Monmouth Street would become a tree-lined drive with plenty of storefront parking for new businesses if a revitalization plan for the Waughtown area goes the way officials hope.
The opening of the Latino Community Credit Union at 658 Waughtown St. provides an anchor for the project. Local officials and state legislators joined a crowd of more than 50 yesterday at the grand opening of the credit union, which they said would spur economic development in the Southeast Ward.
A year from now, as many as 10 more businesses are expected to open in the area along Waughtown Street, Monmouth Street and Old Lexington Road, said Angelo Franceschina, the president and chief executive of the Rural Initiative Project Inc., an agency that is administering grant money for the area.
"It's got a long way to go," Franceschina said of the Waughtown area.
He said that police and city officials had to work to clean up local crime before the renovations could start. A bar and a bookie operation have been shut down.
John Herrera, the president and co-founder of the Latino Community Credit Union, said that credit unions help reduce crime by giving people a place to store their money so that they aren't carrying large sums of cash.
He said that the nonprofit credit union, the sixth branch of the Latino Community Credit Union to open in North Carolina, will help its members learn about finance and advance their own businesses.
"We just don't want to survive, we want to succeed," Herrera said. "We want to live the American dream to the fullest extent."
The credit union, which is housed in a restored Wachovia branch, is one of 11 projects that make up the Waughtown area's revitalization plan. City officials picked the Waughtown area to get $674,000 from the Revitalization of Urban Commercial Areas program. That money has helped businesses ranging from an auto-repair shop to an ice cream and coffee shop.
"Lots of good, good things are taking place," said Jim Douglas, the president of the Waughtown Business Association.
Officials have focused on the 600 and 700 block of Waughtown Street, where the credit union now sits, and the 2100 block of Old Lexington Road. Douglas said that the first step is to renovate buildings and to help businesses maintain attractive storefronts that can draw in commerce.
Next up for renovation is the old Shamel Furniture store, which is in a lot behind the credit union. It will become a group of five or six shops.
Councilwoman Evelyn Terry said that the credit union has the potential to be the center of the area's economic development.
"This credit union is really what I see as the nucleus," she said.
Terry's grandfather, George Black, was a brick-maker. His handmade bricks were used in the original Waughtown Wachovia Branch, and Terry said that watching the branch transform into the Latino Community Credit Union was like coming full circle.
"It's nostalgic," she said. "It's what I call karma."
■ Elizabeth DeOrnellas can be reached at 727-7279 or at edeornellas@wsjournal.com.
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