Art and economic development are converging in Carrboro and planning the best pathway to move forward.

A public hearing has been called on a proposed new Arts and Innovation Center in Carrboro. Mayor Lydia Lavelle says this is your chance to voice your opinion on the project.

“We want to hold this meeting to get input from Carrboro folks, from Carrboro residents, business owners, property owners,” she says. “We’ve had a request submitted to us by The ArtsCenter (and) Kidzu…that we construct, own, or lease to this partnership, an arts center building.”

The meeting will be held at the board meeting on Tuesday, January 20th, and Mayor Lavelle adds that she believes this will be the first of several meetings on the topic.

Mayor Lavelle is also working to push forward economic development involving arts in Carrboro. “We purchased a condo that was formerly owned by Fleet Feet, which is located above Acme. And that enabled the Fleet Feet building and some of the projects in that development to move forward.”

But now the question is raised of what to do with the building. One proposition is to use the building as a common work space for small businesses in the area. Perch, which operates a co-working space in Carrboro, has lobbied to lease the space from the town and add a larger co-working space for Carrboro entrepreneurs to collaborate.

Mayor Lavelle says, “Our sense of it is that it would be an incubator, of sorts, for all kinds of small businesses. It’s a pretty large area.”

While the theory of the small-business incubator is fairly agreeable, the process to get there is still to be determined. The mayor said the question remains, “do we want to subsidize, to a degree, this project for a period of a minimum of two years? What’s the value we’re going to see out of this?” she asked. “Will we end up with Carrboro businesses that form, and grow, and that stay in Carrboro?”

While there are many decisions to be made, it appears the arts and economic development projects are converging and moving forward in Carrboro.

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