PRINCESS ANNE - Last week, Wal-Mart announced that it would build a distribution center near here that could add as many 500 jobs in Somerset County. As good as that news is for Maryland's poorest county, business leaders are expecting more.
Declines in family farming and the Eastern Shore seafood industry have stalled economic opportunity in the area for generations. Now, economic development officials in the county of 25,000 say, there are signs of a change with an upsurge of interest that the county hopes will translate into new businesses.
"What we're seeing is really a snowball effect," said Daniel K. Thompson, the county's economic development director. "Since Labor Day, we've mailed out complete information kits to 40 different businesses who've inquired about Somerset, everything from retail to small manufacturing companies. Those are just prospects, but it gives an idea of the level of interest."
Amid a real estate boom that has condominium projects sprouting in the waterfront town of Crisfield, officials say renewed commercial investment includes a grocery store strip-mall and a General Dynamics Corp. field office where the defense contractor has a half dozen employees upgrading emergency management networks.
Just across the state line, near Chincoteague, Va., a year-old regional space port designed to launch satellites and spacecraft for the Air Force is creating work for Somerset residents.
Two boat manufacturers that could bring the county 150 or more jobs toured the county last week. Thompson said one of the companies has an option on a 10-acre site on Deal Island.
Another boost in manufacturing jobs, now nearly nonexistent, is expected as the old Carvel Hall cutlery plant outside Crisfield changes hands. Shuttered for four years, it could soon be producing portable aircraft stairs, county officials say.
Millions of dollars in state and federal financial incentives sealed the Wal-Mart deal, which had been rumored for months as officials negotiated the company's move to a 178-acre site three miles south of Princess Anne, the county seat.
The 450,000-square-foot warehouse center, expected to open in the fall of 2006, could become the county's fourth-largest employer, behind such economic anchors as the medium-security Eastern Correctional Institution and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, each of which has about 900 employees.
