Tuesday, April 1, 2025

AVL's Laws of Attraction: How Asheville Is Rebuilding Its Appeal to Business and Tourism

Meetup Recap
meetuppodcasteconomic-developmenttourismhelene-recovery

From the AVLmeetup event on April 1, 2025

AVL's Laws Of Attraction: How AVL is attracting business and tourists

Event details, podcast, and full transcript ›

Asheville's recovery from Hurricane Helene was uneven six months out, but the momentum the city carried into the storm had not disappeared. That was the throughline at AVL's Laws of Attraction, the April 2025 AVLmeetup at The Mule at Devil's Foot Beverage, where 73 attendees heard Clark Duncan of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce's Economic Development Coalition, Meghan Rogers of Asheville Independent Restaurants (AIR), and Dodie Stephens of Explore Asheville discuss what draws people, businesses, and visitors here.

Key Takeaways

  • Explore Asheville tracked roughly $584 million in lost visitor revenue in the first months after Helene and a 74% drop in visitation the following October. By February 2025, occupancy demand was down only 6%.
  • 75% of hospitality businesses had reopened post storm as of April 2025. Hospitality and tourism make up 20% of Buncombe County's GDP and one in seven local jobs, per Dodie Stephens.
  • AIR had about 130 local independent restaurant members in April 2025, down from about 150 before the storm. Meghan Rogers estimated 40 to 50 area food establishments have closed, permanently or temporarily, since Helene.
  • Buncombe County's median home price was $487,000 against a roughly $4,000 monthly take-home for the average job recruited through Asheville's 5-by-5 program (about $61,000 a year), in the night's opening sit rep. That median home at 10% down and a 6.8% rate ran about $3,200 a month, 80% of one earner's take-home.
  • The Economic Development Coalition measured 83% growth in Buncombe County IT employment (average wages around $150,000) and 65% growth in professional and business services employment over the prior five years, per Clark Duncan.

Where Helene Recovery Actually Stands

Dodie Stephens put the storm's toll plainly: roughly $584 million in lost visitor revenue in the months right after Helene and a 74% drop in visitation in October, right as foliage season peaked. By February 2025, occupancy demand was down just 6% and 75% of hospitality businesses had reopened, though she called the recovery uneven, "in stages and pockets," with mid-tier hotels full of recovery crews while bed-and-breakfasts and short-term rentals stayed down.

Meghan Rogers gave the restaurant-side numbers: AIR has about 130 members, down from roughly 150 before Helene, representing about 20% of the estimated 15,000 people employed in Buncombe County food service. She put area food-establishment closures, temporary or permanent, at 40 to 50, and both panelists framed part of the job as combating outdated flood imagery with proof local businesses are open now.

Why Businesses and Talent Still Choose Asheville

Clark Duncan compared the recovery to a patient's health going into an injury: Asheville had outpaced North Carolina and the nation in year-over-year wage growth for the ten years leading up to the storm, and that momentum carried through. He cited Buncombe County IT employment growth of 83% (average wages around $150,000) and professional and business services growth of 65% over five years, and tied that momentum to in-migration. Separately, he pointed to advanced manufacturing employers like GE, Thermo Fisher, BorgWarner, and Pratt & Whitney as draws for young professionals moving to the area. Through Venture Asheville, the EDC's incubation arm, Poppy's Popcorn did $9 million in sales last year and moved into its first 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

Dodie Stephens tied recruitment to quality of life, recalling an Explore Asheville presentation on the city's craft beer culture that helped land New Belgium Brewing, a deal that brought 210 jobs and a $200 million investment. A phrase Duncan uses for why people stay once they visit: "residents are simply visitors gone native."

Housing Is the Constraint Everyone Named

Every growth question circled back to housing. Average Asheville-area rent ran about $2,028 per Zillow. Asked what one policy change would help most, Meghan Rogers called for an overhaul of the unified development ordinance to make workforce housing and commercial districts faster, cheaper, and easier to build. Clark Duncan was blunter: "Housing, housing, housing, housing, housing," arguing that dense urban housing on major transportation corridors is the biggest lift on affordability.

Doubling Down on Tourism, or Diversifying

Dodie Stephens called tourism "the front porch to economic development," since the same quality-of-life draw that pulls in visitors is what convinces people to move here and start businesses. She pointed to Explore Asheville's Tourism Product Development Fund, which has invested $96 million since 2001 in projects meant to raise resident quality of life and inspire visitation. Meghan Rogers framed the food industry as a career ladder as much as a lifestyle draw, describing servers who became general managers and dishwashers who became line cooks and eventually restaurant owners.

Questions

  • What is the biggest challenge Asheville faces in rebuilding its appeal to businesses and new residents? Clark Duncan said the city carried real momentum into the storm and the challenge now is keeping the outside message consistent: an invitation to be part of the comeback, aimed at both visitors and outside employers. Meghan Rogers added that the panel is combating negative flood imagery with real-time proof that local businesses are open and need customers.

  • If you could implement one idea to help Asheville attract businesses and residents with full support from elected officials, what would it be? Meghan Rogers called for an overhaul of the unified development ordinance. Clark Duncan answered "housing, housing, housing, housing, housing," pushing for dense urban housing on major transportation corridors. Dodie Stephens pointed to continued investment in sports and performing arts facilities, citing SoCon's stadium crowds as visitors who become ambassadors when they go home.

  • What's the number one request from your members or organizations to fully bounce back in 2025? Meghan Rogers said AIR members need business grants or forgivable loans to cover reimbursement costs, job retention, and business continuity. Clark Duncan said small businesses are still "hung over on COVID debt" and the EDC's ask to legislators is grants for the most at-risk businesses. Dodie Stephens agreed grants matter but said what businesses need most is simply money moving through cash registers.

  • What is the single most important takeaway you want people to remember? Meghan Rogers told the room to look at their own spending habits and support local, independent businesses. Clark Duncan asked the community to "dare greatly," treating one-time recovery funding as a chance to get ambitious about what Western North Carolina wants to become.

The hosts closed the night by pointing listeners to the Ruiz Report for market data and training, and to REMC.co for MLS-participant dashboards. AVLmeetup's next event, Secrets of Effective Landlording on May 6, 2025, returned to the housing thread this panel kept raising.

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