A grant request to help a business intending to launch a food distribution operation in Rocky Mount was among those to make a statewide list of 31 successful proposals by local governments for a total of nearly $11 million in funding, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office said in a news release Friday.
According to Cooper’s office, a $450,000 grant is going to help support a project locally of Goshen House & Trading, which is a processor and distributor of frozen, dairy and dry African, Caribbean and Latino foods. The project is expected to create 45 jobs, with an accompanying private investment of $4.3 million, Cooper’s office said.
Carolinas Gateway Partnership President and CEO Bob Pike, when reached by phone Friday, said of the grant announcement, “It just continues to illustrate that this is where you want to be to do business, whether it’s new industry coming in or working with existing industry to try to expand.”
Goshen House & Trading was founded in Maryland and has been serving serving the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area since 2007. The business has served Cary since 2014.
The City Council on Feb. 26 voted to support Carolinas Gateway Partnership seeking a $500,000 grant from the state so Goshen House & Trading can expand by setting up a distribution operation in unused former business spaces off Instrument Drive in the Cross Creek area in the northwestern part of the city.
According to documents Carolinas Gateway Partnership Vice President Oppie Jordan provided to the council, Goshen House & Trading is going to focus on providing retailers with fresh produce, deli products, baked goods, fresh fish and beef.
Carolinas Gateway Partnership, which is based in downtown Rocky Mount, is the business and industrial recruiter for the city of Rocky Mount, the town of Tarboro and Edgecombe County.
Councilman T.J. Walker recused himself from voting on the item because he serves on Carolinas Gateway Partnership’s board.
The grants were approved by the N.C. Rural Infrastructure Authority, which is supported by the N.C. Department of Commerce’s rural economic development team.
Authority members review and approve funding requests from local communities, with the approved funding coming from a variety of specialized grant and loan programs offered and managed by the rural economic development division.
The grants support a variety of activities, including the renovation of buildings, the development of infrastructure, expansions and demolitions and improvements to sites. The grant to help Goshen House & Trading successfully fits in the category of using such funds for the renovation of buildings.
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