Improving Salisbury, NC by Mixing New Building with Historical Buildings
Making Salisbury a Thriving Community Again by Mixing New Building with Historic Buildings
How to make Salisbury, NC and Rowan County Thrive Again
Introduction
As with any property investment project, especially revitalizing a struggling city, it is going to take time, lots of capital, good building locations, better infrastructure, and experienced contractors and engineers to help complete the revitalization efforts. There are a lot of differences in revitalizing a city versus building new homes, and revitalizing historic homes. While revitalizing historic homes and buildings can offer big tax credits and incentives, they often takes more time to revitalize, and take years to complete a whole neighborhood. While new homes often require less red tape to construct, more affordable to build, they are also easier to get to market and sale. Using MB Construction Company's hometown of Salisbury, NC, planning boards, historical societies, and other special interest groups have made mixing historic buildings with new building very difficult. So the purpose of this blog post is to illustrate some of the challenges facing Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, as well as noting some of the other projects Salisbury, NC and Rowan County has made to attract better paying jobs and more stable jobs into community. While some progress has been made by the city and county, we also want to point out some of the money wasted that attracted zero jobs to Salisbury, NC and Rowan County. Then last but not least, we would like to add some suggestions to improve on attracting better paying jobs and more stable jobs to the Salisbury, NC and Rowan County areas.
Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, NC Shortcomings
As a lifelong resident of Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, I have seen the area both thrive and struggle. Unfortunately, Salisbury, NC and Rowan County has been struggling for the most part the last 5-6 years. One of the main reasons for this is we have lost most of our textile plants, manufacturing plants, and other good paying jobs with great benefits to overseas companies. In my opinion where Salisbury went wrong is we made no proactive actions to replace these manufacturing and textile jobs until it was too late, which pretty much everybody knew we were going to loss when NAFTA and other free trade agreements passed, well paying manufacturing and textile jobs moved over seas. Since 1994 when NAFTA became law, unemployment was around 6%, in 2013 unemployment is hovering around 9%, and sometimes higher in North Carolina because of our dependence on manufacturing and textile production. Salisbury, NC and Rowan County failed for 20 years to bring in new industries, resulting in a struggling economy. Most Rowan County residents travel to Charlotte and other larger cities for work.
One reason Salisbury, NC and Rowan County are struggling to bring in new business is the poor infrastructure of our road systems. Our roads are crumbling, power lines in the way to widen most roads with high traffic volume, thus leading to costly expansion of roads for traffic growth if Salisbury, NC and Rowan County can attract larger employers. Also, narrowing of roads like Brenner Ave. for a bike trail, on a road with one of the largest employers in the city of Salisbury, the VA hospital, has not only caused wrecks but also made employees late for work.. Salisbury, NC is also spending money on sidewalks out on Statesville Blvd. which is almost out of the county, and then have no sidewalks near Walmart where thousands of residents have to walk in the road part of the way to get groceries home everyday. Not to mention the street lights are out of sequence right at the Walmart intersection with the interstate, our main entrance and heart line into the city, causing traffic jams with not that many vehicles. Why mention these examples? Well these are some of the things employers look for when moving into a new city, to make sure they can their products and services out in a timely manner. In my opinion, burying power lines and putting sidewalks where needed, will attract more business then expanding sidewalks a few inches in areas of the city with little to no foot traffic.
All this wasted money on unneeded projects not only raise city taxes, to pay for them, although Doug Paris has done a great job in balancing the budget this year, it also makes it a tougher job for Mr. Paris to grow the city. Another problem Salisbury, NC is experiencing which is detracting from new businesses is the rising cost of water bills. This will also keep major employers from moving to the area as well. As good of a job as Mr. Paris is doing as city manager, boss is the city council, but at the same time he has to please the residents of the city of Salisbury, NC as well, which I think is hindering some of his abilities to make things better for bringing businesses to the area and growing the city of Salisbury. I know Mr. Paris is trying his hardest to recruit more better paying jobs to Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, NC, but one person is not going to be able to get the kind of big investors Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, NC needs to get the good paying jobs we need. While I have read in the Salisbury Post about the EDC trying to attract jobs, I must say I agree with the country commissioners, that this program is not succeeding. For the amount spent to run the EDC, I think that this money could be better spent outsourcing to a more experienced company, that can bring some good paying jobs that employee more then 60-80 people.
What makes all these problems compound to the local community, is with poor planning by City Council and city engineers, it causes trickle down effect to the middle and lower class families. If there are no good paying jobs, there will be less homeowners, which equates to less tax revenue for the city. This also leads to less money for nutritional assistance, health care cost, city and country employees, and other government services. Also, when cities lose good paying jobs, people looking for work will move to other cities with better paying jobs. Less residents mean hospitals, doctors, and other health care providers will downsize their facilities as well, costing the city and county more good paying jobs, reduce the amount of government assistance for health care, and lowering the pay for health care workers that stay. Loss of residents also raise taxes for remaining citizens to help pay for city services that are budgeted for current population levels. With all these additional cost, it leads to less money for workers to save money for homes, cars, remodelling, and other big ticket items.
As a construction company owner, and I'm sure others will say the same thing, if we can't get good paying jobs and new businesses in the City of Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, there is little to no construction work, which are also good paying jobs. Better paying jobs allows more Salisbury, NC and Rowan County construction workers to start building and remodelling again. New businesses often build new buildings as well, or retrofit them to fit their needs, leading to more high paying construction jobs. These good paying construction jobs also leads to more people purchasing homes, which real estate is one of the biggest drivers of the economy. Larger employers that pay better will also keep the construction industry booming again. Luckily for MB Construction Company, we have been able to make it through remodelling and taking jobs in Charlotte and Concord where the economy seems to be doing a lot better.
Benefits Salisbury Can Build on to Attract More Business
While Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, NC has been heading in the wrong direction for a long time now, we do have a lot of to offer for things to do. Restaurants, bars, friendly attitudes, reduced price housing, parks, and other amenities. These things also help attract new businesses to communities as well. Although we won't get a 8 million dollar school administrative office downtown now it seems, it is still more attractive to a businesses to have great schools instead of a $75 million high school for 2,200 students in Wake County. Business people are good number crunchers and they know that this will cost them money in taxes in the long run, which may put Salisbury, NC in a good position for attracting new businesses with good paying jobs. Although Rowan County needs a new administrative building, I think we will save a lot of money at another location, which will also lead to new development in another part of town, something we need drastically. In addition to the shopping, restaurants, bars, nightlife, etc. it is also all located within walking distance which a lot of shoppers like.
Another benefit Salisbury, NC has going for them is a lot of empty lots and historical buildings that are emptily. As travelling around the state of North Carolina, I have noticed quite a few times that have made their cities look great by mixing new buildings with historical buildings as well. I think this would add to the appeal of businesses that are looking to Salisbury to relocate or build as well.
Purpose of This Blog Post
While their may have been a lot of rambling in this blog post, I think at least half the residents of Salisbury, NC are looking for better paying jobs, and as a construction company, I think we can provide some better paying jobs. I am also a lifetime resident of Salisbury, NC and want to see Salisbury return to some of its glory days, where nobody had to worry about finding a job. This is not to be a political statement, just simply some observations and suggestions on how to help bring Salisbury, NC and Rowan County back to a thriving community. If you are from the area or have been to the area, please feel free to add comments for more suggestions to make our small town better.
Also, if you are an investor looking to rehabilitate some of the property or buildings here in Salisbury, NC, feel free to call for a FREE estimate at 704-267-7763 and we will be happy to come out to measure, estimate, and help you get a material list together to form a budget. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to offer suggestions on new blog post or how to make Salisbury, NC and Rowan County, NC a better place.
