BY MILES LAYTON 

EDENTON — When Michael Reardon pitched his expansion plans to the Edenton-Chowan Partnership in the fall of 2024, local leaders hoped he could bring hundreds of good-paying jobs to Chowan County.

Just one year later, Reardon’s other business ventures, including Edenton-based Daedalus Composites, have unraveled in a storm of evictions, unpaid workers, and lawsuits. The collapse casts new light on the deal the Partnership nearly struck with him to sell more than 20 acres of prime industrial land along Midway Drive.

A Grand Promise

The Edenton Chowan Partnership, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to promoting, preserving, and enhancing the vitality of Edenton and Chowan County, and for charitable, scientific, literary and educational purposes. The Partnership works in association with Chowan County, the Town of Edenton, and the private sector to undertake initiatives that foster new business development, retain existing businesses, create private investment and jobs, and increase local revenues. 

“We work to improve the quality of life by fostering workforce education, awareness, and promotion of our County and Town, as well as providing information for potential retirees or economic developers to build stronger, stable, social, economic, and community strengths,” according to the Parternship’s website.  

Minutes from the September 2024 meeting show Reardon outlining an aggressive timeline. Phase 1 of the new facility, he said, could be completed within 12 months. A second building would follow within two years.

The expansion, according to his presentation, would create 80 jobs within 18 months — in addition to the 69 positions Reardon had already pledged through a state Building Reuse grant for its existing Anchors Way plant. Once fully operational, he projected employment could reach as high as 200 workers.

Reardon also said Daedalus would partner with universities and workforce development programs to recruit and train the highly skilled employees needed for advanced composite yacht production.

He even discussed an easement agreement with neighboring Albemarle Boats that would provide shared access to the water — a key logistical advantage for launching and testing large vessels.

At the time, the proposal generated enthusiasm among Partnership board members. Chairman John Dowd asked Reardon to submit a formal offer to purchase the land, including the performance benchmarks he described during his presentation.

The Board’s Conditional Offer

Two months later, in November 2024, Reardon’s proposal was back before the board. The minutes show the Partnership went into closed session to discuss “a proposal from Michael Reardon, Daedalus Holdings, for the sale of property on Midway Drive.”

When the meeting returned to open session, member Bob Kirby introduced a motion for a counterproposal that reflected both optimism and caution.

Under the terms of the Partnership’s offer, Daedalus could lease approximately 20.6 acres for $2,575 per month — a figure equal to 2 percent of the land’s $128,750 appraised value — for three years. Those payments would count toward the purchase price if the company met its development benchmarks.

If Daedalus failed to build as promised or did not meet job creation goals, the lease required the company to vacate the property, and ownership would remain with the Partnership.

The motion, seconded by board member Joe Wach, passed unanimously — counterproposal was sent to Reardon.

That said, the proposed lease between Daedalus and the Partnership never materialized. No agreement was ever signed. When Reardon countered the board’s terms, members declined to accept his proposed amendment.

And this old editor will just say it like it is — if the property had been sold rather than offered for a lease, and when given how things progressed with Daedalus as we’ve written about within these pages, the matter of the land would’ve been tied up in the court system for God knows how long. However, due to caution on the Partnership’s part, the Town and County dodged a bullet.  

The Collapse That Followed

Within months, Reardon’s financial problems surfaced far from Edenton.

In May 2025, Reardon made national headlines for acquiring Catalina Yachts and True North powerboats — two of the best-known sailboat brands in America. The boating press hailed him as the “savior” of U.S. yacht manufacturing. But by summer, the optimism had evaporated.

Court filings in Florida show that Reardon stopped paying rent on Catalina’s Largo factory just one month after taking over. By September, California Catalina, the company that sold him the brand, had sued for unpaid rent and demanded the full $1 million purchase price.

At the same time, workers at the Florida facility were going unpaid, and two New York factoring companies had filed suits over defaulted short-term loans. By October, a judge had evicted Daedalus from the factory, and workers were laid off without notice.

A Near Miss for Edenton

For Edenton officials, the Partnership’s decision to require benchmarks and structure the Midway Drive deal as a lease-to-own agreement likely prevented a costly debacle.

Had the board accepted an outright sale, the property could have been tied up in litigation or left undeveloped — a setback for local economic development efforts.

Instead, the land remains available for future projects. The minutes now read like a cautionary document: a moment when local leaders embraced the promise of job growth but insisted on accountability before committing public resources.

In retrospect, the collapse of Reardon’s broader operations — from Florida to Ohio — underscores the wisdom of the board’s approach. Reardon never signed the Edenton deal, and the Midway Drive property remains under Partnership control.

A year after the glowing presentation that promised 200 new jobs, Reardon is entangled in lawsuits, Daedalus’ factory closed, and the future of many boatbuilding companies uncertain.

What once seemed like a cornerstone of Edenton’s marine industry expansion has instead become a reminder of the risks local leaders face when big promises meet financial reality.