BIRMINGHAM, AL (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 Greenville. NC East Alliance is partnering with Retail Strategies, a national retail recruitment and economic development firm, to deliver the program.
“I am thrilled to bring this kind of training and opportunity to the communities we serve,” said Bianca Shoneman, Vice President of Community Development at NC East Alliance. “Ahoskie, Plymouth, and Windsor have real assets and real opportunity, and their leaders are ready to go to work. This program gives them the data, the strategy, and the relationships to compete for retail investment. That is a lasting change, not a one time project.”
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 expand the Retail Academy model to additional communities across its 29 county region.
About Retail Academy
Retail Academy is a program developed from a leading national retail advisory firm, Retail Strategies. The program assists communities in strengthening their retail landscape. Communities will be trained and equipped with the tools and education necessary to attract new retailers to their markets, while providing support to their existing local businesses. To learn more visit https://www.retailstrategies.com/retailacademy/.
