Myra and James McDuffie, owners of MeMa’s Chick'n' & Ribs in Burgaw, celebrated the official launch of their fundraising campaign in partnership with Genesis Block and Folla Capital, and Hipp Architecture & Development, last week.

The event, hosted by Genesis Block, kicked off a community funding campaign for the multi-million dollar development of The Creek Shopping Center, which will be located along N.C. 53 in Pender County.

The center’s first building will house MeMa’s new location, which is planned to include three event spaces, an outdoor dining area, a commissary kitchen and manufacturing facility for the company’s signature barbecue sauce, and a retail store featuring MeMa’s and other locally made products.

A second building is designed to house additional retail outlets, as well as office space and a coffee shop with a drive-thru, Myra McDuffie said.

The McDuffies purchased the land upon which the center will be developed in 2019 and secured funding for the first phase of the shopping center’s development in early 2020, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Naturally, the effects of the pandemic were immediate. Their catering business, which accounts for about 50% of their annual revenue, plummeted. But the McDuffies quickly adapted to the changing protocols and adopted measures such as delivery, curbside pickup and online ordering to stay afloat.

Despite these measures, the financial impact was significant, and the bank that had approved their loan eventually withdrew $800,000 in funding.
 
Myra McDuffie said the news was so devastating that it caused her husband as well as her mother-in-law, Mary McDuffie, to become physically ill.

“We had put everything into this and we thought we were ready to go,” Myra McDuffie said. “The stress level was just out the window.”

In an effort to stay on track, the McDuffies launched a GoFundMe campaign last July, which raised $187,000 by November. It was an impressive campaign, but still far short of what was needed.

Following a referral from Gloria Monroe of the Small Business and Technology Development Center at UNCW, the McDuffies reached out to Genesis Block, a Wilmington-based nonprofit founded by Girard and Tracey Newkirk that provides business development services for minority-owned businesses.

“We attended an open house at Genesis Block and discussed with Girard and Tracey how a partnership might work,” Myra McDuffie said. “We’re very grateful because without their help we might be at a standstill or may have lost the land all together.”
 
Myra McDuffie encourages anyone who wants to be involved in the growth and development of Burgaw to register with Genesis Block for updates on when community funding will go live, sometime in the next 30 to 45 days.

“We have a short window of 60 days to meet our goal,” Myra McDuffie said, adding that it is her goal for the restaurant to be up and running in its new location by May 2022. The project is expected to bring 30 jobs to the community.

For more information on how to support MeMa’s, contact Genesis Block at [email protected].

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