Two North Carolina communities have been awarded money from the state to help revitalize their downtowns.
The matching dollars are from the Main Street Solutions Fund – administered by the Department of Commerce. This round – the cities of Salisbury and Lenoir were awarded grants. Nick Dula is the Downtown Economic Development director for Lenoir. He says the plan is to turn a vacant furniture store into Carolina Distillery, a restaurant and a wine store.
Nick Dula: "And it was in a part of downtown that had a lot of vacancies, vacant store fronts. And, it’s going to be tremendous."
Lenoir was awarded 200-thousand dollars from the Main Street fund. The project will create 18 full time jobs and 12 part-time jobs. Past Main Street winners include Benson, Kinston and Goldsboro.