More than 180 guests attended the event at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
Council approves COVID relief spending categories
Starting Friday, Sept. 24, local organizations can submit projects in the following categories for grants from the federal funds: affordable housing, care for aging residents, climate change, city infrastructure, domestic violence prevention and assistance, food systems, homelessness services, public engagement, revenue losses, small business recovery and workforce development.
Business in brief: A-B Tech announces credentialing program with ABCCM
“ABCCM knows that people who are houseless or experiencing homelessness are smart, motivated and often courageous persons who want the skills that lead to careers,” the Rev. Scott Rogers, the nonprofit’s executive director, wrote in a statement to Xpress. “They want to earn enough income to rent or buy a home close to their work and school for their children.”
Tourism recovery grant recipients reflect one year later
Of recipients of grants from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s Tourism Jobs Recovery Fund who responded to a recent survey, 97% were open as of June 30. Nine respondents were closed at the end of June, including five which had closed permanently.
Council approves hotel expansion in 4-3 vote
The approval allows the existing Four Points by Sheraton hotel to more than quintuple its current size with a mix of uses including apartments, condominiums, extended stay hotel rooms, parking and ground-level commercial space.
Zack and Edwards offer contrasting views of crime, policing
Asheville Police Chief David Zack suggested that crime rates were beginning to stabilize as APD learns to cope with its staffing deficiencies. Republican Sen. Chuck Edwards, however, said Asheville’s crime and policing issues were more extensive and distressing than the chief had described.
Green in brief: Cherokee establish framework for medical marijuana cultivation
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council passed an ordinance on Aug. 5 allowing production and use of the crop, which the body had previously voted to decriminalize on May 6.
Asheville floats zoning changes to boost dense development
The city’s urban centers initiative, as well as updates to open-space requirements for new projects, are meant to encourage denser development patterns, supporting less car-dependent communities and increasing the city’s tax base.
Q&A with Demp Bradford, president of the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission
Certain activities are closely associated with Asheville: sampling local craft brews, tubing down the French Broad River, eating one’s own weight in barbecue. If Demp Bradford, president of the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission, has his way, professional sports will become quintessentially Asheville, too. Bradford, a native of the North Carolina Piedmont, became interested in […]
Some Asheville businesses prioritize community over tourists
Following its July 8 conversion into a private, members-only club, only North Carolina residents and their invited guests are permitted to dine at the Smoky Park Supper Club. Other area businesses are also choosing to put locals ahead of outside visitors.
Council debates COVID relief spending plans
Highest on city staff’s list of potential funding priorities were affordable housing, public engagement, homelessness, public and mental health, small business recovery and workforce development.
Shop local-ish
It’s impossible to walk in downtown Asheville without receiving the message loud and clear: This city supports its local businesses. Locally based brands like Spicewalla, Roots Hummus and Buchi Kombucha appear regularly on store shelves. Stickers promoting Go Local Asheville (formerly the Asheville Grown Business Alliance), a locally focused economic alliance, adorn window fronts. A […]
From CPP: Worker shortage continues amid concerns of Delta variant, low vaccination rates
Employers, especially restaurants and other hospitality businesses, still struggle to find employees in a rebounding economy.
From CPP: Economy of pandemic whipsawing NC logging and sawmill industries
Swings in supply and demand, a shortage of truckers and other issues create challenges for companies supplying the lumber industry in North Carolina.
Noise ordinance changes come before Council July 27
Scheduled for a vote at Council’s regular meeting is a series of revisions to the city’s noise ordinance that would set specific decibel levels for downtown, as well as commercial and industrial areas, as measured from any property away from the source of the noise.
Biz Briefs: Blue Ridge Pride debuts LGBTQ+ business alliance
Blue Ridge Pride, a nonprofit supporting the LGBTQ community in Western North Carolina, launched an online business directory for LGBTQ-owned and inclusive businesses called the Blue Ridge Pride Business Alliance on June 25. The directory, available at BlueRidgePride.org/Business, includes retail, food and drink, leisure and services and other categories. Businesses listed in the BRPBA directory […]
Q&A with Kareen Boncales, director of entrepreneurship at Mountain BizWorks
Many people who volunteer with the Peace Corps consider it a life-defining experience. Kareen Boncales is one of them. She served in Cameroon from 2009-11 in small enterprise development, teaching basic business skills to everyone from farmers to boutique owners. “I really admired that entrepreneurial spirit of turning challenges into opportunities,” she recalls. “I knew […]
Out-of-town interest drives local real estate market
According to Redfin, a nationwide real estate brokerage, the average real estate budget for an outsider moving to Asheville was $615,500 as of April, 31% higher than the average local budget of $469,000. That disparity between outside and local buyers was greater than in either Charlotte or Raleigh.
From CPP: HCA takeover reframing primary care in WNC, could threaten regional hospitals
HCA Healthcare’s acquisition of Asheville-based Mission Health has driven a shakeup among physicians going to work elsewhere.
New Black-owned businesses populate The Block
Over the past year, the addition of such Black-owned businesses as the Noir Collective collaborative shop, Jawbreaking fashion store, Asheville Iridescence Yoga and Sole82 sneaker boutique has suggested a renaissance for the former Black Wall Street. Yet in a rapidly changing city where obstacles for minority entrepreneurs remain rampant, sustaining that growth could prove challenging.
Buncombe sets $300 cap on homeowner grants
Residents who have owned their primary residence for at least five years and make no more than 80% of the area median income — $60,100 for a family of four — could apply for aid to cover property tax increases starting Sunday, Aug. 1.