By Miles Layton

EDENTON — Nearly $9 million in public and private investment poured into downtown Edenton over the past year, and community leaders are now setting their sights on a second grocery store, a surge in defense manufacturing jobs and a marquee development project nearing completion, according to presentations Tuesday before the Edenton Town Council.

Ches Chesson, executive director of Main Street Edenton, and Michelle Maddox of the Edenton Chowan Partnership delivered their annual reports to the council, painting a picture of a small waterfront town punching above its weight in economic activity.

“Over this past year, we’ve been able to record almost $5 million in public investment and just over $4 million in private investment in downtown,” Chesson told the council. “Last year we were at $3.2 million in private investment, and we continue to see that trend upwards.”

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Big Buildings Drive Private Investment

Much of that private investment is tied to large building rehabilitation projects that require significant capital. Chesson singled out two in particular.

The Gordman’s building at 213 South Broad Street — now being marketed as Edenton Commons — recently cleared a lending hurdle, and its developer has selected contractor AR Chestnut to lead renovations. “She’s hoping to have that done by the end of the year,” Chesson said. “It’s a very aggressive timeline.”

Meanwhile, the Hotel Hinton project continues advancing through construction documents, and Chesson said the council should expect an update from that development team soon.

The project generating perhaps the most immediate buzz is 211 South Broad Street, which Main Street Edenton is developing for Provalus, a company preparing to open an office in Edenton. 

“We are about 70% complete with that project right now,” Chesson said. “Contractually, we are going to turn that over to Provalus in October. We are tracking well ahead of schedule.”

About two weeks before the meeting, Provalus brought a client to tour the still-under-construction space — an unusual step that Chesson said signals the company’s enthusiasm. “They had kind of heard all the buzz in the Provalus circles from their sales team,” he said. Chesson clarified that the company intends to hire locally rather than relocate existing staff. “They want to hire Provalus and then hire locally to support that client.”

Grocery Store, Retail Tenants Coming to Shopping Center

On the retail front, the long-awaited Edenton Village Shopping Center redevelopment is beginning to show concrete signs of life. Chesson reported that a grocery store anchor has signed a letter of intent. On that note, the Albemarle Observer has reached out to Town Hall for further comment — crickets tho. Rather than me hacking into Main Street Edenton’s mainframe, I figure we’ll know when we know about the next grocery store. Twas’ the same way with Tractor Supply.

If you’re a grocery store chain looking to open in Edenton, we welcome you with open arms, especially if you can keep Breyer’s Natural Vanilla ice cream in stock on hot days.

Also, we’ll be getting a Dollar Tree with a target opening by summer. Several other tenants are in active negotiations.

“We’re working closely with ElectriCities as well as town and county to help put together and make it an attractive proposition for them to come here and make sure that they’re successful,” Chesson said of the grocery store pursuit. “We know this is a need that we’ve seen in our market and also a need that the residents are looking for.”

Defense Industry, International Prospect on the Horizon

Chesson also outlined a pair of larger economic development initiatives with regional and national implications.

The first involves the submarine industrial base, a federal effort to consolidate and strengthen the domestic supply chain for building submarines and aircraft carriers. Chesson said North Carolina has about 4,000 manufacturers in the broader defense supply chain but only around 500 in the naval subset — a gap he sees as an opening for Edenton and Chowan County.

“We see that as a big opportunity to get companies here that are going to hire 50 to 100 employees, provide high-quality jobs, a better quality of life for those employees that don’t have to commute all the way to Norfolk every morning,” he said.

The second initiative involves a large industrial prospect. Chesson described it as “a really cool national and international company that’s interested in locating a facility here,” while cautioning the project is in early stages.

Chesson also highlighted the area’s designation as both a HUBZone — giving federal defense contractors a competitive edge in bidding for government contracts — and its inclusion under the Port of Virginia’s free trade zone, which can benefit manufacturers engaged in importing and exporting. He urged any DOD contractors in the area to consider the advantages.

“If you’re a DOD contractor and you want to step up your contract competitiveness, we will take you in Edenton.”

The partnership is also pursuing Opportunity Zone 2.0 designation for an eligible census tract, which would offer developers federal tax incentives aligned with Governor Josh Stein’s stated priority of expanding affordable housing. “We’re submitting that to the state to hopefully be nominated and qualified as an opportunity zone,” Chesson said.

Parking Deck Moves Forward, With a Caveat

The Court Street parking project is also moving forward, with infrastructure work roughly 60% complete. Underground utility and telecom lines along Court Street have been buried, and a screen wall with transformer enclosure has been built. Chesson said the project is on timeline for a July-August completion of surface work. Construction of the parking deck itself, however, remains contingent on the state budget, including a corresponding appropriation. When complete, Chesson projected a significant net gain. 

“All said and done with the parking deck, phase one and two, north and south, we look at a net positive of about 140 spaces — so 260 to 280 spaces on the back side.”

Partnership Delivers Grants, Workforce Gains

Maddox highlighted the Edenton Chowan Partnership’s role as a behind-the-scenes engine for many of these projects, focusing on grants administration, workforce development and site preparation.

The partnership helped secure a $500,000 Golden LEAF Foundation grant for phase one of Project Teapot, successfully transferred a conservation easement on Midway Drive, and completed due diligence work tied to a $50,000 Golden LEAF site development grant at the Edenton Chowan Airport Industrial Park — where Focus Broadband recently opened the first building ever erected on the site.

On workforce development, the partnership co-organized a career forum at John A. Holmes High School and helped expand a student internship program that placed 25 students with local employers this year. Maddox said demand from businesses is actually outpacing the number of available students. “We have more businesses that want interns than we actually have students that we’re able to place.”

The partnership is also working with COA and Hampton Roads Workforce Development to strengthen welding training, citing high local demand for skilled tradespeople.

Mayor Hackney High singled out Maddox’s grant oversight work for particular praise. 

“Michelle has been just irreplaceable in helping provide that oversight,” he said, noting the partnership had helped shepherd an Industrial Development Fund grant over a seven-year period.

Chesson closed by crediting the co-location of the various agencies — Main Street Edenton, the Edenton Chowan Partnership and town staff — as a force multiplier for the work.

“We’re all separate entities,” he said, “but we all work to grow the boat in the same direction.”