Quiet on the set: Maxwell Center needs a hotel, but the show doesn't end there

If you build it, they will come.

Right actor. Wrong movie.

While admittedly it will be doubly hard to attract major conventions and acts to our fair county without a hotel adjacent to the multimillion-dollar complex built to house such events, the fact is there has to be more of a draw than Jacuzzi suites and down comforters.

And don't get us wrong. The commissioners are well within their rights to call the city out for not upholding its part of the bargain. But once again we feel compelled to intercede -- call us Wyatt Earp, the peacemaker of this here town.

Rats. Wrong movie again.

We aren't a waterfront city or major metropolis with fancy restaurants and swanky shows that offer the sorts of attractions that will pull in three-day conferences with thousands of attendees who, in between scheduled exhibits inside the Maxwell Center might also seek to sample Goldsboro's night life or meander down to our shopping district for hidden treasures or must-have items unique to this hamlet.

We're not there yet. The city has, however, taken tremendous strides to enhance what was just a few years ago a near-ghost town of a downtown with dilapidated buildings literally falling apart brick by brick into the vacant streets below.

Major industry hasn't moved in yet, but the Wayne County Development Alliance, the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corporation, the Wayne Community College Wayne Business and Industry Center and the University of Mount Olive have all shown steady growth and the desire to work collectively to grow this county incrementally over the next decade and beyond.

The hotel is needed, sure. And the commissioners, being the good, conservative stewards of our tax dollars that they have been, are right to expect some return on the investments they've helped bring about.

But unless we're going to bus Maxwell Center visitors to Kinston to visit Chef and the Farmer, let's continue to pursue opportunities to grow and develop Wayne County at a steady clip. Restaurants are nice and we've got a few good ones. But Smithfield has the outlets, Raleigh has the nightlife, the museums and the arts. Kinston has the SmART Kinston program and, while there isn't a whole lot else there, the town has some buzz about it in the music and arts scene.

So yes, Goldsboro, get the dang hotel project moving already. But let's not lose sight of the end game. Because, hey, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.

Ha, right movie.

Published in Editorials on March 20, 2018 10:57 PM