The Transylvania Economic Alliance is a public-private organization made up of an 11-member board of directors, as well as the Executive Director Josh Hallingse. The Board members consist of appointments from the Transylvania County Board of Commissioners, the City Council of the City of Brevard, the Board of Alderman for the Town of Rosman, the Brevard/Transylvania Chamber of Commerce, Transylvania Tourism Development Authority (TDA), the Heart of Brevard and five members from the private sector representatives.
Jake Dalton serves as the Town of Rosman and western side of Transylvania County representative. As a life-long resident of Transylvania County, he is passionate about seeing economic growth in the community in order to create more jobs. “I would like to help get the county back to a time of prosperity so that our children are be able to stay here and raise a family.”
Dalton owns two businesses in Rosman and believes that there are a lot of development opportunities within the town. “I see Rosman as the diamond in the rough for economic development. The community maintains a public water, sewer system and has access to private utilities such as PSNC Energy natural gas service and Duke Energy electrical infrastructure. It would be great to see some of the empty land turned into a viable tax base for the county.”
One of the biggest challenges the county faces is the limited amount of available sites and buildings. “Businesses are looking to locate or expand here because it is a great place to be but without an inventory of marketable real estate options, the opportunities are limited.”
The Alliance is currently engaged in a site identification process that will be critical to guiding future development efforts. The site selection process is highly competitive and we need to be prepared with a portfolio of sites and buildings that are ready so that we can quickly respond.
“I chose to stay in Transylvania County because of the people, the values, and my connection to this area through my heritage and I will continue to do my best to preserve these things.”