By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com
A rumor regarding a large scale commercial development at Riverbirch Corner on Spring Lane spilled into the open Monday before the Lee County Board of Commissioners.
Lee County Republican Party Chairman Jim Womack spoke to the board and addressed “rumors which are abounding in Lee County about some kind of anchor store which is going to be coming in the Riverbirch area off of Spring Lane.”
Womack’s purpose for bringing up the rumor was to log an objection to the use of taxpayer funds to entice the unnamed company to locate in Sanford.
“The rumor is there’s about $10 or $11 million of local tax dollars that are going to be committed to making this retail store a viability in Lee County,” he said. “There’s no way it’s an appropriate use of tax dollars, to help a retailer become viable for a business model. The truth is, if that retailer is going to come here, they’re going to come here with or without a targeted financial incentive.”
There has been no public discussion of any incentive or grant to any retailer that The Rant is aware of, but Womack’s concerns were followed by another speaker who seemed supportive of the idea that a retailer could theoretically qualify for public assistance in setting up shop locally.
Bob Joyce, a former economic developer for the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, said he agreed in principle that he’d rather not have economic incentives at all, but argued that “it would be foolish for us to unilaterally disarm and not offer incentives for certain projects.”
“We have over 500 communities in the United States that are our size, and all of them are using incentives in some form to attract businesses,” he continued. “Generally, we have not incentivized retail, but for special, one-off projects, other communities have done this. And I would say we could take a look at many examples, even in the state of North Carolina, for these large cap investments that have the potential to increase very significantly our sales tax revenue. Also, these big box retailers help us attract more families to our community.”
Little else was said about the topic at the meeting, although the commissioners did add to the agenda a closed session “to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of a business.” It’s unclear whether that closed session was related to the comments made by Womack and Joyce.
As for Riverbirch, the property has been the subject of speculation since its sale to Ohio-based developer Casto in 2022. Casto owns dozens of shopping center properties across the nation, many of which are anchored by large retailers like Kroger, Target, Kohl.s, Stein Mart, and others. Casto submitted a plan to the Sanford-Lee County Planning Department’s Technical Review Committee in August 2023 that would have seen the shopping center almost totally demolished and replaced with a mix of new retail, office space, recreational areas, and even multi-family housing.
The status of that proposal remains unclear, and TRC approval of a given project doesn’t guarantee it will or won’t be undertaken, only that the proposal falls under compliance with local planning regulations. Since its purchase of Riverbirch, Casto has consistently declined to comment about its specific plans for the property.
So…did we get the name of this “major retailer” that would be an “anchor store” for a revitalized riverbirch? And/or are we limited to the list of Casto’s anchors elsewhere: “Kroger, Target, Kohl.s, Stein Mart, and others.”?
They better fix the flooding problem before they decide to do anything with that place. You know all that clay when you drive in on that side street, not the main entrance, but over by Belk’s? That clay came from so where. That needs to be addressed. Then, you need to get those “CAROLINA SQUAT TRUCKS” OUT OF THERE. Doing donuts in the parking lot and then you need to get the drug dealing out of there and then what happens to that school that uses it as a “BUS STOP” in the mornings. I would like a Harris Teeter, but we don’t have the right people to run it, so I’m happy going to other cities and buying from Harris Teeter.
I want my money back from all the OTHER companies you gave incentives to…the saying goes, “If you work here, you don’t live here and if you live here you don’t work here. I have met many people that work in Moore, Wake, and Chatham counties and live here.
We need to get rid of the good ole’ boy network. What are they already building behind the Mc Donald’s? That’s been going on for awhile….
Storage units going behind the McDonald’s, in preparation for all the apartments being proposed as part of the riverbirch project
Yes! Please bring something like Target or Harris Teeter to this shopping plaza. Why keep giving our money to other cities? Let’s keep it in Sanford.
It seems everywhere you go in Sanford they are building something , now they are breaking ground next to the Laundromat in Tramway, there are apts & townhomes popping up everywhere ! I like shopping at our Belks ! I agree we should not pay retailers to come to our town, if they want to come here , use their own money !
Sanford was, at one time, a fantastic place to raise a family. Not now..we have been sold out trying to be a small town Raleigh.
Gee, maybe they will approve another Dollar General for the site. After all, there is such a shortage of that type of retail in Sanford (sarcasm).
Sanford should give incentives for retail companies like Target, Publix or maybe some decent restaurants like Olive Garden or Bonefish Grill or maybe even an Outback Steakhouse. We certainly don’t need anymore car washes or car oil change stores and definitely do not need anymore fast food restaurants. I live here but spend very little of my hard earned money here because there is nothing here worth spending it on. How about more high end car dealers instead of having to go all the way to Cary just to get the car serviced.
It’s a shame that the High Schools no longer teach anything about urban economics allowing people to get to adulthood without understanding how real estate development and economic development work in the United States. Riverbirch, while not as bad as the Sleazeball Motel on Carthage Street, is an eyesore and a black mark against the region. Normally a healthy community would never pitch in to help retail but Riverbirch is essentially what’s called a “Brownfield” – like an abandoned industrial site. When it comes to flooding on the site, keep in mind that the NCDOT likes it to flood not the City. The NC DOT controls the flooding with the small concrete boxes under Spring Lane. What is there is at least 50% too small for the 10 year flood event. Fixing it requires a third box and raising the height of the existing boxes about 4-5 feet higher. This requires changes to the Spring Lane and Wilkins Drive. A bridged entrance and exit off Wilkins and over Little Buffalo is also desirable. When Riverbirch was first built it was done on the cheap and the City exercised no planning controls at the time – just let the developer push dirt. It hit the tax books at a greater tax value than the entire CBD of Sanford. Think of it like an incentive to clean up a junkyard that is visible from the highway. When it comes to what locates in Sanford, that is entirely driven by the average income of the people in Lee County. There is no incentive to cover up that there is not enough upper income people to support certain entities. There is no City/County fix to the situation where the short travel time to Apex/Cary and Southern Pines/Pinehurst allows those places to steal the upper income people’s dollars for shopping or food.
Please keep our Belks store , it’s the only store in town with clothes for everyday older people, good sales, nice employees, the other stores seem more focused on a younger age group
How about a Costco?
Maybe in 15 years.
I don’t think the readers of the Rant understand how “poor” Lee County is compared to the Triangle or Metro-Charlotte or the Beach. Per Capita Income: 1. Orange Co. 33K, 2. Wake 33K, 3. Mecklenburg 32K, 5. Chatham 30K, 8 Durham 28K, 18 Moore 26K, 36 Cumberland 23K, 47. Lee County 21K. Even when you mix in population from Western Harnett County, you are still adding relatively low per capita income. It’s going to take a long, long time to have any type of retail the likes of what you see on the Apex/Cary boarder, and the odds are you will see it in Pittsboro at Chatham Park before Sanford. If you can’t really keep a movie theater chain, what do you really expect?
Lee County can’t be that poor, because my property taxes have gone up twice in two years so it’s obvious the powers that be don’t know what to do with those tax dollars. There are ways to bring in better retailers and better restaurants and here is an idea stop approving crap and approve better places that the tax payers want.
At the Lee County Commissioners meeting last Monday, during a discussion on Medicaid services to the county, a notable statistic mentioned was that over 19,000 of Lee County’s residents receive Medicaid assistance. That’s approximately 1/3 of the county. That kind of poverty will take a while to address, and need to build more housing and encourage as much private and public investment to give our citizens as many economic opportunities as possible.
An expanding population means more schools, more of every sort of service government provides. A growing senior population living longer places increasing demands on services too. It would seem to me you would want new businesses, ones with a future, who tend to bring in younger folks to buy those houses that seniors are needing to vacate. We can all identify a half dozen small business types we don’t need more of. But someone is investing and expects to make money from even a vape shop and they bring in building, remodeling, advertising and staffing revenue into the county.
Nobody likes a know it all. Especially one that can’t spell border correctly
Some people will go to another town to shop & eat no matter what is available here !
Agreed. You still need more than what is here because it still boils down to nothing. The more you have here the people will stay and spend more of their money, and yes people will still go to another town to shop and eat ,but not as often and we might attract people from other towns or cities. M
Because I am a know it all I entered a correction to the data I entered. I made a mistake and entered 2010 data instead of 2022-23. I posted it and it didn’t appear. It nearly doubles the per capita income per county but doesn’t really change the rankings.
A lot of what ‘kills’ decent businesses is who they hire, and management. I see a sharp contrast in places that are run by ambitious and friendly people compared to the ones who act like someone’s forcing them to work there. Chic-Filet for example, when you walk in you don’t get that feeling that you’re about to ‘put someone out’ because you’re going to place an order. They seem delighted to serve. Other places like McDonald’s they make you worry about what they might do to your food because you had the balls to ask them to do their job that they applied for but act like they don’t want to be there. I noticed a change in employees at the McDonalds on spring lane suddenly and the service was exponentially better. That was a few months ago cause I don’t frequent the place much but once again a week or so ago it seemed the same. And friendly too. Js. Any business can thrive if the right attitude and people are running it. It makes a huge difference.
True, seems nobody wants to work these days, I wonder how they pay bills if any, or just fudge off relatives or friends ? I went to work at 16 & worked til I retired , sometimes working 2 jobs
The “Old Know It All Planner” isn’t wrong. Lee county is a relatively poor county, and as such, has poor county problems. It also had some poor county benefits. My wife and I both work out of town because of the opportunities for a decent salary in Sanford have been pretty much non-existent. About a decade ago, we decided to take the plunge and purchase a new home. We decided to leave Lee county to be closer to our places of employment. Our search quickly returned to Lee county due to home prices. Home prices were roughly 25% less expensive here. Cheap housing is the benefit of living in a poor county. During the great housing price explosion that began in the spring of 2020, the average home increased in NC by 30%. In Lee county however, the average home value increased by 58%. Our homes are now more in line with the prices of areas to our north. That’s a problem for people living on Sanford wages. As long as average wages remain lower in Sanford, we will continue to be a mid-level town that has become too expensive for a large portion of our people, and is nothing more than a bedroom community for jobs somewhere else. It will continue to be a haven of Dollar Generals, Fast Food joints, and Vape shops.
Lee County is unfortunate that it exists as a micropolitan area designation in the US Census. The small neck of Moncure cuts us off from directly touching Wake County. Because of the metrics that national chains use it matters if we appear to not be in the right metropolitan area. Geography also matters. The economic center of the region is at the south end of the Raleigh Durham Airport. The southwest quadrant extending from that point includes Lee County and Chatham County and both are less developed because developers had to get across the Triassic Basin. It’s a sewer thing. Everyone who lives in Chatham and Lee County is used to traveling to the Triangle for something. One more thing is not an extra trip, just a tripped chained to other trips. The vice versa is a big thing and there is no attraction in Lee County and the only attraction in Chatham is Jordan Lake, pushed up at the NE corner of the county. The death of the box store and rise of online purchasing means that you no longer need to travel to buy almost anything. One final point, Lee County was created in 1907, primarily by farmers who were put out with Moore County politics and by the desires of the local ptb to have their own political kingdom. The result is a very small county from a geographic standpoint. If county lines were redrawn every century or so, eastern Chatham and Lee County would be put back together with Sanford as the County Seat. Western Chatham would go to Randolph with the county seat in Asheboro. I encourage anyone interested in this to read about Bid-Rent Theory. Bid Rent Theory explains the relationship between distance and price of land. It is similar to the old real estate sales persons maxim – Location, Location, Location.