Spencer focused on Entrepreneurs

By Madeline Wagoner

intern@salisburypost.com

The town of Spencer has taken the business bull by the horns, aiming to create an entrepreneurial development program that will help reduce empty storefronts and encourage new businesses to join the community.

Small town downtowns across the country have been reinventing themselves as the mall infatuation of the 1980s and 1990s has passed, but it is a process, and many communities, like Spencer, are looking at ways to draw small business owners into the community. The idea for a business incubator program and facility began to grow.

“Budding entrepreneurs did not have the tools and skillset to be able to successfully run a long-standing and successful business” said Spencer Mayor Jonathan Williams, who saw a frequency of businesses coming and going in Spencer through the last year. “From the town perspective, we needed to make partners and collaborations within our community and Rowan County to try and bring the skill sets, training and space so that budding entrepreneurs around the county have a place and resources to help them build their business so that they can be successful long-term.”’

Spencer first took the step to cra a business incubator concept with its new town hall that moved into the plaza building on Salisbury Avenue. The space has been renovated to become the new home for the town administration and the Spencer Police Department which is surrounded by small businesses.

“We had, as a town, committed to investing, and we bought half of the building and local owners Beth and Rob Nance purchased the other half along with Dr. Washington (who has since opened a dental practice in the facility),” Williams explained.

In December 2021, the Nances began making improvements to the building to reopen spaces along the plaza to new businesses. Working with Elaine Spalding, president of the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce, to fill the individual spaces, it soon became clear the need for business space in the town was greater than the space available.

Williams himself decided to end a 16-year career as a water resources engineer to take an entrepreneurial turn in May 2022. The Southcentral U.S. company Garver hired the mayor to take on the North Carolina territory to begin seeking the potential within his local community. He is now working with Flywheel to create a program that will encourage growth for start-up businesses in Rowan County.

“In order to have a vibrant downtown with thriving businesses, we have to grow our own, and so that’s where this initiative comes from,” the mayor said.

Co-working space, which the business incubator concept is based on, has a recommended space of 20,000 square feet to

accommodate local entrepreneurs’ working space. With only 8,000 square feet available in the town’s lease space, Beth Nance, owner and operator of the N.C. Museum of Dolls, Toys and Miniatures for ten years, and her mother, Susan Lane, decided to purchase the Spencer First Baptist Church. This space has an approximate square footage of 50,000.

Lane, who has been a business woman in Spencer for over 50 years, ended up purchasing the churchin June a er selling her successful retirement home Bethamy’s which is the combination of her daughters’ names, Beth and Amy. Her hope is to preserve the statement of faith in Rowan County and to utilize the church to benefit everyone in the community.

Nance and Lane will partner in o ering the business incubator project. Both women are also part of the Spencer Women’s Club.

“That First Baptist Church has been such an integral part in our community for over 100 years,” Nance shared. “It’s very important to the two of us that it maintains its place in the community.”

Large o ice space and potential event space top the list for planning in order to grow companies in the economy. Williams said one particular need is daycare for new entrepreneurs who need someone to watch their children while they try to launch businesses.

A culinary program for those interesting in cooking would act similar to a commissary kitchen but with some additional features particularly targeting new chefs. Along with the typical preparatory space, the proposed space would also include a bar and dining area so that chefs could learn what it would be like to operate in a fully-functioning restaurant.

“They would collectively train to learn not only the culinary piece of it, but more importantly, how to successfully run a food and beverage business,” Williams said.

The restaurant business is traditionally one of the most challenging, and survival rates are traditionally low in the area, so the hope is a culinary training program would include business operation classes to help with longevity.

Williams said the goal is to make restaurants established

North Carolina Transportation Museum map. PHOTO BY ELISABETH STRILLACCI

North Carolina Transportation Museum depot. PHOTO BY ELISABETH STRILLACCI

enough to branch out and expand when owners aspire to do so.

“I am so pleased that the town of Spencer has chosen to invest in growing their own,” said Spalding of the Rowan County Chamber. “Mayor Williams, Town Manager Peter Franzese and the whole leadership group in the town of Spencer really gets it, they understand how important it is to nurture folks in your community that would like to start their own business.”

With attractions such as the N.C. Transportation Museum, the goal is to encourage local businesses to settle in Spencer, knowing they have the support of local administrative o icials and the Rowan County chamber. According to Williams, 2023 will be dedicated to establishing a plan for the Entrepreneurial Development Initiative and renovating the space dedicated to training developing professionals. ✦