing less.

TIPTON: I have 182 employees in my division and I

feel a personal responsibility for each one of them.

Going through the last downturn and having to make some really tough decisions wasn’t an easy task.

So, I think about that every day when we’re buying land – Is this the right decision? Are we going to be able to make our margins? Will we be able to continue to grow and make sure we’re providing opportuni-

Our buyers are getting compressed. They’re getting squeezed with interest rates.

Heath Clark General Manager, Bill Clark Homes of Wilmington

In terms of apartments, all the rents are high, and everybody is occupied.

Matt Scharf Owner, Ritz Development, LLC

ties for each of those employees?

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A TRADE PARTNER? SPETRINO: Let’s bring it right down to what really is

going on in the homebuilding industry. It really is the least efficient business, and custom homes is the worst.

So, the trade partners that are making our lives easier – notifying us when something’s going wrong and being proactive – those guys not only get the most work, those are also the guys we start to rely on for each project.

Price gets you in the door every time. And what keeps you there is service. But for me, it’s the trade partners who come up with solutions that are better than what we’ve come up with. If you can make me look like a rock star in front of my clients, you have made a friend for life.

CLARK: I just get as many people as I possibly can

and use them as much as I can. But I can’t find them

right now. And the reason I can’t build more houses is because I don’t have enough people.

Price is important and, of course, how well the job is done. But if something goes wrong, you’d better be there for the customer. I have always been about fixing anything that is wrong, even in homes built and sold all the way back to 10 years ago.

STEVENS: You have a budget and you’ve got to find

that price point, but then you’ve also got to have that professional that shows up when he says he’s going to. So, scheduling is huge.

SCHARF: We renovate maybe 60 apartments a year.

Our biggest challenge is getting the great trade to come over to work with us. You know, we’ve got 20 units we’re doing, not 150 houses.

So, our biggest challenge is having these trades come out and give us good, fast and cheap service.

JOHNSON: Often, I am getting exposed to some higher price-point stuff, so I know I’m going to pay for more than the mom-and-pops that could probably pull it together. But with us submitting things to architects

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Buyers are shopping online, and I think what that’s done to us is make us spend more time on our digital front porch.

Charlie Tipton Coastal Carolinas Division President, Pulte Group

and having to make sure their insurance is right – all the stuff that surrounds these projects – money isn’t the deciding factor.

I think you should have a higher price-point framework and a lower price-point framework and group your subcontractors along those lines.

HOW IS TECHNOLOGY CHANGING BOTH THE HOMEBUILDING AND THE HOMEBUYING PROCESS? STEVENS: We utilize it extensively in our scheduling,

estimating and purchasing and all that.

We get a lot of referrals – about 20 percent of our sales come from referrals – and the website is huge.

The website is moving to the point that it’s getting out there like a realtor used to be. And people are coming to us through Google, apps and social media.

CHARLIE TIPTON: Technology is what drives our busi-

ness today, especially as we bring more new people into the industry to work for us. They’re tech savvy, so that’s what they want to work with.

I think the downfall to that is we have lost some of the getting out in the field and building a relationship with the trades.

But we couldn’t survive without it from a scheduling aspect and trying to keep everything under control. When you’re dealing with weather delays, for example, it’s so much more efficient.

Buyers are shopping online, and I think what that’s done to us is make us spend more time on our digital front porch. The website has to be top-notch and we have to stay focused on the reviews we’re getting because so many buyers are making their decisions online.

SPETRINO: I’ll say one thing about technology on the

consumer side – our clients are coming in already knowing everything about us from our website. So, what’s interesting is that, in some cases, they’ve already made the purchase decision and they’re trying to verify we aren’t just all smoke and mirrors.

Before, I needed that two- to three-hour [in-person meeting] to build rapport, explain what we’re doing, communicate to them that we’re a good fit for their project or sort of interview them as they’re interview-

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ing me. Now, they already have a lot of information and it’s more about sort of seeing, feeling and touching and having their opinion validated for them. If somebody sees our stuff and it resonates with them, they are very quick to contact us.

JOHNSON: The buyers have it a lot easier now in

terms of finding a good builder. I think they have it so easy, in fact, that they’re going to make a decision through online research, or at least rule out half the people they thought they may have talked with. I think a lot of buyers go by referrals.

RiverLights than we anticipated, so there’s going to be a good local presence, as well. We’re probably closer to 50-50 right now. We have quite a few buyers for whom this is their second or third Del Webb home, and a lot of them are moving back to Florida to be closer to family, so Wilmington is a nice meet-inthe-middle sort of place.

We are fortunate the brand has the recognition that it does, but I think the overall trend of being close to family is going to be good for RiverLights.

There are a lot of buyers who are moving closer to family – the kids or grandkids live in that location. Or ful Q they want to convince the kids or grandkids to move where they are. I think the overall master plan of RiverLights is going to benefit from that. ful DISC

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WHO ARE YOUR POTENTIAL BUYERS, AND WHERE ARE THEY LOCATED? CLARK: I’d say 80 percent is North Carolina and 20 percent is outside.

TIPTON: Ours are predominantly from out of town.

There is a good mix, but with the 55-plus [demographic], we are pulling a lot of people out of the northeast – the feeder states across the mid-Atlantic, New Jersey.

To our surprise, we’ve actually had more locals in

I think you should have a higher price-point framework and a lower price-point framework and group your subcontractors along those lines.

Mark Johnson Founder, Mark Johnson Custom Homes

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THE HEAD OF THE COMPANY ROLLED INTO WILMINGTON ANNOUNCING 1,342 MANUFACTURING JOBS. NOW HIS OWN JOB IS UNCLEAR.

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riving under a sky filled with gray clouds, Donald Croteau pulled into the parking lot at Vertex Railcar Corp. shortly after lunchtime July 24, his white SUV joining a few dozen other cars in front of the plant.

Earlier that day, a Wilmington StarNews story said Croteau was no longer in charge of the rail car manufacturing company that he brought to town with a big splash in 2014 and the promise of 1,342 jobs.

Although he spoke frequently to numerous local media outlets and groups in Wilmington in the months following that promise nearly four years ago, on this July day, he wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t talking publicly.

With other company officials also remaining quiet on the matter, it remains to be seen who is directing the business and where it will go from here.

Croteau declined to comment on the record for this story, including not answering questions about his current role at Vertex Railcar or why he still signs his emails as CEO/board director of Vertex Railcar Corp., despite the July report that seemed to suggest he was no longer in the top executive role.

The silence is a far cry from how Croteau, along with then-Gov. Pat McCrory and state and local officials, brought the news of Vertex to Wilmington on Nov. 13, 2014. They held a press conference that day at the former Terex Crane facility at 202 Raleigh St. where the company, then known as Vertex Rail Technologies, was setting up shop. The company was going to be at the forefront of supplying a massive demand for new tank cars that would be necessitated by new government safety regulations, officials said at the time.

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Donald Croteau is shown in the 202 Raleigh St. plant in 2015.

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In months after the news conference, the fanfare would seem unusual and possibly premature. After a start that included a jumpy rail car market, lawsuits and layoffs, Vertex Railcar Corp. is now a joint venture between Vertex Rail Technologies and Chinese investors and reportedly has about 100 employees working to fill rail car orders at the Raleigh Street plant.

“There are businesses, I’m sure every day in this community and elsewhere, that have grand plans … but they don’t stand before the public at large and make grand proclamations either,” New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet said, describing the sentiment of many of those who were part of the company’s original announcement in 2014. “So it’s certainly disappointing for the community because that’s potentially 1,300 men and women that saw a chance to earn a job in a new industry, in our community.

“It did not bear out the way we

had all hoped it would.”

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

The initial promises would be repeated by Croteau in numerous instances after the November news conference, with Croteau continuing to use the same job number, pledging to devote some of the 1,342 positions to people trying to overcome employment barriers and describing quick timelines for hiring and the production of rail cars, something no new manufacturer had done in the United States in decades.

Asked in 2015 whether Wilmington Business Development had vetted Vertex Rail Technologies, WBD CEO Scott Satterfield said in an email at the time, “Vertex, as you know, is a start-up company. The company was brought to WBD and our allies by an industrial broker representing the building and property that Vertex currently occupies. As a startup company, Vertex declined to apply for financial incentives. Nonetheless SPRING 2013

MAY 2012

Croteau becomes head of Massachusetts firm Vertex Fab & Design LLC.

Croteau and partners start working on creating a rail car company.

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MARCH 2014

we gained insight into the company and its plans through interviews with its executives and reliance on due diligence of allies.

“This was augmented by economic intelligence we gathered independently regarding the current market potential for freightrailcar manufacturing. We were similarly satisfied in and relied on the background information of the property owners who engaged in their own due diligence. Seen in the context of its overall industry and the strategic transportation needs of the U.S. domestic energy industry, along with our reliance on the due diligence of our allies as noted earlier, we were satisfied that the viability of Vertex’s business plan more than offset any uncertainties of assisting a start-up entity.”

From the start, the community seized on Croteau’s plans, which were targeting an area that had gone at least half a century with no major manufacturing job announcements of similar scope. Added to that was a sense that Wilmington might be gaining a little something back of its previous railroad culture after traumatically losing the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad’s headquarters in 1960.

McCrory, who was North Carolina’s governor from 2013 to 2017, told reporters and others gathered at the Raleigh Street facility at the announcement event that Massachusetts company Vertex Rail Technologies would occupy the thenvacant industrial property, investing more than $60 million at the site and employing more than 1,300 people.

The salaries would average about $40,000 annually, officials said.

The response was immediate.

Vertex held a job fair at Cape Fear Community College the next day, collecting 1,000 resumes, Croteau said in an interview in December 2014.

Croteau signs certificate of organization papers to create Vertex Rail Technologies.

2013

NOVEMBER 2014

Gov. Pat McCrory, Croteau and other officials announce Vertex's plans to hire 1,300 in Wilmington.

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During that same interview, Croteau answered a question about where the company’s investment dollars were coming from.

photo c/o WECT

Pat McCrory, then governor, announces at a news conference in 2014 that Vertex Rail planned to bring jobs to Wilmington.

“We’re privately held. I have three partners. It is our money that has brought the company to where it is so far,” Croteau said. “There are plenty of private equity people and other folks who’d like to invest in the business. We haven’t opened it up to them as of yet … We haven’t found the need to do that yet, but currently it’s privately held by four owners, and we will either put the money in ourselves or invest it through a bank.”

Croteau was the majority shareholder, he said, and his other Vertex Rail partners were Katherine Perduta, a practicing attorney and then vice president of legal affairs; Scott Bauer, formerly vice president of operations in charge of all the manufacturing aspects; and Daniel Bigda, a rail industry veteran, who

A JOINT VENTURE

Also in June 2015, Vertex Rail Technologies changed its name to Vertex Railcar Corp. and entered into a joint venture with private equity investor Majestic Legend Holdings Ltd. and China Southern Railway Yangtze Co. Ltd., which would eventually merge with China Northern Railway in 2015 to become state-owned Chinese manufacturer China Railway Rolling Stock Corp., the largest manufacturer of rail cars in the world.

“The federal government’s updated tank car regulations have finally been released, and as a result, the build-out and material

DECEMBER 2015

MAY 2015

The firm reportedly has 189 employees and celebrates completing its first rail cars.

Vertex Fab & Design's bankrupty documents are filed in Mass.

2015

MARCH 2015 Local governments agree to spend $600k toward road improvements around VRT.

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would later sue and be sued by Vertex.

“He brings the historical knowledge of the rail industry and the technical aspects,” Croteau said of Bigda.

In response to a June 2015 email seeking more information about the backgrounds of the partners Croteau mentioned, Vertex’s general counsel at the time, Foster Sayers III, wrote, “I should clarify that it’s not totally accurate to name them the original investors as not all of them actually contributed cash to the project. It’s more appropriate to call them the founding members or founding partners as some of them only contributed their time and effort as the basis for their membership interest in Vertex Rail Technologies.”

It was not until much later that the deep pockets seemed to arrive, with Croteau describing investment in Vertex by Chinese entities as key.

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VRT changes its name to Vertex Railcar Corp. and enters into a joint venture with Chinese investors.

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procurement for Vertex’s facility in Wilmington is rapidly moving forward,” a news release at the time said. “It will still provide the much-discussed 1,300 jobs within the community over the next ten to twelve months.”

The release also stated that Croteau would continue as CEO of Vertex Railcar Corp. and serve as a member of Vertex Railcar Corp.’s board of directors.

Of the joint venture, Croteau said in 2015, “We would have done what I said we would have done, but it would have been really hard. This clears all the obstacles.”

In December 2015, company officials from China and Wilmington held an event to celebrate Vertex sending out its first 30 cars.

At the time, the joint venture meant Vertex Rail Technologies owned 33 percent of Vertex Railcar Corp., China Southern Railway Yangtze owned 22 percent, and private equity firm Majestic Legend Holdings owned a 45-percent stake, according to Croteau and Sayers, who has since left the company.

According to a 2015 copy of the joint venture agreement, the ownership percentages would eventually change, with Vertex Rail Technologies keeping a 20 percent stake, China Southern Railway Yangtze owning 50 percent once shares were transferred from the other joint venture parties, and Majestic Legend Holdings retaining 30 percent.

Chinese officials with Vertex declined to comment for this story, including whether the ownership change set out in the 2015 agreement

Vertex lays off 61 workers, citing industry slump, and reportedly still has 221 employees.

JULY 2016 Members of Congress request a federal panel investigate Vertex Railcar's ownership by Chinese entities.

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NOVEMBER 2016

A complaint in Massachusetts bankruptcy court says Croteau 'unlawfully' caused Vertex Fab & Design to transfer rail car design and manpower to VRT.

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has taken place.

Majestic’s initial investment was $6 million, according to the agreement.

Sayers said in 2015 that China Southern Railway was providing engineers and technical manufacturing know-how at that time.

TAKEN TO COURT

At an appearance at the Greater Wilmington Business Journal’s WilmingtonBiz Expo in March 2015, speaking before an audience of more than 600 business leaders and professionals, Croteau talked about what was happening at the facility on Raleigh Street five months after the announcement.

A quick start was critical, he said during the interview.

“We actually have orders for cars,” Croteau said, “and we have to start delivering them in August and July anyway.”

As he spoke, the groundwork was being laid for what would turn out to become legal headaches for Croteau and Vertex.

In the original announcement and throughout subsequent appearances, Croteau cited his experience running Vertex Fab & Design, the Middleboro, Massachusetts, company he acquired in May 2012, as an asset to starting Vertex Rail.

But Vertex F & D was a small company compared to the vision Croteau described for Vertex Rail. Vertex F & D had about 30 employees, according to a 2013 article in a Massachusetts newspaper, and designed and manufactured vessels and tanks for industrial uses, including contracting with Wilmington-based GE JANUARY 2017

Vertex officials say hiring has resumed, won't release number of employees.

DECEMBER 2016 Vertex officials announce a federal panel has found no national security concerns related to Vertex's ownership.

Hitachi. But in May 2015, Croteau filed for bankruptcy on behalf of Vertex F & D. A complaint filed by the trustee in the Massachusetts bankruptcy case in 2016 claimed Croteau “unlawfully” caused Vertex F & D to transfer rail car design drawings and manpower to the rail car manufacturing company before filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on behalf of Vertex F & D the year before.

The assets claim would be settled by late 2017, with the defendants agreeing to pay $825,000.

In a separate case filed in North Carolina in New Hanover County Superior Court, documents showed that eight months before the Vertex F & D bankruptcy, Croteau sent an email to officials at a firm that was a potential rail car customer.

The firm was Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure, a Texas-based company whose clients are involved in the drilling and completion of oil and gas wells.

In the email, dated October 2014, Croteau said, “Lots of pressure on capacity … hung up a bit ago with my sales guy who has someone who wants 1500 cars … if they jump in you won’t get cars for about 15 months from next May!” Solaris wanted hopper cars, eventually signing a letter of intent for 500 of them and giving Vertex Rail Technologies a more than $430,000 deposit. The following year, Solaris would sue Vertex to get the deposit back.

“On Dec. 4, 2014, a Solaris representative visited Vertex’s plant in Wilmington to conduct further diligence. Neither the completed car model nor the FEA [finite element OCTOBER 2017

Asset transfer case against Vertex and Croteau is settled for $825,000.

2017 OCTOBER 2017 Croteau announces additional layoffs, not sharing the exact number.

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Vertex Railcar Corp., in a company photo provided in 2015, had plans at the time to fill an order for 300 hopper cars.

FILE PHOTO

An aerial view of Vertex Rail in 2015 shows the company's facilities at 202 Raleigh St. in Wilmington.

FILE PHOTO

JANUARY 2018

Croteau announces rail car orders from two different customers.

2018 AUGUST 2018 Vertex has a little over 100 employees.

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analysis that had been due in November, according to the letter of intent] were made available for review. Indeed, the facility was virtually empty, with only a handful of employees and no evident progress toward the production of rail cars,” according to the affidavit of a Solaris employee.

On Nov. 10, 2015, a judge granted a decision in favor of Solaris and against Vertex, dismissing Vertex’s counterclaim and ordering Vertex Rail Technologies to pay Solaris $437,500 and other costs.

The court documents show the judgment was satisfied in February 2016.

Vertex Railcar Corp. is currently still involved in a different legal dispute that arose in August 2017, when Vertex sued contractor Civil Works Contracting (CWC), Wilmington Railcar LLC and John Allen for compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $25,000.

Allen was formerly Vertex’s director of facilities and is the current president of Wilmington Railcar, a rail car repair business.

The complaint filed by Vertex in New Hanover County Superior Court alleged numerous issues related to work orders and says Allen was the employee in charge of approving payment for CWC’s work.

Vertex’s complaint also calls Wilmington Railcar a competing company.

The defendants answered the complaint in September last year, denying the claims and filing a counterclaim, saying Vertex owes CWC a balance of nearly $85,000 and needs to return some equipment, and that Allen “never signed any Purchase Orders. They were signed by the following Vertex personnel: Donald Croteau, Scott Bauer, Dan Marx or Jack Xu,” the answer states.

The case has since been sent to mediation and remained an open dispute in August as of press time.

O P P O R T U N I T Y LO S T

Adding to legal troubles the new company was facing, there were the

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Donald Croteau, Chinese investors in Vertex and state and local officials hold a news conference in late 2015 to mark the company's first order of rail cars.

to-be expected challenges of starting a new company. The 1,342 target appeared to move further away.

For Jamir Jumoke the failure of Vertex and Croteau to live up to that promise hit hard.

In early appearances as he spoke about his background, Croteau described an impoverished upbringing in Massachusetts. That was part of the reason why Croteau and Jumoke, who at the time was managing a new jobs initiative in Wilmington called Hometown Hires, formed a bond.

Jumoke and Croteau were introduced in early 2014 by Amanda Lee, who was then president of Cape Fear Community College.

Still in its infancy at the time, Hometown Hires had been created

by New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David and Live Oak Bank CEO and Chairman Chip Mahan to help those with barriers to employment, such as criminal records, get into the workforce.

To Jumoke, Croteau seemed to understand him and the purpose Hometown Hires was trying to serve.

He expressed empathy, something that not many people had for the job

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candidates Jumoke was working to help, Jumoke said.

Croteau pledged to Jumoke, then later to Hometown Hires participants and during public appearances, that 10 percent of the jobs created at Vertex, or about 130, would eventually go to Hometown Hires program candidates.

“We got caught up in the optimism of the opportunity that presented itself. From a business standpoint, I’m always a little reserved in nature when something may seem too good to be true,” Jumoke said recently, reflecting on that time. “As an optimist, you don’t want to let your reservation remove you from an opportunity.”

Jumoke was offered a job at Vertex as the company’s community support coordinator, a position that would allow him to continue to work on connecting Hometown Hires candidates to Vertex jobs but also work to connect other charitable organizations with Vertex’s resources.

Of his time as an employee in the beginning, Jumoke said, “There was nothing that made me feel like they weren’t doing everything they could

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do to make the company successful.”

On the Hometown Hires front, Jumoke helped the organization create a customized program for potential Vertex employees. The program included training in workplace culture, employability skills and finance and budgeting, because most of the people who came to Hometown Hires for help getting a job had never made $40,000 a year, Jumoke said, the average salary promised when Vertex came to town.

About 90 Hometown Hires participants completed the customized program. Some Hometown Hires participants later went to work for Vertex, though it’s hard to say exactly how many. But Jumoke said the numbers fell short.

While he was working at Vertex in 2015, the Hometown Hires promise became a sticking point for Jumoke.

“It just felt like they should have been doing more at that point ... I eventually started pestering them about why the opportunities weren’t being fulfilled; that created some tension,” he said.

Jumoke left Vertex in December 2015. He said he refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

While the promise of 1,300 jobs going unfulfilled was a disappointment to a lot of people, Jumoke said, it was particularly felt by those in the Hometown Hires program who were trying to break out of a cycle of intergenerational poverty and had been promised positions.

“Those people can’t be forgotten,” Jumoke said. “They can’t be lost in the shadows of disappointment.”

SEEKING INCENTIVES

In 2015, the city, county and state had kicked in more than $1 million total for some road work related to Vertex, including the extension of Raleigh Street to River Road. Last year, in separate instances, representatives of Vertex (not Croteau) also asked Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and Coudriet about the possibility of help from the city or county of some kind, possibly economic development incentives.

Vertex officials appeared to be hoping for some help to get through a slump in business, Saffo said.

“It was a lot of optimism that we all had for this company and for this organization. And we were proud to see manufacturing and [the rail industry] come back to the city of Wilmington,” Saffo said of the initial Vertex announcement. “Somebody comes in and starts talking to you about a manufacturing facility, and then you start seeing the money that is being spent, and then you start seeing people that are being hired …

What he [Croteau] was telling us was becoming reality. But then shortly thereafter, we started to hear, ‘Well, we had to lay people off.’”

It was understandable to a certain extent, Saffo and other officials said, because of some upheaval in the freight car industry and oil market.

For example, the price of oil fell to $30 a barrel in 2016 after highs well over $100 a barrel in 2014.

Vertex Railcar Corp. holds certifications to build rail cars, and the facility is paying taxes on more than $35 million worth of equipment.

As for incentives, local leaders told the Vertex representatives that they would have to go through WBD, the agency that the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County contracts with for economic development activities, including vetting companies when it comes to economic development incentives.

Vertex had not approached WBD about the potential for incentives as of July this year, Satterfield said.

“The city and county have not invested in any incentives with Vertex.

The road that was cut through that property out on River Road makes sense for that entire park and that entire corridor, and we’re pleased that the city and county chose to do that.

It makes it safer, it provides better access to and fro, and it was a good idea to do that,” Satterfield said.

Asked about what he thinks of the fact that 1,300 jobs have not materialized at Vertex, he said, “We’re hoping the best for Vertex.”

-Christina Haley O’Neal contributed to this article.

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1 IN THE NEWS

NATIONAL GYPSUM RETURNS

Charlotte-based National Gypsum has hired 45 people as of August as it gears up for operations planned for the end of 2018. The company is reopening its shuttered Wilmington plant on Sunnyvale Drive, which was idled in 2009.

Wilmington was in the running with Tampa, Florida, for the reopening of a closed National Gypsum plant. But in May, the company’s CEO Tom Nelson came to Wilmington to announce the company’s decision to reopen in the Port City.

National Gypsum officials said the company plans to spend $25 million over five years for upgrades and new equipment at the site. The city and county offered a five-year incentives package of $580,000 if the company hits spending and hiring targets.

ECONOMIC

SNAPSHOT

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PENDER GAINS INDUSTRY BUMP

Pender County’s business and employment base is set to grow.

New Jersey-based BlueArrow Warehousing & Logistics LLC signed a lease in July for a space in the Cape Fear Industrial Complex in Rocky Point. The company will initially employ 20 to 25 workers.

Mojotone LLC set up shop at its new location at Pender Progress Industrial Park in Burgaw. The larger space will give the company the ability to double in size.

FedEx Freight and Coastal Beverage Co. plan to build in Pender Commerce Park. When complete, FedEx Freight plans to bring in 25 jobs, and a new Coastal Beverage headquarters is set to house all its existing 140 employees. (See page 50 for more about the Pender Commerce Park’s evolution.)

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BY CHRISTINA HALEY O'NEAL

ere are some of the top economic development headlines so far this year impacting Southeastern North Carolina. Regional economic development announcements have come in the form of new businesses, infrastructure and a few operational milestones.

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HEALTH PROJECTS ON THE RISE The area’s health network is growing from company bases to education.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center, the area’s largest employer, is constructing an orthopedic hospital at its main campus on 17th Street. The M A G A Z I N E

new facility, set to be finished in late 2019, will include 108 patient beds and about 135,000 square feet of space on three floors. The total cost of the facility is estimated to be $91 million for construction and equipment.

EmergeOrtho also has plans to construct a three-story, 55,578-square-foot building in The Villages at Brunswick Forest.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington in January broke ground on its $66 million Veterans Hall, which is slated to house the university’s College of Health and Human Services. And Brunswick Community College also has plans for a $5.7 million allied health facility.

APITURE OPENS UP SHOP

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Live Oak Bank has expanded its reach with new fintech projects, with plans for more in the future.

Apiture, a joint venture between Live Oak Bancshares and Atlanta-based First Data, opened in downtown Wilmington, in more than 12,600 square feet of space on the fifth floor of the Bank of America building on North Third Street. The company employed 80 people as of August.

Live Oak in February also launched Canapi Inc., and is expanding with a third building.

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BRUNSWICK BID RAMPS UP

Brunswick County’s private nonprofit economic development group has made strides.

In July, Brunswick Business & Industry Development (Brunswick BID) moved into 1,600 square feet of space in The Villages at Brunswick Forest.

Brunswick BID is contracted by the county to provide economic development services and was previously housed at the government complex in Bolivia.

Brunswick BID Executive Director Bill Early began his role Jan. 1. The group has been in formation since last year, moving economic development efforts from underneath the umbrella of Brunswick County government to the new organization.

IN THE NEWS

ALCAMI IS ACQUIRED

Madison Dearborn Partners LLC’s acquisition of Alcami Corp. closed in the third quarter of 2018. Alcami Corp., a drug development and manufacturing company previously headquartered in Wilmington, reached an agreement in June to be acquired by the Chicago-based private equity firm.

Alcami officially moved headquarters from Wilmington to Durham in July 2017, giving up a planned $15.8 million investment to expand its headquarters at its facility on North 23rd Street and a $500,000 incentives package from the city and county.

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MEGACORP EXPANDS FOOTPRINT

Wilmington-headquartered MegaCorp Logistics is expanding its presence in Wilmington.

The logistics firm, which has about 150 employees, could grow to 175 with additional space.

MegaCorp purchased more than 47,000 square feet of space on Ashes Drive this spring.

The company plans to renovate one Ashes Drive space while continuing to lease the other until the company requires additional space.

MegaCorp was also named as a Top 40 Freight Brokerage Firm in the U.S. by Transport Topics this year.

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PORT SAILS WITH GROWTH

N.C. Ports reached record growth in the fiscal year 2018, which ended June 30.

Officials reported a record 38 percent year-over-year growth in the number of containers that moved through the Port of Wilmington in FY18.

Year-over-year general cargo growth was up 18 percent.

The ports of Wilmington and Morehead City also reached record financials. Operating revenue was at $48.3 million for FY18, up 4 percent over a previous high of $46.6 million in FY 2018.

Officials attributed Wilmington’s port growth to its ongoing $200 million in infrastructure improvements.

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INDUSTRY ON THE LINE

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s plan to install water and sewer lines along the U.S. 421 industrial corridor is ongoing with completion expected in mid-2019.

A nearly $12.8 million construction contract was awarded to Goldsboro-based T.A. Loving Company for the project in January. Construction began in June to bring the utilities along U.S. 421 to the Pender County line.

County and economic development leaders say the project is critical to further development of the industrial corridor and will make sites there shovel-ready.

ILM ADDS ROUTES

The Wilmington International Airport has greater access to major cities with new nonstop flights.

The third carrier to offer flights at ILM, United Airlines began daily nonstop flights to Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport in April.

American Airlines began Saturday-only

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service this summer from ILM to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Those flights will begin again for daily nonstop routes in December.

American began daily year-round nonstops to Reagan National Airport in May and summer seasonal service to Chicago in June.

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THE LONG JOURNEY TO BUILD PENDER'S INDUSTRIAL SPACE

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t took more than a decade for the vision to pay off, but activity in the Pender Commerce Park is heating up with incoming private investment.

Pender County Commissioner David Williams said the economic recovery from the recession, opening of Interstate 140 and momentum from early tenants has helped peak interest in the park.

The long-term effort and a hefty investment from Pender County to develop its industrial space off U.S. 421 has led to more than 470 jobs either already at the park or being added by new tenants announced this year.

But conversations that lead to the Pender Commerce Park began 15 years ago.

Williams said those talks started in early 2003. County leaders at the time began working with economic development officials at Wilmington Business Development to find the right space to develop the county’s inventory.

“Arguably, this part of our territory was in desperate need of a good, quality product,” said Scott Satterfield, CEO of Wilmington Business Development (WBD). “There’s always been a deficit of product, in particular a fully infrastructured product, on U.S. 421 in general.”

Officials looked to BASF Corp., which had hundreds of acres of land along U.S. 421 that spanned over the New Hanover-Pender county line, Satterfield said.

“When we looked at that [land]

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– the [WBD] board leadership, key people with our organization, key people with Pender County, started thinking: ‘What if we approached BASF about the possibility of taking down that property?’” Satterfield said.

“Maybe they would be reasonable in their sales price and if indeed, the county leaders would buy into that because it’s going be a long-term deal.

This is not a buy-it, sell-it situation. It’s going to be multi years of getting the infrastructure in play [and] having a reason to put in infrastructure.”

Pender Commerce Park was eventually obtained in a two-tract purchase from BASF, the first of which was for nearly 380 acres in 2006 for $4 million from the county’s general fund, according to Pender County officials. The second purchase was M A G A Z I N E

for an additional 396 acres in 2010.

That acquisition was for about $1.6 million, paid through a promissory note between the county and BASF in five annual payments from the county’s general fund.

Some of the land was vacant, but there were also some structures on the acreage, including a former wastewater plant, according to county officials.

The land deals “didn’t happen overnight,” Williams said, and it took a lot of discussion and planning. But county officials believed the U.S. 421 corridor was going to become a hub for business, and the land wasn’t going to get cheaper, he said.

“It was knowing that we were preparing for the future,” Williams said. “We are investing for the future in a corridor that we absolutely knew was

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ARTING A PARK going to be hot like it is today.”

Williams noted that at the end of the day, it was the county commissioners who “put their neck out there” to purchase the space, and the board did catch some heat for it, he said.

At the end of the land buys, the county had on its hands nearly 800 acres – about 450 of which could be developed. (The remaining acreage is wetlands and not suitable for development).

But the product sat untouched for years until one company showed interest in 2013.

HOOKING THE FIRST TENANT

New-York based Acme Smoked Fish was nearly ready to pull the trigger

on a Virginia site for its first out-of-state expansion, said Richard Nordt, who led the search for the company.

Late in the game, Pender Commerce Park was thrown in the mix, said Nordt, who was vice president of engineering and manufacturing for Acme at the time and has since retired.

Duke Energy’s economic development team contacted WBD about a lead on a food processing company that was searching for a site, Satterfield said. They thought Pender Commerce Park would fit the business and threw its name in the hat.

There was some “stiff competition,” Satterfield said.

Acme and WBD connected, and on July Fourth weekend in 2013, Nordt flew down to look at the site. That August, Acme made the decision to build its

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new facility at the Pender Commerce Park, Nordt said.

“Everything needed to be put in place. It was basically just ground and trees. That first vision – when I walked up the site on U.S. 421 – there were no roads. We basically trenched through the forest there and got up to the top of the site where the proposed location was for the facility,” Nordt said. “I kind of just looked around and saw a great opportunity, and it was more or less a vision of knowing what Acme was as a company, but more importantly looking at that site and its location.”

In 2015, the company started operations.

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FedEx Freight's site, a 12.5-acre parcel where construction has started

Empire Distributors general manager Jay McGrady photo by TERAH WILSON

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also incentives for the company being the first tenant in the park, Williams said.

Acme received nearly $1.7 million in county incentives, including the land donation, water and wastewater fee waiver and site preparation, according to the county.

There was also a 10-year industrial incentive grant from the county for more than $926,000 with RC Creations, doing business as Acme, but no performance incentive payouts have been made to date, county officials said.

Acme also received a 12-year state Job Development Investment Grant of up to $975,000 in late 2013, and has received more than $137,000 through 2016, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Today, Acme continues to produce a range of salmon products at the Pender Commerce Park and is growing.

In July, the company installed its sixth slicing and packaging line at the facility, began a second shift and added 40 jobs, bringing the total employment at the site to more than 200 people, said Felipe Espinosa, director of manufacturing at Acme.

Future plans call for adding additional equipment at the site and expanding the plant’s footprint.

“They were the right first tenant,” said Billy King, WBD’s director of business development.

MILLION

COST OF PURCHASING PENDER COMMERCE PARK PROPERTY

INCENTIVES TO ACME

$1.7M ALREADY GIVEN BY PENDER

$71

MILLION

PRIVATE INVESTMENT OF PARK’S FOUR TENANTS (CURRENT & PROJECTED)

476

CURRENT & INCOMING JOBS

330

ACRES

LAND AVAILABLE TO BE DEVELOPED

SOURCE: PENDER COUNTY

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INVESTING IN INFRASTRUCTURE

That initial commitment by Acme got the ball rolling for putting in the infrastructure needed to support business at the park. “[Acme] took a leap of faith. We were selling them what we were going to do. We didn’t have any product on the ground. We had land, and we had a water plant, but we didn’t have the rest,” Williams said. “The Acme commitment was the catalyst to the ... commitment to make all the improvements that go along with a first-class industrial park.”

The county had already zoned all the land as industrial property, WBD officials said.

Piedmont Natural Gas also brought in gas lines to the park. AT&T brought in fiber to the park, which made it AT&T’s first Fiber Ready-certified business park in the state, King said.

“It’s Duke Energy site ready, and it’s AT&T Fiber Ready. And all those things make a difference when you’re marketing a site because it’s such a competitive business,” King said.

Infrastructure improvements for things such as roads came to nearly $4.2 million, with more than $3 million of that financed with part of limited obligation bonds the county issued in 2015 for various projects, county officials said.

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Acme Smoked Fish operations at its Pender facility

The county had also established an $18 million water treatment plant at the park in 2012 and later added a $28 million wastewater plant in 2017. Those plants, while attractive to prospective tenants, are utilities that can service beyond the park. More than $11.4 million in grants aided those projects, officials said.

“There’s been a lot of moving parts to get us to where we are,” Williams said. “The whole park is not done. This is just the first section. There’s still a lot more land that’s untouched.”

There remain more than 300 acres left to develop.

THE PAYOFF

The year after Acme began operations in the Pender Commerce Park, a local operation investigated moving to the site.

It proved to be a good fit for Atlanta-based Empire Distributors, which relocated its operations from Castle Hayne to the industrial park in October 2016.

The reason for the move was to ramp up operations in the area to a full-scale warehouse and beverage distribution center, said Jay McGrady, general manager at Empire Distributors. The company built 179,000 square feet of space on 18 acres of land at the park.

“It was a good opportunity to come here,” McGrady said. “It’s a little bit farther than we wanted to go originally.

But the infrastructure was already here at the park, as far as what the county had already put the money into it through the water, sewer and all those other things.”

The company built with room to grow for another 30 years, McGrady said. Since opening, Empire Distributors has maintained its 100-employee base at the site.

And the employee count at Pender Commerce Park is set to increase with the pending additions of two new businesses, both of which were announced in February.

Like Empire Distributors, Coastal Beverage Co. is not a new employer to the area but is moving its workers and operations from New Hanover County to the Pender park.

Coastal Beverage plans to move from Harley Road to a new headquarters facility on a 27-acre site in Pender Commerce Park. The company has plans for a more than 170,000-square-foot warehouse distribution center and corporate office.

The company will bring its existing employee base of about 140 people with the move, said Tee Nunnelee, president of Coastal Beverage.

The beverage distribution

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company closed on the park property in late August and has a goal to be operational at the site in mid- to late2019, he said.

Another 25 employees could come with the addition of a service center for FedEx Freight, a less-than-truckload carrier and a unit of FedEx Corp., on a 12.5-acre parcel at Pender Commerce Park.

Construction at the site is now underway. Officials said the Memphisbased company planned to invest at least $5 million for the facility.

According to the county tax office, Empire and Acme’s 2017 land and building values totaled $18.8 million.

The taxes generated from that was more than $166,700, officials said.

Business personal property generated tax revenue of nearly $109,000.

With the addition of FedEx and Coastal Beverage’s facilities, the four businesses at Pender Commerce Park represent an estimated $71 million in private investment, which includes all the land cost, building construction, machinery and equipment, WBD officials said.

“It was a bold step, and we took some criticism. But we knew that U.S. 421 was going to be the future,” Williams said. “If you fast forward, now you can see all the new business out there. ” FA L L 2018

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FUNDING THE IDEAS

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Lapetus Solutions co-founder Karl Ricanek Jr., shown in an aged version of himself. Age progression is one of several tools the company has developed.

Wilmington might still have ground to make up when it comes to venture capital activity, but a number of area companies have received funding to support their growing businesses.

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went to one firm â&#x20AC;&#x201C; nCino.

Funding in the Southeastern U.S. totaled $886 million in the second quarter of 2018, following the trend of less funding by volume but larger deals, according to Pitchbook and the

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RECENT LOCAL RAISES

Lapetus was founded in 2014 and has raised about $4.7 million.

Some of the recent raises by area companies, according to Form D filings with the SEC.

NCINO INC.

Amount raised: $133,955,990 (2013-18)

LAPETUS SOLUTIONS INC. Amount raised: $4,690,431 (2015-17)

National Venture Capital Association.

Any year in which North Carolina gets over $1 billion in funding is a good year, and there has been strong entrepreneurial activity so far in 2018, said Jay Bigelow, director of entrepreneurship at the Durham-based Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

“In 2013 we did about $400 million,” he said about activity in the state. “We did $800 million in the first half of this year, so that is a lot.”

Bigelow said while Wilmington is smaller in size than Charlotte or the Triangle, there are Wilmington-based companies that have been putting the Port City on the VC map.

The main company is nCino, a fintech company spun off from Live Oak Bank.

It was part of the top 10 VC deals in the Southeast for the first quarter of 2018, according to Pitchbook and NVCA. In January, nCino raised $51.5 million.

Company officials said the funding would be used to fuel its global growth and product innovation. The company has raised nearly $134 million since it was founded in 2012, according to SEC filings.

Another company that has raised funding is Lapetus Solutions Inc., previously known as Lapetus Software.

The company was founded in 2014 out of a collaboration from Karl Ricanek Jr., a professor of computer science at the

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University of North Carolina Wilmington and Jay Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

They combined their knowledge and partnered to create tools and platforms that help model and predict aging, health and life expectancy. Ricanek said this information can be used by individuals, insurance companies, cosmetic companies and marketing companies, among others.

Lapetus has raised more than $4.6 million in funding. Last year, it raised $3.4 million from 12 investors, according to SEC filings. In 2015, the company raised $1.2 million from two investors.

Ricanek said innovative technology is what made investors interested.

“We have a CEO [Norvell Miller] who has 20-plus years in tech and dealing in startups as well,” he said. “The innovative technology is a key attractor, but if you have an inexperienced team around that technology, the risk for investors on that technology makes it difficult.”

Most of the funding raised by the company has come from outside the state.

“Our initial round of funding was organized by [Miller] here in Wilmington,” Ricanek said. “But he is backed by a European family fund, so this funding reservoir exists outside of the U.S. The investors we have brought on since then are all outside of North Carolina. Two are

LIFEGAIT INC.

Amount raised: $1,018,334 (2016-17)

SPORTGAIT INC.

Amount raised: $1,040,000 (2017-18)

MIRIMICHI GREEN EXPRESS Amount raised: $1,022,000 (2015-18)

KOOLBRIDGE SOLAR INC. Amount raised: $975,000 (2014-17)

KWIPPED INC.*

Amount raised: $852,309 (2017)

PETRICS INC.

Amount raised: $772,458 (2015-18) *NOTE: KWIPPED founder and CEO Robert Preville owns the Greater Wilmington Business Journal with publisher Rob Kaiser. Preville and Kaiser are part owners of KWIPPED.

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GET LOST IN THE MOMENT, NOT YOUR FINANCES. With a financial plan in place, you can focus on what matters most. We’re here to help you take control of your money—we’ll look at where you are now and where you want to go, and design a personalized plan to get you there.

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multinational.”

SportGait Inc. also recently received funding. It was formed in 2015 at the UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

SportGait provides technology that can help coaches, parents, players and others on the field determine whether an athlete’s head injury warrants special care or a visit to the doctor.

The company received over $1 million, made up of $205,000 from five investors in November and $835,000 from 17 investors in July. SportGait aims to raise another $360,000 to meet its funding goal of $1.4 million, according to its latest SEC filing.

SportGait is an entity of LifeGait Inc., a company started by President and CEO Chris Newton that has raised about $1 million, including $525,000 from six investors in 2016 and $493,000 from 12 investors in 2017.

Tobin Geatz, the board chairman, said the company is chasing a real problem in the community, which is another important aspect that has drawn investors.

“In terms of SportGait we are tackling, no pun intended, concussions in sports,” Geatz said. “The timeliness means there is money in the market.”

Most of the funding for SportGait has come locally, Geatz said. One of the main funders is Seahawk Innovation Fund, which has a private-public partnership with UNCW and was founded by Geatz and Tom Looney.

“Generally, we [Seahawk Innovation] put in the first large chunk of money, but there is quite a bit of funding from Wilmington-based investors,” Geatz said.

One way Wilmington’s VC activity can grow is by highlighting the successes area startups have had, Bigelow said.

“It’s not a reason for people to go if it’s just one company,” he said. “They need to know that there is a whole ecosystem there, that nCino is at the top, but there are five or six tiers of companies. Then people start to believe that it is an ecosystem that can sustain itself over time.”

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THE NEXT BIG

BREAKOUT

BY NEIL COTIAUX

I

N WILMINGTON AND AROUND THE COUNTRY, MENTION LIVE OAK BANK, PPD OR UNTAPPD TO SOMEONE IN THEIR INDUSTRY AND NINE CHANCES OUT OF 10 THEY WON’T ASK, “WHO?” Such companies are not only a source of native pride; they bring new jobs and talent to a community, invigorate the area economy, contribute to the growth of their industry and burnish the image of the place they call home.

Here are four homegrown companies that are expanding and attracting more clients, funding or attention.

QUA LI T Y CHE M I CA L LAB O RATO RI E S

The Wilmington area is emerging as a national hub for research, development and testing in the pharmaceutical world.

That’s the assessment of Yousry Sayed, president and chief executive officer of Quality Chemical Laboratories, a 20-year-old company that is about to launch its third wave of expansion.

Sayed recently went over initial

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plans for a potential doubling of the company’s footprint at 3220 Corporate Drive in the North Chase Parkway Industrial Park in New Hanover County.

Founded with just one client – Merck – the growing enterprise now serves about 100 clients in any given month, from the top 10 to 15 pharma companies in the world to virtual firms that come to Sayed with limited funding but a big need.

Over the years, the company has diversified its offerings as a contract pharmaceutical research and testing firm. Its competencies include testing raw and finished materials, developing analytical methods for newer products and prototyping.

In its first two phases, the company added space to accommodate a variety of testing, laboratory and administrative functions, bringing its five-building footprint on the campus off Interstate 40 to about 90,000 square feet.

Current employment stands at 215.

Now, working with Cothran Harris, principal of Cothran Harris Architecture, Sayed is starting work on a third phase, with preliminary plans for a two-story structure ranging from 60,000 to 80,000 square feet, perhaps more.

“We don’t want to under plan,” Harris said.

The conceptual treatment for the new building must “convey the

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idea of quality, convey the idea of competence,” Harris added. “First impressions are lasting impressions.”

The building will allow for “more of a vertical integration of what they’re doing,” Harris said, with products being tested, validated and manufactured at the same location before heading to market.

According to Sayed, bringing more specialized equipment and manufacturing on-site will allow his business to help clients realize newer product delivery technologies.

The new structure could “double our size as well in employment,” he said, with hopes of increasing the number of jobs to 500 within three years.

A former professor and General College director at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Sayed said his fondest goal is to not just grow the pharmaceutical industry’s stature in the area but to keep students who are interested in the sciences here, either working for him or starting their own business.

With the $5 million corporate donation that Sayed and his wife, Linda, made to the university to support the development of new pharmaceutical sciences and chemistry programs, realization of that goal may be made easier.

The pledge, made last year, was the largest corporate donor gift in the school’s history.

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YOUSRY SAYED

PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER QUALITY CHEMICAL LABORATORIES photo by CHRIS BREHMER

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and $15 million, according to the equity firm’s website.

“Our horizon is longer than most firms,” Luby said, with an average “hold” of around six years on its investment before exiting.

“We’re poised for explosive growth in 2019, both organically and through acquisitions,” said Frye.

AARON FRYE

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS FILMWERKS INTERNATIONAL

N2 PUBLISHING

photo by TJ DRESCHEL

FILMWERKS INTERNATIONAL

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Rocky Point, Filmwerks’ core mission is to provide critical infrastructure such as power, lighting and staging for major broadcast sports events.

The company serves about 40 big-name clients and expects to reach more than 100 staff members by the end of 2018 versus the dozen or so that it employed when it first opened, said Aaron Frye, vice president of operations.

When Filmwerks acquired generators, cable and other infrastructure from a competitor, the Pender County-based company snagged The Golf Channel as a client and landed additional business from NBC. Today, Filmwerks services “nearly 100 percent” of all televised golf in the U.S. for CBS, NBC, Fox, The Golf Channel and ESPN, or about 160 tournaments a year, including both the U.S. Open and the Masters, Frye said.

Other sporting events served by Filmwerks include the Super Bowl, NCAA Men’s Final Four and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships.

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To facilitate its far-flung operations, the company has built a network of equipment depots around the country, with the latest brickand-mortar operation in Las Vegas, where Filmwerks intends to provide infrastructure to high-end trade shows, Frye said.

Acquisitions will play a key role in helping Filmwerks become even more prominent.

Toward that end, Michael Satrazemis, Filmwerks’ chief executive officer, sold a stake in the company earlier this year to Seaport Capital, a New York-based equity investment firm, “to grow at a faster pace than we have,” Frye said.

In a June 21 announcement on Seaport’s website, partner Bill Luby said that Filmwerks “fits nicely with our previous experience in the critical infrastructure, data center, and sports verticals.”

Filmwerks “stands on its own as an exciting, growing company” as a result of Satrazemis’ leadership, Luby said in a phone interview.

Seaport generally invests $10 million to $30 million of equity capital in private companies generating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) between $3 million M A G A Z I N E

While the publications industry may seem to be all-digital, all-thetime these days, N2 Publishing built its model by sticking with good oldfashioned paper.

“For our advertisers, print’s audience is controlled, intentional, and specific in a way that other advertising opportunities can’t be,” touts N2’s website.

Again this year, the Wilmingtonbased publisher of customized magazines circulated within affluent U.S. neighborhoods made Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastestgrowing privately-held companies in the country – the eighth consecutive year that it has done so.

According to Inc., the company had $136.9 million in revenue in 2017 and enjoyed three-year growth of 108 percent, placing it at 3,490 on the Inc. 5000.

N2 recruits franchisees known as “area directors” who pay a fee to the company to design, produce and ship locally developed content back into the originating communities, including paid advertising.

As of Aug. 15, N2 Publishing worked with 980 publications and had 253 home-office employees.

“We have a very, very high readership,” said Jim Hall, N2’s chief operating officer. “Some of our communities are only 200 homes, and some of them are thousands of homes.”

Page count and content vary widely among the magazines, Hall added.

Craig Biberston, a former area director in Rio Rancho, New Mexico,

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JIM HALL

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER N2 PUBLISHING

who now works as a real estate agent, said that N2 provided him with plenty of data when choosing a market. Ultimately, he chose “one of the more affluent communities out here” where he could leverage personal relationships, Biberston said.

“It’s an amazing company, an amazing culture,” he said. “They were very helpful with the area directors in terms of explaining what we do.”

photo by TJ DRESCHEL

Armed with state and federal grants totaling $1.9 million, McCall, her biologist husband and a laboratory manager are now involved in finalizing a process that tests shellfish for ciguatera, a disease found mostly in the tropics that can lead to cramps, diarrhea, nausea and other maladies and that affects tens of thousands of individuals annually.

As that testing continues, SeaTox is expanding into other areas.

SEATOX RESEARCH

Now in its fourth year, SeaTox Research, one of the first tenants at UNCW’s MARBIONC facility, has set its sights on finding faster, more efficacious ways to detect toxins in marine life that enter the food chain and pose a danger to human health.

A for-profit company whose research will “spin out as products,” SeaTox’s goal is to create toxindetection kits to be sold to state regulatory agencies that control commercial access to seafood beds as well as to authorities overseas, said Jennifer McCall, the company’s chief executive officer and an assistant professor in clinical research at UNCW.

Work is underway to better detect a paralytic shellfish toxin that can afflict people repetitively and in severe cases kill them, McCall said, and research on a method to combat a third toxin that triggers short-term memory loss and can also cause permanent brain damage is not far behind.

Across the globe, “Native peoples that rely on local seafood beds” are expected to benefit from all three studies, McCall said.

Commercialization of the ciguatera kit has begun. “We have people that currently buy our beta test kits,” she said.

McCall hopes that her company’s research will shine a spotlight on MARBIONC’s mission, attract more marine biotechnology and general biotechnology firms to Wilmington and, like Sayed, create homegrown opportunities for students.

We will “continually have products in the pipeline,” McCall said.

On their own or taken together, Quality Chemical Laboratories’ coming expansion, Filmwerks’ equity funding, N2 Publishing’s continued presence on the Inc. 5000, and the first sales by SeaTox of a product with global reach represent strong vital signs for the area’s economy.

JENNIFER MCCALL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER SEATOX RESEARCH

photo by TJ DRESCHEL

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S O U T H E A S T E R N N O R T H CA R O L I N A ' S

DIGITAL DESERTS W

ith talk about the need to improve roads, bridges and rail lines in North Carolina to boost commerce, another type of economy-related thoroughfare is getting some attention. That would be the information highway, a busy avenue of commerce in areas that offer broadband – otherwise known as high-speed internet access – and almost totally lacking traffic elsewhere.

In North Carolina, urban and suburban communities generally have access to high-speed internet; rural areas often don’t.

Southeastern North Carolina is a striking example. Residents of New Hanover County and coastal areas in Pender and Brunswick counties enjoy the benefits of what is increasingly regarded as a necessary utility; many of their rural neighbors do not.

“The major issues I see are: Lack of service limits citizens from developing home-based businesses and keeps [home-based businesses] from moving here, and it prevents telecommuting or working from home,” said Pender County Manager Randell Woodruff, speaking of his

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county’s western portions. “Existing businesses don’t have adequate access either to expand their outreach.

School children can’t adequately work on their assignments from home.”

The problem is nationwide and has gotten federal attention, as a recent news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture made clear.

“80 percent of the 24 million American households that do not have reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet are in rural areas,” the release stated, quoting a 2018 report by the Federal Communications Commission.

In announcing a new program to address the need for rural broadband, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is launching an e-Connectivity Pilot Program, funded with a $600 million Congressional budget appropriation earlier this year.

Shallotte-based ATMC, a member-owned communications cooperative, hopes to become a partner. It plans to apply for a grant from that funding pool to expand its high-speed internet services.

In its mandated service area –

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about 70 percent of Brunswick County – it has “edged out on its own dime” to provide internet services to customers, said Jody Heustess, ATMC’s vice president of marketing and customer care.

To bring high-speed to areas where carriers such as AT&T and Spectrum won’t make the investment because low customer density makes it unprofitable, ATMC needs partners.

“We would like to go further into Columbus County for the underserved and unserved,” Heustess said. “It takes $35,000 to $50,000 per mile to install fiber optics. There is no way, being a small, local company, that we can do it ourselves. And these areas are cashstrapped communities; they need the internet for their future, but they are at such an economic disadvantage.”

ATMC is already spreading its high-speed internet services – some of it through state-of-the-art fiber-optic cable – to sparsely populated areas of Brunswick County. The cooperative has managed this by using the profits it makes in high-density communities such as Leland, Southport and St. James to offset the cost.

Recently, it brought service to all nine households in a tiny community along N.C. 211 at a cost of $125,000, Heustess said.

Pender County also is looking at the USDA grant program, as well as a new grant program developed jointly by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Transportation that will offer up to $110 million to help states, territories, tribal organizations and the District of Columbia upgrade their 911 call centers to what the government terms “Next Generation” capabilities.

These capabilities involve the use of IP (Internet Protocol)-based, broadband-enabled technologies to coordinate emergency responses, according to the announcement.

“Today, 70 to 80 percent of all 911 calls are placed from wireless phones, but most 911 call centers rely on decades-old networks capable of carrying only voice calls and limited amounts of data,” the annoncement stated. “The call centers have not kept pace with advances in consumer technology, and as a result cannot support callers who wish to send text messages, images, video, and other communications that utilize large amounts of data.”

And there is a new source of

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grant money at the state level as well, said Bill Holmes, director of legislative and public affairs for the N.C. Department of Information Technology.

“In the past legislative session, the legislature approved a new $10 million grant program that allows our Broadband Infrastructure Office to work with private companies to cover the costs of expanding high-speed services to rural communities,” he said. “This won’t allow us to address all of the need in the state, but it is

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a start, and we hope the program will grow. ” Holmes noted that Gov. Roy Cooper initially had proposed $20 million for the grant program, recognizing that broadband access needs to be improved in rural North Carolina.

“It’s a challenge our Broadband Infrastructure Office has been working on for a while. We’re glad to have a grant program now that will at least start to address the need,” Holmes said.

The new grant program enables the Broadband Infrastructure Office to work with private companies to cover broadband expansion costs. That is because there is a law in North Carolina – and similar ones in 20 other states, according to a 2016 report from the Education Commission of the States – that inhibits local governments’ abilities to become high-speed internet providers to their rural residents.

Pender County has no memberowned communications cooperative like ATMC. Most of the county, however, is served by Four County

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Electric Membership Corp., which also covers portions of Bladen, Duplin and Sampson counties. The EMC, according to Woodruff, is “working diligently” to bring broadband to its service area.

Four County has made some strides. Burgaw has high-speed internet services, and all the schools in western Pender County have broadband, benefiting instructional activities during the day. But that changes when students return home.

“Generally, lack of broadband access in Pender is an inhibitor for K-12 education as students aren’t able to access a larger array of resources that may be available to them in other areas through online connection,” said Kyle Breuer, Pender County’s planning director.

Breuer also emphasized the “inhibiting effect” lack of broadband has on business recruitment and retention.

“As you know, e-commerce and access to online logistics is fairly standard in today’s economy,” he

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said. “Without access on broadband, companies may never investigate relocation or establishment in rural areas of our region. Some farming equipment relies on this basic technology, folks that may want to work from home, and other similar examples are concerns that Pender is trying to address.”

One bright spot is the Pender Commerce Park, home to Acme Smoked Fish and Empire Distributors.

In October 2015, AT&T designated the site as fiber-ready, meaning that AT&T provides the bandwidth needed to support data-intensive services such as video, collaboration and cloud services.

Meanwhile, ATMC is midway into a three-year initiative, called Project 2019, that will connect over 4,000 homes in rural Brunswick County to internet with speeds up to 500 Mbps.

The cooperative also has a fiveyear plan to put fiber-optic networks in every business community in the county.

Wilmington B iz M A G A Z I N E

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EVENT PLANNING GUIDE

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Southern hospitality gives rise to

CONVENTION DISTRICT THE WILMINGTON CONVENTION CENTER IS MORE THAN JUST A BUILDING – IT’S A DESTINATION.

That’s how Connie Nelson of the Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) sees the downtown event venue these days, and her colleagues would certainly agree.

That’s because a surge of commercial development in recent years centered around the 107,000-square-foot Wilmington Convention Center – the largest facility of its kind on the North Carolina coast – has given rise to what’s been appropriately dubbed the Convention District.

“As people learn more about what we have to offer, there is more interest in having events here,” said Nelson, CVB’s Communications and Public Relations Director.

Connected by nearly 2 miles of scenic Riverwalk along the Cape

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Fear River and surrounded by hotels, smaller event venues, a marina and pier, restaurants and performance halls, the Wilmington Convention Center offers not just a space to hold events but a place to which people want to come and stay a while.

30,000-square-foot exhibit hall

MAKING ROOM

6,000-square-foot meeting space (can be divided into 8 rooms)

In August, the N.C. Healthcare Engineers Association (NCHEA) held its conference at the Wilmington Convention Center, the second time since 2014. But this year, with many more accommodations to choose from, NCHEA’s conference had record attendance.

While the area has never lacked Southern hospitality, it was previously missing one critical component to booking large events.

“People like coming to Wilmington, but some groups wanted to have nearby hotels and we didn’t really have that,” said Elaine Tricarico, Wilmington Convention Center’s Senior Sales and Marketing Manager.

That changed with the opening of three new northern downtown

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Wilmington Convention Center at a Glance Total capacity: 2,000

12,000-square-foot ballroom (can be divided into 6 rooms) 12,000-square-foot outdoor event lawn 15,000-square-foot pre-event space Covered outdoor riverfront seating 580+ parking spaces Full A/V & sound systems Lighting controls Concessions Internet Drive-in floor access for tractor trailers

M A R K E T I N G S E CT I O N

hotels: Courtyard by Marriott in 2014, followed by Hampton Inn in mid-2017 and Embassy Suites later that same year.

Those added about 400 new rooms to a portion of downtown already supported by the 272-room Hotel Ballast and the 53-room Best Western Plus, attached to the Coastline Conference & Event Center. The 47-year-old Hotel Ballast, formerly Hilton Wilmington Riverside, recently underwent an $8.5 million makeover and rebranding effort.

And construction on yet another hotel – Aloft, a 125-room, seven-story building at the Coastline Conference & Event Center – is expected to be underway soon.

PUTTING THE DISTRICT ON THE MAP

The spike in accommodations has made an impact. Case in point – the N.C. Realtors Association Conference and Expo in September at the Wilmington Convention Center. Tricarico said the statewide organization – whose event brings 800 Realtors and appoximately 200 of their guests to the area – wasn’t able in the past to choose Wilmington as a location.

“Conventions and conferences that once could not consider Wilmington are now interested,” Tricarico said.

That includes the N.C. Department of Public Transportation Association, which, for the first time, picked Wilmington as the spot for its 2018 conference in April.

So many rooms to choose from makes an event planner’s job that much easier, CVB President and CEO Kim Hufham said. The CVB helps coordinate events and accommodations by sending leads out to the area hotels, which then will block off a certain number of available rooms, allowing event planners to spread out attendees through numerous hotels, if needed. Most of the hotels will also coordinate with each other to handle any overflow.

Add accommodations to the growing list of available entertainment and recreational activities and proximity to the Wilmington

International Airport and local officials say the future looks bright for the burgeoning convention district.

COMING FOR WORK, STAYING FOR PLAY

The convention center is not only booking more and bigger events but is also booking them further in advance.

Organizations are drawn to the area, Wilmington Convention Center General Manager Fredia Brady said, by more than just amenities and facilities (the convention district also includes a number of smaller event facilities, including Coastline Conference & Event Center). Those support the event itself, but the city’s offerings appeal to conference-goers, who can roll business and pleasure into one destination.

That, says Brady, has everything to do with downtown Wilmington’s charm.

“You can go into any downtown in any city and see the same brick and mortar. But Wilmington is different.

We’re more than that; we have the Cape Fear River and our proximity to the beach,” she noted.

The NCHEA conference offered up some rooms at the Blockade Runner Beach Resort in Wrightsville Beach, for example, Tricarino said, because some attendees decided to come early or leave a few days later and turn the trip into a vacation, as well.

That translates into economic impact far beyond the Convention District, Brady said. It supports jobs and creates new ones. It means the convention center can balance large outside events with smaller happenings. And it likely means more to come in terms of commercial development in northern downtown Wilmington.

“It creates that compression with the city if groups are coming and staying at our hotels and down at the beaches,” Brady said. “They’re staying and spending their money throughout Wilmington, and that’s only going to increase in the future.”

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CFCC'S Wilson Center

Courtyard by Marriott

Dock on the Riverwalk

Wilmington Convention Center

Pier 33 music venue

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Partnering to Promote Wilmington and Island Beaches

Joe Pawlik, Professor of Marine Biology, Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology, UNCW Center for Marine Science

With an award-winning riverfront, National Register Historic District and nearby island beaches, it’s easy to see why residents and visitors love Wilmington. The feeling is mutual for the meeting and sports events planners who select the destination as a host site for annual conventions and sports competitions, and it means big business for the area.

The Benthic Ecology Meeting is hosted by academic scientists and marine biologists to exchange the latest information in the field, and to give students a venue to present their research results and to meet each other and faculty at participating academic institutions.

When starting to plan for the 2020 event, Joe immediately thought of Wilmington and reached out to the CVB for assistance.

As part of its mission, the Wilmington and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) works hard to bring meetings and other events to the area throughout the year. The CVB team is now inviting residents to join its efforts to help further boost the local economy and take Wilmington’s reputation as a meetings and conventions destination to the next level. Thanks to Wilmington’s newly formed Convention District, the largest convention center on the North Carolina coast, a transforming Riverfront and new developments on the way, the timing couldn’t be better.

More meetings and conventions in Wilmington means more visitors putting dollars into the local economy through their spending.

Support from locals is fundamental to increasing group bookings in the area, and we are pleased to share how you can help. Plus, it’s a great way to show your hometown pride!

Billie Fitzsimons, Wilmington Community Coordinator, Abilities Tennis

How You Can Help

Does your company or membership organization typically hold events outside of Wilmington? Are they searching for a place to hold next year’s meeting or event? Are you a board member of a trade association that makes decisions on meeting sites? Are you looking to organize an event?

The Swing into Spring Unified Doubles Tournament and Skills Clinic was held at Althea Gibson Tennis Complex at Empie Park on February 24. Fitzsimons found the CVB to be particularly helpful when it came to finding host hotels for tournament participants and spectators.

If the answer is “yes” to any of these questions, the CVB would love to connect with you to discuss how we can help bring those meetings and events to Wilmington. Here’s a few local heroes who have done just that.

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Albert Eby, Executive Director, Cape Fear Public Transportation Authority Wave Transit and the North Carolina Public Transportation Association worked with the CVB to bring the annual NCPTA Conference to Wilmington in 2018. Eby says the staff of the CVB worked diligently to ensure the event was a success. Attendee feedback was positive, and the event produced record attendance.

Why Meet in Wilmington?

Here’s a quick site selection checklist sure to make any planner say “yes” to Wilmington as a meetings or events destination!

A Distinctive Destination 3 3 3 3 3 3

Voted America’s Best Riverfront

230+ block National Register Historic District

Downtown walkable access to entertainment, shops and cafes

Water- and land-based tours including history, craft beer, kayak/ canoe excursions, narrated cruises and culinary adventures Busy lineup of festivals and special events throughout the year

Three nearby island beaches

Exceptional Facilities 3 3 3

To get started on bringing your upcoming meeting or event to the area, contact John Sneed, Vice President of Sales and Services for the CVB, at (910) 332-8757 or jsneed@wilmingtonandbeaches.com.

From the moment you decide to recommend Wilmington as a potential site to your group, consider the CVB at your service.

Beginning with site selection, CVB staff will work directly with the local coordinator or regional/national headquarters, collecting the meeting details for lead distribution and hotel proposals. We will coordinate site visits, familiarization tours and bid presentations, as well as assist in planning transportation and shuttle arrangements, special events, and spouse/guest or children’s programs. Our team can coordinate publicity, pre-convention meetings and city welcomes, and design itineraries for extended vacation opportunities.

The CVB will provide marketing materials designed to build meeting attendance, including Visitors Guides and attraction maps. Photos and video assets are available, along with complimentary registration assistance and registration bags based on hotel room usage.

30 meeting facilities and over 40 unique off-site meeting venues Over 8,000 guestrooms and suites

Maximum Registration Potential 3 3 3

The CVB as a Resource

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified Wilmington Convention Center

Many groups max out their registration at meetings and events here Unlimited pre- and post-vacation opportunities

The University of North Carolina Wilmington offers an abundance of academic resources and speakers

New Promotional Resources for Planners

The CVB has rolled out a series of marketing assets for planners interested in bringing meetings and events to Wilmington’s Convention District including a new website, Convention District Guide, Meeting Planner Guide and SkyNav™ 3D Leisure and Convention District Tours (360.WilmingtonConventionDistrict.com). .

Sports is Big Business in Wilmington

Wilmington has also become a sought after destination for sports events planners, offering many things to see and do before and after the event for athletes and spectators. Ranging from multiple indoor and outdoor athletic facilities like Miracle Field at Olsen Park to the Wilmington Convention Center, there are plenty of options for hosting sporting events here.

Wilmington’s venues are best suited for youth and amateur sporting events including soccer, softball, volleyball, gymnastics, cheer, baseball, triathlons, marathons and watersports, just to name a few.

Nontraditional sports like beach soccer and Ultimate Frisbee are seeing a surge in popularity.

By the Numbers: Economic Impact

$82.6 million

Annual economic impact from meeting and conventions booked in Wilmington through the CVB in Fiscal Year 17-18.

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EVENT PLANNING GUIDE

The Cape Fear region is bustling with activity, and it shows in the number of unique coastal, downtown and upscale venues available for a variety of public and private events, as well as the service companies that help pull those events together. The following is a sampling of venues and services in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties.

DOWNTOWN event space, as well as an outdoor garden courtyard.

In-house catering Capacity: 267 Onsite parking: No

128 SOUTH

910.399.1709 128southevents.com

Open floor plan that includes a river-view deck, as well as a second-floor mezzanine overlooking the central lower level. Hotel accommodations available at the adjacent Stemmermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Inn. In-house catering Capacity: 180 Onsite parking: No

THE ATRIUM BY LIGON FLYNN

910.520.7956 atriumwilmington.com

Nestled between historic buildings, this open-air garden with natural foliage and brick walkways is available for weddings, concerts, benefits and other private events.

Outside catering Capacity: 200 Onsite parking: No

BAKERY 105

910.399.1709 bakery105.com

Repurposed baking facility with private meeting and special

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Onsite parking: No

BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLIN A

910.399.9100 battleshipnc.com

World War II-era ship and museum that offers the outside fantail overlooking the Cape Fear River and two interior rooms for private events.

Outside catering Capacity: 300 Onsite parking: Yes

BELLAMY MANSION MUSEUM

910.251.3700 bellamymansion.org

Antebellum mansion open to the public and available for private events, with access to a choice of interior rooms, porches and exterior grounds and gardens.

Outside catering Capacity: 150 Onsite parking: Yes

THE BROOKLYN ARTS CENTER & THE ANNEX

910.538.2939 brooklynartsnc.com

Historic repurposed church with 60-foot cathedral ceilings, a stage and a refurbished 1910 onsite schoolhouse (The Annex).

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CITY CLUB OF WILMINGTON 910.343.1880 cityclubofwilmington.com

Nineteenth century mansion with terraced gardens, onsite suites and salon services, as well as an event planner and serving staff.

In-house catering Capacity: 200 Onsite parking: No

COASTLINE INN CONFERENCE & EVENT CENTER

910.763.2800 coastlineinn.com

Repurposed historic train depot with a banquet hall and conference and event space.

Onsite hotel accommodations available.

Outside catering Capacity: 1,000 Onsite Parking: Yes

CFCC WILSON CENTER

910.362.7898

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capefearstage.com

State-of-the-art performance space with options to rent the main hall, lobby or both areas.

Outside catering Capacity: 1,559 Onsite parking: Yes

CFCC UNION STATION

910.362.7488 cfcc.edu

Top-floor event space with views of the Cape Fear River, an open-air terrace and multimedia capabilities.

Outside catering Capacity: 400 Onsite parking: Yes

EMBASSY SUITES

BY HILTON WILMINGTON RIVERFRONT 910.765.1131 embassysuites3.hilton.com

Hotel along the riverfront that includes a banquet hall for large events, as well as meeting spaces. Offers onsite event planning coordinators.

In-house catering Capacity: 250 Onsite parking: Yes

EVENTS! ON FRONT

910.777.2887 eventsonfront.com

Flexible event space with a staging kitchen, 18-foot tile bar and assortment of tables and chairs available for use.

Outside catering Capacity: 100 Onsite Parking: No

HOTEL BALLAST

910.763.5900 hotelballast.com

Boasts the largest ballroom on the Wilmington waterfront, as well as a second, smaller ballroom, meeting spaces and a bridal suite. (Formerly Hilton Wilmington Riverside).

In-house catering Capacity: 1,000 (grand ballroom) Onsite parking: Yes

IRONCLAD BREWERY

ironcladbrewery.com 910.769.0290

Restored 1925 building in the heart of downtown Wilmington with modern industrial design, an onsite brewery, multiple bars and serving staff.

Outside catering Capacity: 300 Onsite parking: No

wilmingtoneventvenue.com

A 2,000-square-foot venue for intimate weddings and parties or corporate events that offers dining and cocktail tables and lounge furniture, as well as table settings.

Outside catering Capacity: 50 (seated); 65 (cocktail party)

THE RIVER ROOM

FRONT STREET BREWERY 910.769.4085 beamroomcatering.com |

frontstreetbrewery.com

Wilmingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first brewery and restaurant that includes The Beam Room, a top-floor event space with a full bar, restrooms and audio and video equipment.

In-house catering Capacity: 150 Onsite parking: No

THE LOF T ON FRONT

910.297.6526

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910.251.8902 theriverroomevents.com

Restored 19th century structure that includes a Sunset Flat, bridal suite and cocktail party venue, as well as a deck available for rental at an additional cost.

Outside catering Capacity: 120 Onsite parking: No

THE RIVERWALK LANDING

910.343.0408 riverwalklandingnc.com

Outdoor venue located along the Cape Fear River with a spacious deck that offers rentals of tents with lighting, tables, chairs and linens, as well as professional servers.

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Capacity: 250 Onsite parking: No

SAINT THOMAS PRESERVATION HALL

910.343.1880 saintthomaspreservationhall. com

Former Catholic church listed on the National Historic Register with stained glass windows and high ceilings. Includes a staging kitchen, bridal boudoir and two bars.

Outside catering Capacity: 280 Onsite parking: No

WILMINGTON CONVENTION CENTER

910.251.5101 businessmadecasual.com

The largest of its kind on the N.C. coast. Can accommodate guests for a variety of private VIP and large-scale public events in its flexible spaces, including a grand ballroom and exhibit hall.

In-house catering Capacity: 1,750 (exhibit hall) Onsite parking: Yes

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WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH & MAYFAIRE BLOCKADE RUNNER BEACH RESORT

910.256.2251 blockade-runner.com

Wrightsville Beach hotel with all-waterfront rooms, an outdoor patio bar and East oceanfront dining restaurant. Offers five rooms, as well as garden and lawn space, for private events and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Cottage,â&#x20AC;? a 13-room suite with common areas for reunions and corporate retreats.

In-house catering Capacity: 300 (largest room)

house pastry chef. Rooms are available for rent, as well as the entire clubhouse.

In-house catering Capacity: 800 (entire clubhouse)

meeting space.

Outside catering Capacity: 120

FOX & HOUND

910.509.0805 foxandhound.com/wilmington

Mayfaire restaurant and pub that can accommodate large groups for parties, rehearsal dinners, showers, meetings, holiday parties and other events.

In-house catering Capacity: 100

OCEANIC RESTAURANT 910.256.5551 oceanicrestaurant.com

Coastal-inspired oceanfront restaurant on Crystal Pier serving brunch, lunch and dinner. Includes a large classroom/meeting room.

In-house catering Capacity: 150

HILTON GARDEN INN WILMINGTON

910.509.4046 hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com

BLUEWATER WATERFRONT GRILL

Hotel in Mayfaire Town Center that features an onsite restaurant, outdoor pool and 2,000-squarefoot meeting space.

In-house catering Capacity: 90 (meeting room)

910.256.8500 bluewaterdining.com

Restaurant and event space along the Intracoastal Waterway serving casual American fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Includes a banquet room and a third-floor meeting room.

In-house catering Capacity: 200

BRIDGE TENDER

910.256.4519 thebridgetender.com

Fine dining establishment on the Intracoastal Waterway with a board room and private events room.

In-house catering Capacity: 200

COUNTRY CLUB OF LANDFALL

910.256.8411 countrycluboflandfall.com

Clubhouse within the gated community of Landfall that provides multiple locations for a variety of events, as well as onsite event coordinators, handcrafted menus and an in-

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NEW HANOVER COUNTY COOPERATIVE EXTENSIVE ARBORETUM

910.798.7660 arboretum.nhcgov.com

HOLIDAY INN RESORT WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH

910.256.2231 wrightsville.holidayinnresorts. com

Oceanside resort with familythemed activities, outdoor and indoor pools, hot tubs and a wading pool. Features six banquet rooms.

In-house catering Capacity: 350

HOMEWOOD SUITES BY HILTON WILMINGTON

910.791.7272 homewoodsuites3.hilton.com

Hotel located between Mayfaire Town Center and Wrightsville Beach with a 1,000-square-foot

Event facility named for its two rooftop terraces that also includes a grand ballroom, conference rooms, atrium water features and cutting-edge technological capabilities.

Outside catering Capacity: 450 (ballroom); 240 (outdoor terrace)

Seven-acre public garden available for private events.

Facility rental includes a fully equipped indoor kitchen, auditorium, outdoor grill and performance space for musicians.

Outside catering Capacity: 150

PORTERS NECK COUNTRY CLUB

910.686.8180 portersneckcountryclub.com

Clubhouse overlooking a 4-star Tom Fazio golf course that provides flexible space and a variety of menus for corporate functions, business meetings, cocktail galas, weddings and other events. (Note:Located eight miles north of Mayfaire.)

In-house catering Capacity: 200

THE TERRACES ON SIR TYLER

910.473.5550 terracesonsirtyler.com

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SHELL ISLAND RESORT 910.256.8696 shellisland.com

Family-friendly, full-service luxury resort on the northern tip of Wrightsville Beach with indoor and outdoor pools, a tiki bar, onsite restaurant, private beach access and banquet and event rooms.

In-house catering Capacity: 300 (largest room)

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH PARK

townofwrightsvillebeach.com 910.256.7937

Public park located in the heart of Wrightsville Beach with a playground, as well as tennis and basketball courts and other recreational facilities. Available for event rentals with an approved permit application.

WRIGHTSVILLE MANOR AND GARDENS

910.508.7224 wrightsvillemanor.com

Indoor-outdoor event venue located near the gateway to Wrightsville Beach on a 1.25acre property that features a patio veranda, gardens and lawn space, as well as a catering prep room and service area.

Outside catering Capacity: 300

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PLEASURE ISLAND

ATLANTIC TOWERS

910.458.8313 atlantic-towers.com

Eleven-story oceanside condominium complex offering unique one- and two-bedroom suites with private balconies available for nightly, weekly or monthly rentals. Amenities include indoor and outdoor pools, a gazebo with a grilling area and a club room for meetings and events.

Outside catering Capacity: 60 (meeting room)

CAROLINA BEACH LAKE PARK

910.458.7416 carolinabeach.org

Eleven-acre freshwater lake near the ocean that is the site for public events throughout the year, including a weekly farmers market, the annual Pleasure Island Chowder Cookoff and free outdoor movies. Kayak and paddleboat rentals available, as well as rental of a picnic area and gazebo.

Outside catering

CAROLINA BEACH STATE PARK

910.458.8206 ncparks.gov/carolina-beachstate-park

Campsite and marina with onsite cabins, hiking trails, a classroom and an auditorium available for half- and full-day rental.

Outside catering Capacity: 65 (auditorium)

DARLINGS

BY THE SEA

910.458.1429 darlingsbythesea.com

Oceanfront suites aimed at providing “romantic getaways” for couples. Features five rooms with whirlpools, as well as 24/7 on-call service and use of beach chairs and bicycles.

FORT FISHER STATE HISTORIC SITE

910.251.7340

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nchistoricsites.org/fisher

Remaining portions of the Civil War's largest amphibious battle that includes scenic trails, the adjacent Visitors Center & Gift Shop and oceanfront gazebos.

Available for public and private tours, as well as weddings and private events.

Outside catering Capacity: 350

COURTYARD CAROLINA BEACH 910.458.2030 marriott.com/hotels

Beachside resort on the Carolina Beach Boardwalk with flexible event space, newly remodeled hotel rooms and suites, a restaurant and indoor and outdoor pools.

In-house catering Capacity: 30

FORT FISHER AIR FORCE RECREATION AREA

910.458.6549 ftfishermilrec.com

Site available to active duty military, disabled veterans, reservists and Department of Defense civilians that includes event space, an onsite restaurant and bar and an outdoor swimming pool.

In-house catering Capacity: Call for details

GOLDEN SANDS BEACH RESORT

910.458.8334 goldensandmotel.com

Oceanfront hotel with private balconies and a pier, as well as the Ocean Grill Restaurant and

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Tiki Bar, an indoor and outdoor pool and a meeting room.

Outside catering Capacity: 75

HAMPTON INN & SUITES CAROLINA BEACH OCEANFRONT

910.707.1770 hamptoninn3.hilton.com

Beachside hotel next to the Carolina Beach Boardwalk with an oceanfront pool and space for small weddings and meetings.

Outside catering Capacity: 50

KURE BEACH COMMUNITY CENTER

910.707.2015 townofkurebeach.org

Approximately 2,300-square-foot building a block from Ocean Front Park. Includes a kitchen area with a serving island for catering, a separate meeting room, large banquet room and onsite parking.

Outside catering Capacity: 100 (banquet room)

THE LAZY PIRATE SPORTS GRILL

910.458.5299 lazypiratesportsgrill.com

Restaurant and bar in Carolina Beach with a casual atmosphere and outdoor seating. Offers space to accommodate events of all sizes, as well as a customizable menu.

In-house catering Capacity: Call for details

N.C. AQUARIUM AT FORT FISHER

910.772.0500 ncaquariums.com

Offers partial- or full-rental options, as well as onsite childcare and touch tank access for after-hours events and behind-the-scenes tours for daytime events.

Outside catering

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Capacity: 350

OCEAN FRONT PARK & PAVILION

910.458.8216 townofkurebeach.org

Kure Beach’s largest public green space located near the Kure Beach Fishing Pier.

Features an open-air pavilion with a stage for concerts, weddings and events, as well as a children’s play area and public restrooms.

Outside catering Capacity: 75

THE PEARL AND THE PETAL

910.524.1251 thepearlandthepetal.net

1930s standalone building with ground-floor event space, an upstairs preparation room and a lighted patio. Offers flexible packages based on specific events.

Outside catering Capacity: 175

SEAWITCH CAFÉ & TIKI BAR

910.707.0533 seawitchtikibar.com

Carolina Beach restaurant offering a casual event space for both indoor and outdoor events.

Offers a full event catering menu that includes hors d'oeuvres, entrees, buffets, and pasta and taco bars.

In-house catering Capacity: 150

WINNER PARTY BOAT FLEET

910.458.5356 winnerboats.com

Carolina Beach fleet with boats for various functions, including a high-speed catamaran for fishing excursions and a triple-deck dinner-cruise vessel for formal events.

In-house catering Capacity: 250 (dinner-cruise vessel)

Her flowers,

her way.

(910) 395-1868 | www.JuliasFlorist.com 900 S Kerr Ave, Wilmington, NC 28403 2018 EVE NT PL AN N I NG G U I DE

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MIDTOWN

BEAU RIVAGE GOLF & RESORT 910.392.9021 beaurivagegolf.com

CAMERON ART MUSEUM 910.395.5999 cameronartmuseum.org

Historical and contemporary art museum with rotating indoor and outdoor exhibits and permanent collections.

The facility includes a reception hall with multimedia capabilities, a courtyard, conference room, roof terrace and an onsite cafĂŠ, which can be rented for smaller events.

In-house catering Capacity: 200 (reception hall)

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Golf clubhouse near Carolina Beach with more than 6,000 square feet of versatile space between five rooms. Resort offers onsite lodging, banquet facilities, various views of the course, a poolside tiki bar and hardwood dance floor.

In-house catering Capacity: 350

THE BURNEY CENTER AT UNCW

910.962.4150 uncw.edu/campuslife/services

More than 9,000-square-foot ballroom on the campus of UNCWilmington with modern sound and lighting system and a catering prep kitchen. The ballroom can be configured to include banquet and auditorium seating.

In-house catering (through

campus provider) Capacity: 1,000 (auditorium seating); 600 (banquet seating)

HAMPTON INN WILMINGTONMEDICAL PARK

910.796.8881 hamptoninn3.hilton.com

Centrally located accommodations that include a business center, fitness center, an outdoor pool and a conference room for business meetings.

Outside catering Capacity: 150

SCOTTISH RITE TEMPLE

910.762.6452 wilmingtonaasr.org

Freemason lodge available to rent for events and social functions. Features a large dining room and auditorium, as well as a 10-seat conference room.

Outside catering

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Capacity: 350 (auditorium); 300 (dining room)

THE WARWICK CENTER AT UNCW

910.962.4150 uncw.edu/campuslife/services

UNCWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest multiuse event space, with additional smaller meeting rooms. The ballroom can be configured for auditorium-style seating or set up for a banquet.

In-house catering (through campus provider) Capacity: 600 (auditorium); 320 (banquet)

WATERMARK MARINA

910.794.5259 facebook.com/eawmarina

Venue on a private bay with a pier and two-story clubhouse.

Amenities include overnight accommodations, a swimming pool and free onsite parking.

Outside catering Capacity: 200

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BRUNSWICK COUNTY BALD HEAD ISLAND CLUB

910.457.7300 bhiclub.net

Clubhouse on Bald Head that offers banquet facilities, conference rooms, an expansive lawn for outdoor events, and a terrace space.

In-house catering Capacity: 250

THE BARN AT ROCK CREEK

910.253.4012 thebarnatrockcreek.com

Rustic-style event facility on 13 acres in Leland. Facility rental includes dining and banquet tables, an antique farm table, access to all indoor and outdoor grounds, and onsite parking.

Outside catering Capacity: 150

MAGNOLIA GREENS GOLF PLANTATION

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910.383.0999 magnoliagreensgolf.com

Golf course clubhouse in Leland that includes banquet space for weddings and other private functions. Facility provides tables, chairs, linens and table settings.

In-house catering Capacity: 75

MARKER 614 BANQUET HALL

910.448.0360 southportbanquethall.com

Event venue near the Southport Marina with indoor ballroom space, as well as outdoor space and meeting rooms, a full kitchen and waterfront views.

Outside catering Capacity: 250

ODELL WILLIAMSON AUDITORIUM

910.755.7416 bccowa.com

Auditorium on the campus of

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Brunswick Community College in Bolivia. Adjacent Virginia Williamson Event Center is available for smaller events.

Outside catering Capacity: 1,500 (auditorium); 95 (event center)

SILVER COAST WINERY

Locally owned winery in Ocean Isle Beach offering rental of the vineyard, patio and lawn, its interior Barrel Room, and the Art Gallery for smaller events.

Outside catering Capacity: 130

SOUTHPORT COMMUNITY CENTER

910.457.0665 southportnc.org/southportcommunity-building

Multi-use facility on the banks of the Cape Fear River. Offers flexible open space, a lawn overlooking

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the water and a full kitchen.

Outside catering Capacity: 160

THOMAS MANOR

910.973.5169 thomasmanorweddings.com

Waterfront home on the Intracoastal Waterway in Oak Island with indoor and outdoor space for events. The manor is also available for overnight or weekly accommodations.

Outside catering Capacity: 150

THE WINDS RESORT BEACH CLUB

910.579.6275 thewinds.com

Accommodations in Ocean Isle Beach that range from single guest rooms to six-bedroom cottages for destination weddings and corporate retreats and meetings.

Outside catering Capacity: 150

PENDER COUNTY HAMPSTEAD WOMEN’S CLUB

910.270.9549 hampsteadwomensclub.org

Facility available for rental that includes use of the catering kitchen, outside patio space, portable speakers and furniture.

Offers two spaces – the main building and the smaller O’Hara Room for more intimate gatherings.

Outside catering Capacity: 140 (main building); 30 (O’Hara Room)

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF TOPSAIL ISLAND

910.803.0521 topsailhistoricalsociety.org

The society’s Assembly Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, includes a catering kitchen, dance floor and two smaller rooms featuring

views of the water and sunset.

Outside catering Capacity: 250

INLET 790

910.328.0790 inlet790.com

Casual restaurant overlooking the waterfront in Topsail Beach that offers indoor and outdoor event space.

In-house catering Capacity: Call for details

OCEAN’S EDGE RESTAURANT & EVENT CENTER

910.328.0582 topsailshrimphouse.com

Located at the tallest point on Topsail Island, which allows for panoramic views of the sunset and waterfront. Full-service venue with custom packages and an onsite coordinator.

In-house catering Capacity: 300

NORTH SHORE COUNTRY CLUB

910.327.2410 northshoregolfcoursenc.com

Clubhouse on the green at North Shore Golf Course in Sneads Ferry available to rent for weddings, banquets, meetings and private parties.

Private meeting and dining area with a full-service bar and dance floor available.

Outside catering Capacity: 150

POPLAR GROVE PLANTATION

910.686.9518 poplargrove.org

Peanut plantation turned museum in Scotts Hill, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, that can accommodate a variety of events in its museum facility and on plantation grounds.

Outside catering Capacity: 150

THE SURFSIDE CENTER AT THE SURF CITY WELCOME CENTER

910.328.2716 topsailchamber.org

Oceanfront setting that includes an ocean-facing patio and access to the beach. Is not equipped with an audio system or speakers.

Outside catering Capacity: 300

TOPSAIL MANOR

910.329.9800 topsailmanor.com

Eight bedroom, 8,000-squarefoot oceanfront manor built in 2017 available for multi-family vacations, as well as weddings, reunions and corporate events.

Outside catering Capacity: 100 (event-only)

2 7 0 0 N L U M I N A AV E , WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N O RT H C A RO L I NA 2 8 4 8 0 Contact Meredith Swicegood Call: (910)-256-8696 x 7028 Email: mswicegood@shellisland.com

E N J OY YO U R C O N F E R E N C E B Y T H E S E A Have your meeting by the sound and your meals by the sea Each of our ballrooms are 3,000 sqft, perfect for hosting any conference or party Our resort offers room blocks, each with a full suite that faces the ocean

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services di r ecto ry

CATE R E R S ANGIE’S OF CHRIS’S RESTAURANT

Wilmington, NC 910.343.9902 angiescatering.net

CAPT’N BILL’S BACKYARD GRILL

Wilmington, NC 910.762.0111 captnbills.com/catering

ART CATERING

Shallotte, NC 910.755.6642 artcateringevents.com

CASEY’S BUFFET

Wilmington, NC 910.798.2913 caseysbuffet.com

THE BEAM ROOM CATERING

COASTAL CATERING AND EVENTS

Wilmington, NC 910.769.4085 BeamRoomCatering.com

Southport, NC 910.845.2516 coastalcateringandevents.com

BEAUCHAINES 211

Surf City, NC 910.328.1888 beauchaines211.com

COASTLINE CATERING

BON APPETIT CATERING

Wilmington, NC 910.796.0520 bonappetitwilmington.com

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BRENT’S DELI CATERING

Wilmington, NC 910.839.3131 brentsbistro.com

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Shallotte, NC 910.754.8680 coastlinecateringnc.com

DIAMOND CATERING

Wilmington, NC

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910.399.3811 diamondcateringservices.com

GOURMET TO GO & CATERED AFFAIRS LLC

Southport, NC 910.505.9336 gourmettogosouthport.com

LITTLE POND CATERERS

Wilmington, NC 910.960.7663 littlepondcaterers.com

SAWMILL CATERING COMPANY

Wilmington, NC 910.620.7001 sawmillcatering.com

SPOONFED KITCHEN & BAKE SHOP Wilmington, NC 910.679.8881 spoonfedkitchen.com

SURF CITY BARBECUE AND CATERING

MIDDLE OF THE ISLAND CATERING

Surf City, NC 910.328.4227 surfcitybbq.com

Wilmington, NC 910.256.4273 middleoftheisland.com

SWEET BAY CATERING

Bald Head Island, NC 910.457.7450 maritimemarketbhi.com/Catering.aspx

SWEET N SAVORY CAFÉ

Wilmington, NC 910.256.0115 sweetnsavory.cafe

F LO R I STS BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS BY JUNE

Wilmington, NC 910.769.4596 beautifulflowersbyjune.com

BLOOMERS FLORAL DESIGNS

Ocean Isle Beach, NC 910.575.4000 bloomersnc.com

BRUNSWICK TOWN FLORIST

Southport, NC 910.457.1144 brunswicktownflorist.net

CALABASH FLORIST & COMPANY INC.

NOTHING BUNDT CAKES

Wilmington, NC 910.679.8797 nothingbundtcakes.com

MILNER’S CAFÉ & CATERING

A THYME SAVOR CATERING & MARKET Wilmington, NC 910.262.2962 athymesavor.com

Wilmington, NC 910.350.8899 milnerscafeandcatering.com

OCEAN RIDGE CATERING

Wilmington, NC 910.282.8829 catspajamasfloraldesign.com

COASTAL FLORAL

CREATIVE DESIGNS BY JIM

PF CATERING & EVENT PLANNING

TROPICAL SMOOTHIE CAFE

Leland, NC 910.524.6252 www.facebook.com/ PaulFordsCatering

Wilmington (2) & Leland, NC

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CAT’S PAJAMAS FLORAL DESIGN

Shallotte, NC 910.754.6200 coastalfloraldesigns.com

Ocean Isle Beach, NC 910.287.1713 oceanridgecatering.com

Wilmington, NC 910.350.3663 pinevalleymarket.com

Calabash, NC 910.859.0223 calabashflorist.webs.com

910.769.3939 (Midtown) 910.821.8677 (Porters Neck) 910.765.1144 (Leland) tropicalsmoothiecafe.com

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Burgaw, NC 910.686.9000 creativedesignsbyjim.com

DESIGN PERFECTION

Wilmington, NC 910.512.4145 designperfectionnc.com

ECO CHIC BLOSSOMS

Wilmington, NC 910.617.3864 ecochicblossoms.com

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EDDIE’S FLORAL GALLERY

Wilmington, NC 910.791.0990 eddiesfloralgallery.com

FLORIST & GIFTS

Wilmington, NC 910.395.1004 lousflowerworld.com

Bolivia, NC 910.755.5878 justforuflorist.com

SHALLOTTE FLORIST

FIORE FINE FLOWERS

Shallotte, NC 910.754.4848 shallotteflorist.com

FLORA VERDI

Leland, NC 910.371.2224 sweetnectarsflorist.com

Wilmington, NC 910.791.6770 fiorefineflowers.com

SWEET NECTAR’S FLORIST

Wilmington, NC 910.815.8585 bloomersfloraldesignsnc.com

GREEN THUMB FLORAL BOUTIQUE

Wilmington, NC 910.742.0185 facebook.com/ GreenThumbFloralBoutique

HARTS FLORIST

JULIA'S EVENTS & FLORIST Wilmington, NC 910.395.1868 juliasflorist.com

KIM FISHER DESIGNS

Burgaw, NC 910.259.2926 burgawfloristnc.com

Wilmington, NC 910.279.5530 kimfisherdesigns.com

JUST FOR YOU

LOU’S FLOWER WORLD

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SURF CITY FLORIST

Surf City, NC 910.328.3238 surfcityflorist.com

WILD BY NATURE

Southport, NC 910.363.5032 wildbynaturellc.com

WINE & ROSES FLORIST

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Southport, NC 910.457.4428 wine-roses-florist.business.site

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VERZAAL’S FLORIST & EVENTS

910.763.6070 danielscompany.com

Wilmington, NC 910.791.1756 verzaalsflorist.com

TRANSPORTATION AZALEA LIMOUSINE SERVICE

910.799.4484 prestigelimousineservice.com

EASY WAY LIMO & TRANSPORTATION SERVICE

TUXEDO LIMO SERVICE

Supply, NC 910. 477.0211 www.facebook.com/pg/tuxedolimo. gmail/services/

Sunset Beach, NC 910.579.9926 easywaylimoservice.com

EVENT SHUTTLE SERVICE

VIP LIMO OF WILMINGTON

Wilmington, NC 910.452.5888 azalealimo.com

Wilmington, NC 910.398.8333 eventshuttleservice.com

Wilmington, NC 910.264.4343/910.619.5890 viplimowilmington.com

BLUEWATER TRANSPORT

LETT’S LIMOUSINE SERVICE

WILMINGTON TROLLEY CO.

Wilmington, NC 910.208.0057 bluewatertransport.com

Wilmington, NC 910.763.4483 wilmingtontrolley.com

Wilmington, NC 910.343.4161 lettslimo.com

CAPE FEAR LIMO & COACH LINES

PLATINUM LIMOUSINE

Wilmington, NC 910.679.4339 CapeFearCoachLines.com

Wilmington, NC 910.833.7026 platinumlimonc.com

DANIELS TOURS LLC

PRESTIGE LIMOUSINE

Wilmington, NC

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3 CHEERS PARTY RENTAL

Wilmington, NC

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AUDIO-VISUAL

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Southport, NC 910.448.1002 3cheerspartyrentals.com

M A R K E T I N G S E CT I O N

ACOUSTICREATIONS INC.

Leland, NC 910.371.2038 acouticreations.com

AUDIO VISUAL SERVICES COASTAL

Wilmington, NC 910.341.0045 avcoastal.com

AVALIVE

Wilmington, NC 910.790.0324 AValive.com

BEHIND THE SOUND

Wilmington, NC 443.854.2741 behindthesoundav.com

CAROLINA STRAND

Wilmington, NC 800.772.0349 carolinastrand.com

EZAV

Wilmington, NC 910.762.4144 ezav.biz

FILMWERKS INTERNATIONAL INC.

Rocky Point, NC 910.675.1145 filmwerksintl.com

J & S AUDIO VISUAL

Wilmington, NC 910.202.3160 jsav.com

K2 PRODUCTIONS

Wilmington, NC 919.341.5111 k2proevents.com

PAST PRESENT FUTURE DIGITAL INC.

Wilmington, NC 910.399.1820 ppfdigital.com

SOUND WAVE AUDIO

Wilmington, NC 910.794.2858 soundwaveaudio.com

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STAFFING / OTHER GREENE RESOURCES

Wilmington, NC 910.251.0505 greeneresources.com

NORTH CAROLINA’S BRUNSWICK ISLANDS

Shallotte, NC 910.755.5517 ncbrunswick.com

n n n n n

LITIGATION CONSTRUCTION DISPUTES MEDIATION/ARBITRATION/COLLABORATIVE LAW REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT & ZONING EMINENT DOMAIN & CONDEMNATION

n n n n n

LICENSING DISPUTES CONTRACT DRAFTING TITLE INSURANCE BANKING LITIGATION LIENS

ON TARGET STAFFING LLC

SERVING BUSINESS AND CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALS IN North and South Carolina

(910) 777-5995 | www.hamletandassociates.com

Wilmington, NC 910.765.0949 ontargetstaffingllc.com

PENDER COUNTY TOURISM

Burgaw, NC 910.259.1278 visitpender.com

PREMIER STAFFING SOLUTIONS

Wilmington, NC 910.793.1010 premierstaffnc.com

WILMINGTON BEACHES CONVENTION VISITOR’S BUREAU Wilmington, NC 910.341.4030 wilmingtonandbeaches.com

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W i l m i n g t o n H e a l t h ’s

strategy

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ONE OF THE AREA’S LARGEST HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS HAS BEEN SLOWLY ADDING TO ITS CLINICAL SPACE IN THE REGION

BY VICKY JANOWSKI

w i l m i n g t o n b i z m a g a z i n e . c o m

W

hen Don Gottovi and Norm Robinson started Wilmington Health Associates, it was out of a modest, low-slung building.

It was 1971 and not long after the physicians – early in their careers – had chatted in the beer line at the UNC Department of Medicine’s annual picnic about opening up shop in Wilmington.

Their first space was off Doctors Circle, and as their team grew to a handful of doctors, things quickly got tight, Gottovi recalled recently.

“We were all jammed in this little rented building,” said Gottovi,

who is retired but still lives in Wilmington.

It was then they bought a lot from the Cameron family to build a one-story facility at 1202 Medical Center Drive, still the home base for the practice, which looks much different more than four decades later.

As the region’s population grew, the practice – now called just Wilmington Health – has grown as well.

In total, the private, multispecialty medical group practice owns about 100,000 square feet of space in buildings throughout the region and leases another 200,000

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photos and renderings c/o WILMINGTON HEALTH

EXPANSION

In his decade with Wilmington Health, CEO Jeff James has seen new locations added to the practice’s portfolio.

photo by MEGAN DEITZ

square feet, officials said.

With about 180 health providers, including 115 physicians, the practice has more than 20 locations from Jacksonville to Southport.

And it’s currently on another expansion run.

“Our footprint has been expanding for a number of years already, and the challenge though with that was

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in some instances it has expanded very inefficiently,” said Jeff James, Wilmington Health’s CEO. “So one of the main reasons for some of the building projects that you see from us is consolidation. And the other one would be preparation for more anticipated growth.”

That expansion, while largely organic as patient volumes and

M A G A Z I N E

specialty needs grow in specific parts of the region, follows a certain pattern: making smaller moves until time to invest in a centralized space.

“If you look at our history, we look at existing space first,” said James, who last month marked 10 years at Wilmington Health. “And once we hit a critical mass within a particular geographic area, then we will look at a development project which is more likely to match our future projections for growth.”

The same pattern has held true as Wilmington Health has grown outside its New Hanover County confines to make inroads into Hampstead, northern Brunswick County and Jacksonville.

In Hampstead, for example, Wilmington Health had several different locations for providers until it signed a long-term lease for a new building on Ravenswood Road.

“Same thing with Jacksonville,” James said. “We didn’t build a building there. We moved into existing space until such time as the critical mass that we had generated was enough to move us forward.”

Recent projects include 30,000-square-feet medical office spaces in both the Mayfaire and midtown areas, parts of Wilmington that have been a magnet for new development in recent years.

In both of those projects, Wilmington Health is moving into new construction.

On Parker Farm Drive, the practice will take up the entire structure for one of The Offices at Mayfaire buildings. Wilmington Health already has had a presence in the office park, with providers at the Mayfaire I and II buildings.

“The first time we had a presence in the Mayfaire area [was] in one of their brand new buildings, but we only occupied one tiny little bit of it at first,” James said. “And then we moved to a bigger space there as they built that.”

In 2019, Wilmington Health is expected to consolidate its services there when it moves into Mayfaire V. Over in the midtown area, the practice plans to fill half of the 60,000-square-foot Midtown Park at

Barclay office building, establishing OB/GYN and other specialty providers there.

Chris Bunch, Wilmington Health’s COO, said they were drawn to the Barclay location in part because of the growth coming to the southern end of New Hanover County.

Meanwhile, Wilmington Health’s pattern of starting small and retooling for growth in services could come next to the northern end.

“For example, right now, Porters Neck is getting to be that same type of situation where we have taken down multiple buildings in existing space, and if a patient of ours needs a CT scan, right now, they have to go across [U.S. Business] 17. And that’s not particularly the best patient experience,” James said. “We can envision a time in the fairly near future where once we’ve got some of these other projects out of the way, we take a look at what we’re doing in Porters Neck and try to make it a little bit better for the patients.”

w i l m i n g t o n b i z m a g a z i n e . c o m

NEW & RECENT BUILDINGS 1. MIDTOWN

MIDTOWN PARK AT BARCLAY 1124 GALLERY PARK BLVD.

In April Wilmington Health became the first tenant announced for the office building under construction next to The Pointe at Barclay. The practice will lease half of the 60,000-square-foot building.

2. MAYFAIRE

THE OFFICES AT MAYFAIRE V 6727 PARKER FARM DR.

It is leasing all of the 30,000-square-foot building.

3. LELAND

9101 OCEAN HIGHWAY E.

A 20,000-square-foot building developed by Summit Healthcare Group, is slated to open Sept. 24 off U.S. 17.

4. HAMPSTEAD

40 RAVENSWOOD RD.

Wilmington Health signed a long-term lease for a 15,000-square-foot building, a built-to-suit project by GHK Cape Fear Development. It opened in May.

5. MAIN FACILITY

1202 MEDICAL CENTER DR.

The practice’s main facility houses a number of primary and specialty departments as well as administrative offices. Wilmington Health has operated at the location since the mid-1970s, and the building has had several major additions since then as well as structural and aesthetic changes.

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RESTAURANT R O U ND U P

RESTAURANT ROUNDUP

RHODES

SCHOLAR

BY KYLE HANLIN | PHOTO BY MEGAN DEITZ

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RESTAURANT ROUNDUP

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o w n er a n d c h ef

KEITH RHODES

i s n o w c o n s u lt i n g w i t h fell o w restau rate u rs a n d h as a f o o d h all pr o j ect i n t h e w o rks

T

he restaurant industry is no place for people who are faint of heart.

Eateries, whether fine dining, casual or anywhere in between, come and go at an astonishing rate. But the fear of failure has not stopped Wilmington’s Keith Rhodes from trying new ventures.

Rhodes is best known in the Port City as the owner and chef of the seafood restaurant Catch and its popular spinoff, Catch the Food Truck. More recently he has ventured into the consulting world, working with other restaurateurs on their undertakings.

“I might get a request from somebody who is opening a business, or they might need to just redo what is happening there,” Rhodes said. “I kind of hit it on any kind of level. Some people need menus done, some people need labor and costs done, some people just need a lot of work. So that’s where I’m coming in. And it’s not just here in Wilmington. We travel everywhere doing that.”

The reasons for restaurants failing range from poor concept and management to lack of planning to inexperience in purchasing and hiring. Having experienced both failures w i l m i n g t o n b i z m a g a z i n e . c o m

and successes, the 45-year-old Rhodes can add perspective and assist consulting clients with best practices when opening or reviving their establishments.

People can have misconceptions “when it comes to operating any sort of food service, whether something as small as a soft-serve ice cream place or whether you’re talking about a five-star dining experience,” Rhodes said. “I don’t think that a lot of folks are properly planning when it comes to a long-term success when it comes to the restaurant.

“There are so many things you have to consider – your area, location, demographic, menu, cost – so many different factors … If you aren’t considering everything, you can find yourself on the short end of the stick, meaning your business is closing real soon.”

In his culinary career, Rhodes has been a James Beard Foundation nominee for Best Southeast Chef. He even competed on the popular Bravo show Top Chef. But the ability to concoct and prepare high-quality food is just a small portion of the larger restaurant-business pie.

“Interacting with a customer and customer satisfaction is something that has to be at the core of everything,” Rhodes said.

A lifelong Wilmingtonian, Rhodes served as a chef at some of the city’s best-known restaurants prior to opening Catch. Along the way, he learned what worked and what didn’t.

“When I first started, there was a lot of planning,” Rhodes said. “I was afforded the opportunity to work in a couple of different venues where I could learn a lot. So ultimately one day when I wanted to strike out on my own, I kind of knew exactly the path that I wanted to walk.”

And while Catch, now in its 12th year, has enjoyed longevity and growth, not every one of Rhodes’ undertakings has seen

the same success. But he hopes to help others over some of the hurdles he fell short of clearing.

“Just like anybody who runs a marathon, you prepare for it, you train for it,” Rhodes said. “There are going to be certain things that come along that way that might injure you. For instance, you’re a great marathon runner, but then you catch a cramp. That’s only temporary, but it can be a setback when you are running the race.”

As with many people who find success in their lines of work, Rhodes is looking to build upon what he has created.

He plans to open a food hall on Market Street in 2019, joining a trend that has been catching fire around the country.

“We have been working with a developer, and we are going to try to break ground somewhere around January,” Rhodes said.

“I’m going to occupy a couple of the stalls myself, and then we are going to bring in some other local talent to occupy some of the other stalls. It is going to be a classic, new-American food hall.

“I’m going to bring back Phun, the noodle bar we had downtown. We are going to have a juice bar. It will probably hold 100 or so customers,” he added. “We are super excited to bring that to Wilmington.”

And Wilmington is what drives the engine for Rhodes, his wife and business partner, Angela, and their two grown children who work in the family business.

“I try to share as much as I can with a lot of new guys who come to the community and open up restaurants,” he said. “I do whatever I can share to make them successful, so we can have a strong community of restaurants and food offerings here.”

For more restaurant news, sign up for the Business Journal's weekly Restaurant Roundup email by going to WilmingtonBiz.com.

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THE TAKEAWAY

BUILT TO

GRIND PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER

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Former professional skateboarder Reggie Barnes was 24 when he took up the business side of skateboarding in the ’80s. Decades later, he’s grown Eastern Skateboard Supply into the leading “skater-owned and operated B2B wholesale distributor in the industry,” according to the company. Besides its headquarters on Amsterdam Way and adjacent 20,000-square-foot skatepark, Eastern also has warehouse facilities in Texas and Florida.

“We diversified a lot into surfing too in the last few years. That’s really nothing new, but it’s growing,” says Barnes, whose son Mason also caught the competition bug and is a pro surfer.

B r a d l e y C r e e k S tat i o n COMING SOON TO OLEANDER DRIVE 75,000SF Class A Retail/Office Condominiums For Sale or Lease

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: STEV E H A LL, Agent/Broker, Maus Warwick Matthews & Co. 910.279.3227 | stevehall@mwmrealestate.com

STEVE ANDERSON Developer, SAMM Properties 910.616.0483 | sa@ec.rr.com

PA R K E R A N D E R S O N Developer, SAMM Properties 910.200.6614 | parker@sammproperties.comm