Small towns find ways to aid businesses suffering financially after Helene

After a summer of sluggish sales, merchants in downtown Saluda were hoping to see tourists flock to town for leaf season. Fall, after all, is usually the busiest time of the year for the small city’s restaurants, outdoor businesses, specialty shops and art galleries.

But when Tropical Storm Helene struck Western North Carolina on Sept. 27, those hopes were dashed. As word of the devastation spread and Gov. Roy Cooper urged people to stay away from the region, cancellations started pouring in to the Orchard Inn, the Saluda Inn and other places.

“October’s the best month of the year for our businesses, and that’s gone,” says Lynn Casey, executive director of the Saluda Downtown Foundation. “Our Airbnbs should be full, every restaurant should be overflowing with people waiting in lines. It may be as bad in November and December, too. We just don’t know.”

Saluda is not the only WNC town facing uncertainty. Hendersonville and Brevard are among many other local communities that rely on fall tourism to fuel their economies. Business owners in the three cities know they were fortunate their downtowns were largely spared the physical damage that wreaked havoc in communities like Chimney Rock and Marshall. But they also know they are facing some tough challenges.

“If a business owner doesn’t have concerns, then they’re probably not doing it right,” says Mark Pavao, who, along with his wife, Kristen Pavao, owns Black Bear Coffee Co. locations in downtown Hendersonville and Fletcher. “Our business is our life support for our family, so there is a concern. However, we made it through COVID, and we’re going to make it through this too.”

The key, say business owners, will be community support. Nonprofit groups in Saluda and Brevard have already implemented grant programs to help small businesses weather the storm, while Hendersonville hopes to do something similar. It also will be important for residents to provide a steady flow of customers to establishments that normally would be packed with tourists this time of year.

“We hope that we can encourage shopping by our locals because I think that we have an opportunity to play a critical role in helping,” says Nicole Bentley, executive director of Heart of Brevard, a nonprofit that promotes downtown economic activity. “I’m all about putting your money where your heart is.”

Cash infusion

While buildings in downtown Saluda emerged mostly unscathed from Helene, there was one notable exception. Green River BBQ, an institution since 1984, was badly damaged.

Trees fell on the roof and hit the exhaust hood for the kitchen, creating a hole that allowed rain to come through. Additionally, a mudslide on the hill behind the building knocked out the back wall and filled the restaurant with mud. The mudslide also damaged two sheds, a propane tank and a dumpster.

“Everyone in town was afraid that they would not come back after this,” Casey says.

But any thoughts of closing quickly evaporated when owners Thomas and Bri Haas saw the outpouring of community support for the beloved restaurant. A few days after the storm, supporters showed up with an excavator and a dump truck to start digging out. The original owner created a GoFundMe fundraiser with the goal of $30,000. People bought T-shirts, stickers and tap handles to offer financial support.

“While it’s only been ours for less than a year, it’s been the community’s for four decades,” says Thomas Haas, who bought Green River BBQ in January. “Everybody in town has a connection to it, whether it was their first job during high school or where they went after football games or where they went on a date. We owe it to everybody and ourselves to be open.”

Repairs will include replacing the back wall, roof, exhaust hood and dining room floor, Haas says. Additionally, the restaurant will have to build a retaining wall on the hill to avoid future mudslides. His goal is to reopen in December.

Meanwhile, the Saluda Downtown Foundation launched the Saluda Disaster Recovery Grant. In the first few weeks after Helene, the foundation contributed $10,000 to the fund and raised an additional $20,000. The fund is meant to give businesses an infusion of cash to make up for inventory loss, property damage and lost sales for the period of Sept. 26-Oct. 11.

Grants ranging from $250 to $5,000 have been distributed to about a dozen grateful businesses, Casey says. “I handed somebody a check for $250, and they acted like it was a million dollars because they just weren’t expecting it.”

Some business owners, though, have told Casey they don’t need the grants.

“A lot have said, ‘Just give whatever money you get to the barbecue. They’re in bad shape.'”

Open for tourists?

Within a week or so of Helene, many restaurants, breweries and shops in downtown Hendersonville had reopened. The city was even able to hold its monthly Rhythm & Brews concert series on Oct. 17.

But officials know things will hardly be business as usual for the foreseeable future.

For one thing, several businesses outside downtown suffered significant flood damage and are still closed. And no one knows for sure when tourists will feel comfortable returning to Henderson County’s popular apple orchards and other nearby attractions.

“We’re in the early phases of figuring out what the next month will look like and what the next six months and 12 months will look like in terms of tourism,” says Jamie Carpenter, downtown manager for the City of Hendersonville.

Like Saluda, downtown Hendersonville was counting on an October boost to help make up for slow summer sales. Carpenter thinks at least some of the tourist season can be salvaged.

“We’re fortunate right now to be accessible on Interstate 26 and Highway 25 from the upstate of South Carolina and from the Charlotte area,” she explains. “If people travel here smartly and respectfully, I think our downtown will be ready to see them, and we’ll definitely appreciate their support after this.”

In the meantime, money raised from the Oct. 17 Rhythm & Brews concert will be used to help struggling businesses. And Carpenter is working with the nonprofit Friends of Downtown Hendersonville to try to develop a grant program similar to the ones in Saluda and Brevard.

The Pavaos reopened the Hendersonville location of Black Bear Coffee Co. on Oct. 3. The Fletcher location, without power and water, remained closed until  Oct. 14.

Mark Pavao says business owners he has talked to are more concerned at the moment with the well-being of their neighbors than they are about lost revenue. And he says he is optimistic that establishments will find a way to survive.

“It’s just how we pivot our thoughts about what October looks like, what the slow season looks like. Maybe we can do more [business] than we were planning on doing in November and December. It’s going to be rough, sure, but I’m not particularly nervous that we’re going to have to close the doors.”

‘Much-needed normalcy’

In 2020, Heart of Brevard and other nonprofits launched the Transylvania Tomorrow Small Business Emergency Relief Fund to help support Transylvania County establishments affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund raised and distributed $250,000 to more than 100 businesses and won an N.C. Department of Commerce Best Economic Recovery Initiative Award.

But Transylvania Tomorrow had been dormant for several years when Helene hit.

“We woke up [after the storm], and there are folks milling about downtown without cell service,” Heart of Brevard’s Bentley recalls. “We knew this was our opportunity to get this fund going again.”

The group hopes to raise $500,000 to award grants to small brick-and-mortar businesses in the county. The grants can be used to address a variety of needs, including physical repairs or improvements, employee retention, business strategy and development, promotions and establishing online platforms.

Plans are to keep Transylvania Tomorrow going permanently this time.

The primary fundraiser for the program will be a benefit concert held in conjunction with Brevard’s annual Halloweenfest downtown on Saturday, Oct. 26. The concert will feature local acts as well as the Travis Book Band and headliners Steep Canyon Rangers.

Because volunteers are needed for more important tasks in the region right now, the streamlined Halloweenfest will not offer some of its usual events, like the costume contest, the pet parade and bobbing for apples.

“We’re Transylvania County, so Halloweenfest is our longest-running event,” Bentley says. “We certainly wanted to make sure that we strike the right tone. We acknowledge everything that’s going on with recovery efforts, but we also want to provide a space for our community to come together and support one another and enjoy a little bit of Halloween spirit — and maybe have a little bit of much-needed normalcy.”