Economic Notes

Don Kirkman, Director Carteret County Economic Development

A Bright Future for the Crystal Coast

Having retired on June 30, I am now the former Carteret County Economic Development Director, and this is my last contribution to Island Review. As I enter a new phase of my life in retirement on the Crystal Coast, I have had an opportunity to reflect on a 41-year work career that included ten years of practicing law in New York City and Morehead City, and 31 years as an economic development practitioner. My economic development career began in 1990 when I was hired by the former Carteret County Economic Development Council (EDC) Board of Directors to be the EDC’s Executive Director, following the long career of EDC founder Roy Stevens and his successor, Robert McNeill. There is an old adage that “economic development is a process, not an event,” and as I reflected on my economic development career – which began and ended in Carteret County – it reinforced that maxim.

During my 1990-2000 tenure as EDC Executive Director, many seeds were planted that have since borne fruit. As a result of the vision of Jarrett Bay Boatworks founder Randy Ramsey, the Jarrett Bay Marine Industrial Park was created, which is now home to Jarrett Bay Boatworks and numerous other marine-related companies, making the park one of the largest marine service yards on the East Coast. Carteret County also purchased from Carolina Power & Light Company (now part of Duke Energy/Progress) the property for development of the Crystal Coast Business Park in Morehead City, which now anchors the largest area of industrially zoned property in the County. Other projects during the 1990s included the recruitment of Bally Refrigerated Boxes (which recently acquired and expanded into the former SPX Flow building on NC 24) and the attraction of the N.C. State University Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST), solidifying Carteret County’s standing as one of the most prominent marine science and research centers in the United States.

My wife and I returned to the Crystal Coast in 2016 following economic development career stops that included North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region, the Florida Panhandle and Hilton Head Island, and I was subsequently hired in 2017 as the Director of the Carteret County Economic Development Department, which had taken over day-to-day economic development responsibilities in the County from the former EDC. Upon our return to Carteret County, I was simultaneously struck by how much had changed and how much had remained the same from my prior economic development tenure in the county. There were new managers and new owners of some businesses, new elected leaders, and there were many new restaurants and other enterprises. The Atlantic Beach Circle was being transformed, and subdivisions originally platted during the 1990s were being built out and several new ones started. For the most part, however, the retail centers, the large manufacturing employers, the major attractions, and the marine sciences institutions were ones that were present when I left Carteret County in 2000.

One of the most noticeable changes I observed upon our return was the much larger volume of traffic, particularly during the shoulder and winter seasons. When I left the county in 2000, there was a significant decline in traffic following the peak summer season, and during the winter months there were relatively few vehicles on the county’s major thoroughfares. When we returned, however, that had changed, and there is now a substantial volume of year-round traffic, even on Bogue Banks. Holidays have always been busy, regardless of the time of year, but now traffic is significantly elevated from Easter through Thanksgiving. Summer and holiday traffic today is a harbinger of what the future will be year-round.

Looking forward, Carteret County is going to see a muchaccelerated growth rate, which will include permanent residents, second home purchasers, investors and tourists. This will generate significant additional economic activity and revenues for our local governments, allowing them to continue to keep property taxes low compared to most county and municipal governments. The trend toward remote work will feed the growth of permanent residents, and Carteret County’s excellent schools and best-in-class health care will attract working-age families and retirees. It is hard to overstate how new Interstate 42 will transform the Crystal Coast, making travel to and from Carteret County to the Research Triangle region – the fastest growing metro area in the country – and the rest of North Carolina much quicker and less stressful. And the new I-42 will make it much easier for vacationers – from day-visitors coming from coastal plain cities and towns to weekend, weekly and monthly renters – to visit the Crystal Coast, further reducing the seasonality of the County’s economy and workforce.

With growth comes challenges, however, and Carteret County will not be immune, so planning for this future growth will be essential. Local governments will need to plan for infrastructure improvements to accommodate increasing demand, including roads/bridges, water and wastewater utilities, and broadband. Land use regulations will need to evolve. Anchor institutions, including Carteret County Public Schools, Carteret Health Care, and Carteret Community College, will need to anticipate not only new students/patients, but also technological advances that will require innovative new approaches to the delivery of educational and health care services. And creative affordable housing solutions – particularly for service workers on whom we all rely for our daily needs – will need to be developed so that the Crystal Coast will remain an attractive destination for permanent residents and visitors, as well as the large number of workers whose incomes are at the lower end of the wage spectrum.

I depart the working chapters of my life with the confidence that Carteret County is very well-positioned for the future. But make no mistake – the future will be substantially different than the past. Everyone will need to embrace change, and compromises will be needed. Growth is coming, and the challenge will be to adapt in ways that will accommodate the inevitable growth while striving to preserve the attributes that make the Crystal Coast special.