Chamber of Commerce

PORTFOLIO Accents Numero uno By Skip Maloney Our city stacks up against the best. The Department of Defense thinks it’s a great place to live. It’s also a good place to buy a car or build a house and sell one, too. We’re talking, of course, about Fayetteville and its surrounding communities. Fort Bragg recently received the military’s 2010 award for Installation Excellence, the only award winner in the South and one of only five nationwide. Two Fayetteville Ford dealerships, Lafayette and Crown, outperform regional and national dealers by almost 2 to 1. It’s also a great place to be a builder – H & H Homes and Caviness & Cates Communities have been recognized by Builder Magazine as being among the nation’s top 100 builders. And the list goes on. The Army and Air Force Exchange System (AAFES), which oversees the operation of commercial retail outlets within its bounds, reports that Fort Bragg has AAFES’ top-selling Taco Bell and Starbucks. It also boasts the top Papa John’s Pizza, among 3,300 stores worldwide. An army, after all, runs on its stomach. But there are even more important economic indicators pointing to Cumberland County’s growth and success. The most important: per capita income. Cumberland County ranks fifth in North Carolina and second in the country in per capita growth, according to the U.S. Bureau on Economic Analysis. “Being ranked up there with those other counties is huge from a competitiveness standpoint,” said Kristie Meave, senior vice president for marketing and communications for the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce. “(Personal income) is what high-end retailers and other businesses look at when they’re deciding where to locate.” And when they do, they might be interested to know that Fayetteville has the best performing housing market in the nation, according to Zillow.com, the online real estate company that tracks home values. The city’s robust real estate market was also heralded by Parade Magazine as something the rest of the nation could learn from. That might explain why ERA Strother Real Estate was named the top ERA Real Estate franchise out of 2,600 ERA offices worldwide based on growth, customer service and commitment to the community. NewsMax ranked Fayetteville 14th in its top 25 cities for embracing “core American values” and gave it a perfect 10 for hospitality and eight out of 10 for being business- friendly. And in a ranking of 400 American towns in “Cities Ranked and Rated” by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander, Fayetteville came in as a “dark horse,” a city to watch. “Fayetteville, North Carolina, is not only a great place to live because of its quality 28 | Accents • 2010 - 2011 of life,” said Doug Peters, president and CEO of the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce. “It is also a tremendous investment,”

• Cover