DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710050089

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   72 lines

HALSTEAD BOULEVARD SEES BUSINESS BOOM COMMERCE ALONG CENTRAL CORRIDOR IS BEING FED BY 20 SUBDIVISIONS

Business booms along Halstead Boulevard, and concrete rapidly replaces cornfields.

More than two dozen businesses - car dealerships, a hotel, banks, restaurants, shops and office complexes - have come to Halstead Boulevard in the last two years, with more on the way, according to records from the city planning department.

Halstead Commercial Park, the first commercial subdivision in Elizabeth City, is selling twice as fast as owners expected.

``We probably have $1 million worth of construction getting ready to start in the next four months,'' said developer Bill Rich. ``We've sold 20 of the 52 lots available. I wasn't expecting to do that in five years, and we've done it in two.''

Miles Jennings Industrial Supply was one of the first businesses to move there, in 1978, and remained surrounded by undeveloped countryside for years.

``We saw there was potential out there then,'' said Pete Lacy, vice president and general manager of Miles Jennings. ``We were about 10 years ahead of our time, but now it's paying off.''

Several things account for the Halstead growth.

Three years ago, Halstead Boulevard was widened to five lanes and it was identified as a future connector to the new U.S. 17 Bypass scheduled to be built in a few years.

Some 20 subdivisions sit south of town, all within a few miles of Halstead Boulevard. Peartree Place, the largest subdivision in Pasquotank County at nearly 400 homes, is two miles away. Two new subdivisions are in the works just off Halstead on either side.

``Out in this area, I see about 2,500 homes being built in the next three or four years, and that means about 10,000 people,'' said Lacy, who owns 19 acres on Halstead that are for sale.

Added to the mix is the heavy traffic generated from the Coast Guard base, which sits along Halstead about three miles south of town.

``I firmly believe that in the near future, someone is going to build a grocery store and shopping center out near the Coast Guard base,'' said City Manager Steve Harrell.

Just a few years ago, Halstead Boulevard was a two-lane route to the southern part of rural Pasquotank County. There were a few houses and isolated businesses surrounded by large farms. Now, only a few open fields remain between the city and the Coast Guard base, and most of them are for sale.

Traditional business corridors have been along U.S. 17, Road Street and Ehringhaus Street, but Halstead has overtaken them. It offers open space and neat and modern-looking businesses, say developers.

``If the city continues to plan smartly as well as they're planning now, they can keep it from being another Ehringhaus Street,'' Rich said.

Zoning on Halstead Boulevard requires at least a one-acre lot or clustered lots with fewer entrances, such as Rich's development. Rich built three access roads that loop in front of his 52 lots. Conversely, most businesses along Ehringhaus Street have their own access.

``That makes for a less congested atmosphere,'' city planner Reginald Goodson said of the Halstead zoning.

The extension of Halstead Boulevard north to the new bypass will open even more land for development, and business will spread farther at both ends of the road, said Arthur Bergman of Bergman, Filarecki, LLC. He and Gary Filarecki recently built Winchester Station, a development of upscale offices along Halstead Boulevard.

Bergman foresees many more restaurants, shops and supermarkets.

``It's the ideal place for people to start a new development,'' said Bergman. ``That's where the action is.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

More than two dozen businesses - car dealerships, a hotel, banks,

restaurants, shops and office complexes - have come to Halstead

Boulevard in the past two years, and there is more on the way.

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