Burgaw's time is 'Now': How big plans are bringing life back to Pender County town

When businessman Richard Johnson moved to the Burgaw area several years ago, he would regularly come to downtown for a cup of coffee and learn about boarded buildings that were once thriving businesses.

"It's like the town needed a spark that it wasn't getting," Johnson said.

The fuse is now lit thanks to community leaders and Burgaw Now, a organization with a mission to preserve, revitalize and develop the town of more than 3,800 people. After buying a farm and falling in love with the town, Johnson purchased seven area buildings.

"Literally, the day I decided to buy buildings in Burgaw, I walked down the center of the street, with my daughter, in the middle of the day, there wasn't a car to be seen," he said. "It was just that kind of day.

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"But if you go there today, you can't walk down the middle of the street," he added. "There are cars there, especially on a courthouse day. It's hard to find parking. I wouldn't say it's recovered. It has a long way to go, but you can sense that it's on its way back."

A slice of success

With growth continuing in Wilmington, Johnson said it's just just a matter of time before Burgaw sees that impact. A few of the properties purchased are already becoming staples in the community. One of them is Fat Daddy's Pizza on West Fremont Street. The restaurant offering New York style pies opened during the COVID pandemic in 2020.

"If there's one business that did well during the pandemic, it's takeout pizza," Johnson said. "Fortunately, the pizzeria was just a smashing homerun for Burgaw."

More: Fat Daddy's Pizza is already becoming part of Burgaw

Owner Jay Kranchalk said it's been a fantastic journey. The business is coming up on its two-year anniversary.

"The town has been really supportive of us," Kranchalk said. "We really built a steady and consistent clientele. Our regulars come in almost every day."

There is a steady lunchtime crowd and dinner orders are also adding foot traffic to downtown. He said it's been a rousing success from the start, thanks to the efforts of Johnson and Burgaw Now.

"We wouldn't exist without Burgaw Now," he added. "It was really through the benevolence of Richard Johnson where this whole thing began. He took a a chance on me on starting this pizzeria. It's been really exiting to be a part of the revitalization. We see a lot of new stuff, new people coming in, and t's been really fun to be a part of that."

Overcoming obstacles

Unfortunately, a lot of plans were put on hold because of unknowns related to the pandemic. Johnson said no one knew where the world was going. Burgaw Now is being used as a vehicle to promote businesses in downtown through digital marketing. Johnson emphasized that it's not a new Chamber of Commerce, who he said is doing a great job promoting the area.

"We're more like a digital marketing company that the chamber might hire," he said. "I brought these kids on who know about social media, know about posting on TikTok and Instagram."

Four people were hired to launch content and the new Burgawnow.com website, which contains blogs, videos, events and news articles.

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They were also brought on by the North Carolina Blueberry Festival to post ads for the upcoming event scheduled for mid-June. So far, Johnson said the response has been unbelievable with thousands of people coming to the site and hundreds of social media shares.

"The Blueberry commission is extremely pleased because we're creating a buzz around the Blueberry Festival that's happening," he said. "That's part and parcel of what I look at Burgaw Now's job to do - promote the Town of Burgaw."

But progress is not easy.

One of the recent setbacks to communities in western towns like Burgaw and Wallace was flooding from Hurricane Florence. It took three years to restore the Pender County Courthouse.

Another obstacle for downtown businesses is the U.S. 117 and N.C. 53 corridor, which is close to several fast food restaurants such as Bojangles, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Hardee's.

Walmart is also down the street from Johnson, who believes it cannibalized entrepreneurs in the heart of Burgaw, especially with it being close to seven fast food restaurants.

"And in some ways, that became the new downtown of Burgaw," he said. "More people go there every day than they did to come to downtown. The challenge is how do you get people back. It has the beautiful walking square. How do you save that square?"

Something's brewing in Burgaw

Opening Fat Daddy's Pizza was a no-brainer to bringing more foot traffic to downtown. The community is preparing to welcome Burgaw Brewing, which was put on pause because of the pandemic. Burgaw Now is working with longtime brewer Kevin Kozak on the project.

"I think one of keys for this is that we hope it's going to be a gathering place," Kozak said. "A place where anybody can come to that live in the area, or swinging by the area. They can come and hang out and have a good bite to eat, and a beer, or a soda, or whatever they like."

Kozak is excited about the possibilities and believes it's going to be a great addition by offering a full-service experience with freshly brewed beer made at the site as well as wine and cocktails. Burgaw Brewing will also have a family friendly element.

"It's not just going to be adults only," he said. "You can bring the kiddos along, too."

Along with indoor seating and a 30-foot bar, seating will be available on the front patio, and a beer garden placed on the side patio.

More: With a renewed plan and design, a Burgaw brewpub is on the way

With the courthouse reopening, new businesses and the brewpub coming, it could be the perfect recipe for vitalization. From the standpoint of Burgaw Now, Johnson said the brewpub is going to be the big catalyst where a lot of people can say Burgaw is back — although it's always been around.

He looking forward to seeing residents working in Burgaw and tourists visiting for lunch, dinner or enjoying a beer after a long day.

"The brewpub sort of has that foot in both demographics as well," Johnson said.

It's scheduled to open in early September. After the doors are open, Burgaw Now is planning to announce another restaurant coming to town.

Why 'Now'?

After Hurricane Florene and natural disasters, officials believed "strong" was a little overused for recovery and comeback campaigns. Johnson said "Now" was a better fit after speaking with local people who spent their whole life in Burgaw.

"What I found out is that it's kind of one of those towns where even though a lot of the kids left and the younger people left, a lot of them didn't," he said. "It's a town proud. There's so much pride in the town of Burgaw and it reverberates through all classes, businesses, locals, kids, adults. Really, every demographic is really proud of their town."

Some of the chats, Johnson had with were with older and elderly people who remember an active historic train depot, which stopped running in the 1980s; banks doing business on Saturdays, a bowling alley, movie theaters, two newspapers and life before Interstate 40, which diverted a lot of traffic from coming through Burgaw.

"It wasn't that long ago when the town was humming and very vibrant," he said.

Springing into action

The former Dees Drug Store, which has been vacant for a long time, is now being rented out to the Pender Arts Council for $1 a month. Burgaw Now built a website for the organization, which is bouncing back from the pandemic.

The Arts Council was one of the organizers of the Pender Spring Fest, which took a two year hiatus because of the pandemic. Some of the highlights included a barbecue cook-off, street dance, the family fun/walk, entertainment and the cow pie toss.

During the recent event, Johnson counted about 60 tents and enjoyed seeing face painting and potato sack races.

"I would say the number one demographic on Saturday was children," he said while talking about the next generation of Burgaw residents. "Kids were there en masse being brought by their parents."

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It's something Rochelle Whiteside was glad to see. The former president and community liaison for the board was the founder for the event that started more than 40 years ago. She said it was a way to show what Pender County offers and celebrating the community.

"Everything that is displayed, exhibited, sold, on the square that day is either handmade, homemade, or homegrown in Pender County," Whiteside said. "It's not your circuit craft fair that has people coming in from all over the state or country with their trailers and setups. It's a local show and tell and our local homecoming."

Whiteside was raised in Burgaw and her family rents go back several generations.

"It's always been a sweet place to live, with neighbors helping neighbors and friends helping friends," Whiteside said. "That's been happening as far as I can remember."

Over the year, she said things have taking a little bit of a downturn economically, especially with more people moving to the eastern side of the county. One of the examples was enrollment number in schools.

"The Topsail side of the county now has the most advantage in terms of equipment, materials, and number of teachers with more advanced courses and thing like that than the western side of the county," Whiteside said. "When I lived here, it was the opposite. This side of the population had the population and Hampstead didn't."

With a boost through Burgaw Now, she's hoping it can be something that turns the tide and brings Burgaw back to life. She added that the arts will play an important part in building a place where people want to raise families.

"It makes for a vibrant community and nobody want to move to a place where their kids have second rate schools and nothing offered for them for extra-curricular (activities) and nothing going in the arts for their families to participate in," Whiteside said. "Mr. Johnson has a very clear vision of that and I think that is very welcomed and very helpful."

Burgaw Now and 'Later'

When asked about how big Burgaw can get, Johnson brought up memories of living in Wilmington in 2005 and wishing he bought property in downtown back then. He added that it was growing slower than the rest of the Wilmington area.

"Now, the downtown is on fire," he said. "I think Burgaw has that same story arc. It's a one or two-year thing for us to help create that spark. But Burgaw is going to see its greater days 10 to 15 years from now."

He added that a lack of housing may become a challenge, but after buying several buildings, he's expecting to see a great return on his investment.

"There's going to be more and more things to do in Burgaw as people and businesses start up," he said.

Reporter Chase Jordan can be reached at cjjordan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: How Burgaw Now is revitalizing Pender County town