THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406070453
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, SPECIAL TO BUSINESS WEEKLY
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: Long
In the past 13 months, 65 businesses have started, expanded or relocated in Currituck County, creating jobs and local commerce for residents long accustomed to traveling elsewhere for both.
{REST} The invasion has been triggered by a population boom that has seen the number of residents climb from 11,000 in 1980 to an estimated 15,000 today.
The new businesses include grocery stores, furniture shops, sporting goods stores, real estate firms, restaurants and manufacturers like Barnhill Contracting Co., which recently opened a new asphalt plant in Powells Point in anticipation of a construction boom.
``Our people, for the first time, are able to shop in Currituck,'' said B.U. Evans III, chairman of the Currituck County Board of Commissioners.
The new ventures bring Currituck County's business tally to 254. They also have created 350 new jobs and added more than $7 million to a total $28.1 million in commercial real estate value, county officials say.
A combination of economic recovery and new business also has led to a 42 percent sales tax revenue increase during the current fiscal year, according to Bob Henley, vice chairman of an eight-member local economic development board. The county expects to earn $925,000 in local sales tax revenue by the fiscal year's end, said Dan Scanlon, the county's finance officer.
Currituck County's 1993-94 operating budget is $13.8 million - nearly double what it was five years ago.
``Currituck has been exposed as a county that is receptive to new business, and I think that's why businesses are responding as they are,'' said Henley, an industrial salesman for Eastern Fuels in Ahoskie.
But the economic explosion has also created problems.
Some believe the landscape is changing too quickly and detracting from Currituck's pristine image.
``This used to be known as the land of the goose. Now it's the forest of the billboards,'' said restaurateur Bill Neeland, whose Pots On N Kitchen is advertized on one of 123 giant signs he's personally counted between the Wright Memorial Bridge and the Elizabeth City cutoff in Barco.
``I just think it should be a little more restrained,'' said James Malco, a farmer in Point Harbor. ``You talk to people down here and they don't want it developed.''
Once a richly agrarian culture, Currituck County's farming community is losing ground to more modern industries and residential developments.
``We all need food to eat,'' Malco said. ``And we all better think twice about putting in a housing farm.''
Though it may not rival light manufacturing, farming in Currituck still is considered a major industry. Last year the county's traditional corn, wheat and soybean cash crops yielded almost $9.37 million, up $1.6 million over last year, a spokeswoman for Currituck's North Carolina Extension Service said.
Much of the recent business influx is directly related to tourism, especially on Currituck's portion of the Outer Banks. Last year the county's oceanfront strip generated $112.6 million is gross retail sales, a 20 percent increase over the past year, according to Angie Brady-Daniels of the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce.
Currituck County's occupany tax, more commonly called a tourist tax, jumped 29 percent in 1993 to $898,046, said Brady-Daniels, the chamber's public relations director.
Commercial development is scattered throughout the bucolic county, but a few pockets of economic prosperity are emerging. One is near Malco's produce fields in lower Currituck, home of Harbinger Industrial Park with eight companies.
The centrally located township of Grandy is quickly becoming the shopping hub for local consumers, with several strip malls and shopping centers now in place.
Moyock, the county's northern bordertown, is still without a strong commercial component. However, several new residential developments and a proposed industrial park are changing that community's outback flavor.
And then there's Corolla on the Outer Banks, a beach development of upscale homes, commercial strips and sports complexes. A fourth of all new jobs since March 1993 were created in Corolla.
I've seen it grow from a very rural area to an area where we have parts that look somewhat urban,'' Evans, a real estate broker, said of his native county.
Currituck's top economic booster agrees that things are happening fast. But, he said, that's because his product is so easy to sell.
``I think the attraction is the lower tax base, and the land is cheaper than in Dare County,'' said Charles Hartig, Currituck's economic development director.
Currituck County's real estate tax rate ranges between 56 cents and 64 cents per $100 assessed value. An exception is the beach community of Ocean Sands, where the tax is 93 cents per $100 assessed value.
The six towns in tourist-driven Dare County, where the bulk of business is located, charge all property owners between 55 cents and 79 cents for the same assessed value.
The city of Chesapeake's property tax rate is $1.31 per $100 for mosquito-controlled areas, mainly in the city's northern areas, and $1.28 1/2-cent rate for all other areas.
``We're also only 45 minutes from a major transportation hub,'' Hartig added. ``And it's the attitude here. We're going to bend over backwards to make sure you're successful.''
Virginia Beach-based Mill-End Carpet Shops is one of the most recent commercial residents. Mill-End President David Hamilton said he decided to relocate his Kitty Hawk shop when his building lease ran out this year.
Within six months, Mill-End was ready to open a new, 12,000-square-foot store in Harbinger. It'll initially employ between 10 and 20 people, about twice the startup number created by most other new companies in the county.
``I think the county has finally decided that they want the growth, that they're ready for the growth,'' Hamilton said. ``They've made it easy for a businessman to come into the county.''
That ease, though, has made some folks a bit uneasy. One of them is Ernie Bowden, a Carova cattleman and county commissioner.
``Certainly, light manufacturing that we've seen in Currituck County today has its advantages,'' he said, ``but beyond that I'd hesitate to advocate any more economic development.''
Bowden believes nearby Elizabeth City and Hampton Roads have the competitive edge.
``I'm just afraid of the type of industry we might attract. Mostly it would be industry that either Pasquotank County or Tidewater wouldn't want.''
Henley, however, believes Currituck has more to offer.
``The employees of these new businesses have found a better standard of living here,'' he said.
``And if you can get away from city life and still have a prosperous job, then I think you're going to be attracted to this area.''
by CNB