Eastern, NC (August 27, 2026) – NC East Alliance has been awarded a USDA Rural Business Development Grant to fund the ENC Retail Academy, a twelve month training and technical assistance program for three rural communities in eastern North Carolina: Ahoskie in Hertford County, Plymouth in Washington County, and Windsor in Bertie County.
The Retail Academy will take place on November 4, 2026, at the NC East Alliance offices in Edenton, NC. NC East Alliance is partnering with Retail Strategies, a national retail recruitment and economic development firm, to deliver the program.
“We are proud to support programs that give communities the tools and resources they need to create meaningful economic opportunity,” said Vann Rogerson, President and CEO of NC East Alliance. “Ahoskie, Plymouth, and Windsor have strong assets and tremendous potential, and their local leaders are committed to building on that foundation. This program provides them with the data, strategy, and connections needed to position their communities for retail investment. Most importantly, it builds local capacity that can continue to create opportunities long after the program is complete.”
Each participating community will receive a full market analysis, a commercial real estate assessment, a customized retail recruitment strategy, and a community marketing guide built for retailers, brokers, developers, and site selectors. Local leaders will then spend the balance of the year putting those strategies to work with coaching and technical assistance from the Retail Strategies team.
“This is exactly the kind of organization USDA funding is meant to support,” said Lacey Bacchus, Senior Director of Community Partnerships at Retail Strategies. “NC East Alliance is doing the work rural communities need most. These are towns where residents are driving somewhere else to spend their money, and that leakage adds up year after year. NC East Alliance is not chasing headlines. They are building real capacity in places that have not had access to this kind of market intelligence or recruitment expertise before.”
NC East Alliance plans to use lessons from this first cohort to explore expanding the Retail Academy model to additional communities across its 29 county region.
