Alyssa Byrd, the president of the Chatham Economic Development Corporation, will be leaving the position Aug. 28 to lead the economic development efforts for the town of Fuquay-Varina in Wake County. This week, on the eve of her departure, we spoke with Byrd about her nearly 10 years working for the EDC, the state of Chatham County now, her new position and how she views Chatham’s future.
I have been so lucky to have great mentors within the EDC working under Diane Reid, and then Kyle Touchstone. They are excellent economic development professionals, and even within the greater region this is a very supportive industry. So, across municipal lines, I’ve worked with some exceptional professionals. I’ve been very fortunate in that sense. And leaving the organization is very difficult because of the many strong and meaningful relationships I’ve developed within Chatham County.
So not having that day to day interaction with some of the best people that I know is the hardest part of leaving, but I do feel fortunate that I’m staying in this region and I know that Chatham County’s growth and the region’s growth will impact what I do going forward.
The ultimate goal of economic development is to create increase and create wealth within a community. So I think from that standpoint, it won’t be much different — just how that work is deployed, and what those strategies look like…they’ll be tailored specifically to that geographical area and their assets and what they want to achieve.
Fuquay-Varina has seen a lot of residential growth over the past 10, 15, 20 years. That’s much like Chatham County, but very specific to their economic goals is to increase their retail and services to support that residential growth. So the ultimate goal is still to increase wealth and community support and diversify your tax base support employment, but to tailor it to that community.
It’s a new adventure, right? I like learning things. I like challenges and I think this will check both of those boxes. There’s a learning curve and meeting a lot of new people. So it’s hard to just pick one thing, but the position has all the things that get me excited about Chatham County. In that sense I think the positions are very similar.
I think that I was so lucky to recruit Sam Rauf and Ann Fitts to our team. They are two exceptional young professionals that Chatham County and the organization are lucky to have. One of the most difficult things with any business or any organization is getting the right fit on your team. They’re such critical pieces of the success of the organization. So I’m so confident in them and their ability to adapt and rise to the challenge of being down a staff person. They’ll see the road bumps much like I did when I was in that position, but you know, they have built strong relationships in their short tenure within the community and they’ll do really well.
In the meantime we have contracted with a consulting and economic development consulting firm out of North Carolina. It’s actually the same firm that helps Lee County and Sanford when they were transitioning their organization, and they are going to support us with executive recruitment as well as providing some back office internal support as needed.
Chatham County is in such a great position. We have done a lot of groundwork, you know, starting back with Diane Reid, developing industrial sites. At this point, the two megasites are well-oiled machines. We’ve gotten a lot done with their development; any missing pieces, we know what they are and we know what it takes to do them. Chatham Park is developing; it’s really taking off. I think the state of things is that we’re going to see a lot of residential growth as Chatham Park builds homes. And from that there’s going to be a natural demand of services within the community.
Especially now, with people staying at home or staying closer to home, I think that’s a big opportunity for people to appreciate the services and the businesses within their community, as opposed to commuting out and maybe not embracing that.
So the state of things is that really great groundwork has been laid. There still some hurdles in the way — some refining and polishing of things we know we want and need to do. But the sky’s really the limit here.
I think that’s one of the hard parts of me leaving. These projects aren’t like two-week projects. They take months and months and they’re long-term investments. I know some of the things in progress and in the works, and stepping away when they’re 80% there and not being able to see them completed is really tough.
Just three? (laughs). Let’s see…I think funding for infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges. Siler City needs support. There’s no county-wide, county-maintained sewer and sewer is so critical for good development practices. We don’t want a lot of separate septic systems or shopping centers developed with septic or individual package plan. So I think sewer that will continue to be a need across the county. That’s always going to be at the top of the wish list.
I think something tying into that infrastructure piece is broadband. The county does what it can do, but there are limitations to what they are legally permitted to do. And I know they want to do more. That’s really in the hands of higher powers when it comes to legislation of what a municipality is permitted to do and provide. But I think that if given the opportunity, we would very much be compelled to invest in widespread broadband solutions.
Third on the wish list to continue to get through COVID. Let’s protect our existing businesses and make sure they have the resources they need to be resilient through this, and that’s going to be really challenging. Every community is facing that challenge right now, but that’s my wish — for Chatham County businesses can hang on and get through this.
There is. And I think we have that demand from folks who live here in Chatham County. But ultimately, when it comes to recruiting… Over the course of my time in Chatham County, I wish I had counted the number of times people asked me when we were going to get a Chick-fil-A. Part of economic development and understanding opportunities like that is knowing that a lot of those franchise or corporate location decisions are really based on metrics. A lot of what businesses like that require is based on headcount. A big piece of it is just having the population base to support the business.
I think I totally understand that. I’d say there are two things. One is that change is hard, and the other is the unknowns that come with change.
Seeing a proposal on a piece of paper is not the same as being able to enjoy the amenities that it might bring. So that’s the first thing, because just being the funny little creatures we are, humans find it difficult to change and embrace the unknown.
I think across the board, we can always do a better job at communicating the benefits of overall development and the very specifics about a project — because these things can really take off and spiral in a way that is not necessary. We need to do a better job communicating on the front end, and I think that comes with building community relationships...
We’re lucky in Chatham County that we have some really exceptional developers tied to our projects, and the fact that they’re local... You know, these are our neighbors and they’re invested in our community. And I think you’ve got to embrace that.
I have said this before, but I am so confident in Chatham County and this region and I have no doubt that this organization and will be able to recruit either from within or externally to bring top talent here. It’s an incredibly compelling region. I might be leaving, but I’m not going far because this is a great place to live and to raise a family and to have a business. It’s going to continue to grow. And we’re going to continue to have extremely skilled and educated people coming out of the community college and university system. So I think people should be very proud of what’s going on in Chatham County and embrace that growth because we’re a big player in a good region.