Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05

January 25, 2007 issue

Appalachian Enterprise Center—A New Chapter for Small Business in the High Country Unfolds

Story by Sam Calhoun

Ninety-seven percent of businesses in America are small businesses, according to Bill Parrish of the regional Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC), and 85 percent of the small businesses in Watauga County have fewer than 20 employees.

“We are a nation of small businesses, especially in Watauga County,” Parrish said, and to help local small businesses the Appalachian Enterprise Center (AEC) will be brought back to life as a business incubator this spring in the Human Services Center off the Poplar Grove Connector in Boone.

The AEC will be a one-stop resource for people wishing to open or people who have already opened a small business in Watauga County and will eventually expand to help others in the northwest North Carolina region, according to Jason Triplett, chair of the Committee of 100, member of the Watauga County Economic Development Commission and vice president of Wachovia Bank.

Triplett and other partners helping to reestablish the AEC spoke to members of the community during a January 17 Lunch and Learn sponsored by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.

Watauga County Planning and Inspections Director Joe Furman explained that the center served as a small business incubator in the 1990s, operated by Watauga County and the Committee of 100.

The Committee of 100 is made up of area bankers, economic developers, business owners and County Commissioner John Cooper, who is the committee’s former chair.

After the business incubator closed, Watauga County used the location for office space and then rented it to ECR Software until April 2006. The center is now the home of ASU’s Appalachian Regional Development Institute (ARDI) and the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), a nonprofit organization that helps small business owners by providing one-on-one counseling services.

Other tenants will join ARDI and SCORE at the AEC, including ASU’s Energy Center, the SBTDC and an office of AdvantageWest, North Carolina’s regional economic development commission. Plans are also in the works, said Furman, for Caldwell Community College and the Committee of 100 to fund a management position at the AEC. The building will also offer office space to new businesses.

The Committee of 100, said Triplett, will lease the AEC from the county and will help manage and market the facility.  

According to Furman, building renovations will begin in the spring, funded by $290,000 in entrepreneurial grant funds from the state. Grant funds will also purchase high-tech and video teleconferencing equipment.

The AEC will begin taking applications from entrepreneurs for office space in the AEC by this spring, said Triplett, and the facility will begin operation by summer 2007. Applicants will be reviewed by a committee—made up of members of the Committee of 100. 

Once businesses have been selected, they will be allowed to stay as long as they like, but by with access to the center’s resources, Triplett said that he hopes the businesses will “grow and not need us anymore.” Triplett also said that the partnership has talked about a possible second space/facility off Brookshire Road in Boone that could be used for continued business growth.

Triplett said that most referrals will come from word of mouth and from bankers assisting small businesses in the area.

Explaining ASU’s involvement in the AEC, Furman noted that UNC System President Erskine Bowles recently mandated that each UNC member institution become more involved with economic development in its specific area.

ASU Chief of Staff Lorin Baumhover said ASU is pleased to be part of the effort. “We are an economic driver of the region,” said Baumhover, pointing out that ASU brings $300 million per year to the region. “We are aware of that; we accept that responsibility. I’m absolutely delighted that the university is able to work with the Committee of 100. “We’re ready to participate, to do our part.”

“This is becoming the nerve center of small business and economic activity in the region,” added Michael Almond, director of ARDI. “We’re creating a critical mass for anything that has to do with small business and economic development.”

“This will be an opportunity that is unique in the whole state,” said Triplett.

For more information about the AEC, call the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce at 828-264-2225.