Fayetteville’s City Mayor, members of the City Council, and the Military join in the new Segra Stadium ribbon-cutting ceremony on Apr. 18, 2019 in Fayetteville, NC.
Photo by Sharon Matthias
A collaboration of Federal, State, Local, Tribal and Private organizations was committed to change Downtown Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina. The efforts injected millions of dollars in the county’s upward economic growth and revitalization path to improve the overall quality of life for residents and an opportunity to generate new businesses and jobs by the year 2030.
Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of Fayetteville, Cumberland County Economic Development Corp. discovered it was counterproductive treating issues in the agencies separately rather than dealing with it as a whole, which to him seemed more resourceful.
“Like baseball, economic development is a team sport. It takes everyone. It takes all the pieces to be in place with the right project, and to move aggressively as a community,” Van Geons said to BussinessNC.com. “There’s never been a time when all those parties have been around the same table.
LinkedIn Photo by Robert Va Geons
We started recognizing that the EDC, the city, and the convention and visitors bureau all had their individual brands, so we thought, 'Why are we spending money to do this separately when we can all put ideas into one pot and see what we have in common?' We want to be great together and tell the story of our community,” said Van Geons.
Driving forward, the City’s upgrade began with overwhelming support from the spirit of the residence for change. In 2019 the grand opening of some major projects was expected to increase the City and State revenue to generate new jobs.
Segra Stadium opened in April of 2019 as a top-tier events venue and the home nest of Fayetteville Woodpeckers Minor League Baseball. The recent relocation of the modern designed Amtrak transportation infrastructure was strategically built one block away from the Segra stadium, and a historic hotel now under reconstruction into high-income residential apartments was expected to gentrify and add nearly 580 downtown jobs with estimated total annual wages of $26 million.
The first bridge to Fayetteville’s 2030 revitalization plan was The Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitor Bureau where the message must amplify the City’s brand of fast growth. The Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitor Bureau (FACVB) responsibility rest on marketing Cumberland County as the perfect place for investors, large and small events planners, individuals looking for homes to reside, and visitors shopping for a choice of either scenic mountains cabins, or ocean view vacationing.
To rebrand Fayetteville’s business model, it took the State government’s investment in education, training, and small businesses. The North Carolina Military Business Center headquarters was located in Fayetteville Technical Institute and employed by a team of business experts, whose goals were focused on connecting North Carolina firms to current government contracting opportunities. The NCMB advertises programs that amplified economic expansion, job growth, and improve quality of life in Fayetteville.
And it didn’t end there, the local government knew well-funded Health Care and research programs must drive the performance of the community. A partnership between the Military and civilian medical network was reinforced in a recent convention attended by State government officials to discuss the way forward. In 2018 Cumberland County Healthcare Next Generation Partnership (CCHNGP), represented by regional healthcare experts, held their first meeting in Fayetteville NC. Recently WAMAC, Cape Fear Valley, and hospitals in nearby counties collaborated and trained in mass causality exercise during their emergency disaster preparedness planning phase upholding The Department of Defense Health Program. In the past major incidents like the Green Ramp Disaster on Fort Bragg, when critically injured Soldiers were airlifted off Base to Cape Fear Valley Medical Facility due to an overflow of patients in Womack Army Medical Center, proved future partnership between these two medical institutions were inevitable.
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