North Carolina’s Southeast, an 18-county regional economic development organization based in Elizabethtown, has helped spur more than 1,600 jobs in the past five years for the Wilmington area, according to a report.
 
The numbers are part of the organization’s overall five-year performance results between July 1, 2014, and June 30 of this year.
 
In the Wilmington micro-region for that period – New Hanover, Pender, Brunswick and Columbus counties – there were 136 project recommendations, 452 buildings and site recommendations, eight announced company locations, 1,670 announced jobs and $171.1 million in announced private investment.
 
The micro-region marketing initiative recognizes greater Wilmington as a “key economic engine in Southeastern North Carolina,” Yost said.
 
The numbers include results for all four counties. Although the Wilmington micro-region initiative began in 2015, the organization added Columbus County to the definition this year, Yost said.
 
The numbers for the Wilmington- micro region included Pacon Manufacturing, Fine Fixtures Inc. and BlueArrow Warehousing & Logistics LLC, which were all economic development announcements made in the past year, he said.
 
“We are seeing more activity in the pipeline in the last year, partly as a result of marketing strategies with the initiative,” he said. “That is reflected with [those] three key company announcements in the micro-region, totaling more than 330 new announced manufacturing and distribution-related jobs.”
 
The micro-region initiative, however, is a collaborative effort between North Carolina’s Southeast and the three local economic development organizations, including Wilmington Business Development, as well as other state and regional partners, he said.
 
In the entire 18-county region the organization had 521 projects, conducted 1,946 building and site recommendations, and helped facilitate 32 company location announcements.