Tourism Development Agency learns about the new county Ag Center

With official events beginning Jan. 1, 2026, Taylor Wright gave an update on the Randolph County Agricultural Center to the Tourism Development Authority Board of Directors.

Wright, Ag Center coordinator, spoke to the TDA on Oct. 15, calling the 104-acre site located on East Dixie Drive across from the intersection with Salisbury Street “a campus” and the county’s “brand new department.”

There are two main buildings, the Education and Resource Center nearest the street and the Event Center and Arena, farther back. Wright said the Education and Resource Center will house Randolph Cooperative Extension, Soil and Water Conservation and Ag Center staff. 

There will also be space for 4-H clubs to meet, a digital skills lab, rentable meeting rooms, classrooms, and a large meeting space that will seat up to 96 persons. All the meeting rooms will have wireless audio/visual options.

Other features of the Education and Resource Center include two commercial kitchens and a food hub, which will be inspected and certified for serving to the public. Those spaces will be for rent.

The food hub will offer an online farmers market. Farmers will be able to post their products online and customers can order from those selections. Staff will take those orders, receive the farm products and distribute them to customers on site, for the time being.

Outside the Education and Resources Center will be a greenhouse and learning orchard. Beyond the Event Center is a large grassy area that can be used as a learning space for crops and/or animal husbandry.

The Event Center will have some 9,000 square feet of usable space for meetings, conferences, trade shows or other events, according to Wright. There will be seating for 540 or renters can choose to have round banquet tables to seat 320 or rectangular tables that will handle 384 persons. 

There will be a concession area, a 16-by-16-foot stage with a presentation screen and a wireless audio/visual system.

The 24,000-square-foot arena is open-air with a roof and versatile footing for a variety of events (either loose or firm footing). The metal bleachers will seat up to 200 but there will be the ability to bring in more seats, Wright said. Heating will come from above. 

There will also be a designated animal staging area and wash bay.

Wright said there are still plenty of opportunities for sponsorships at the Ag Center, from bricks and banners to naming rights of buildings or smaller spaces. To view the rates, visit www.randolphcountync.gov/ag-center, go to Agricultural Center Partnership and then click on “Become a Partner.”

For more details on the Ag Center, call 336-318-6102.

TDA’s annual report

In other business, TDA Executive Director Amber Scarlett provided the board with the annual report for 2024. She quoted figures that show the impact of tourism on the county’s economy.

According to Scarlett’s report, the economic impact of visitors to the county resulted in a tax relief to each resident of $93.48. That included state tax revenues of $8.6 million and local tax revenues of $5.21 million. The total payroll generated by the tourism industry in the county was $44.83 million and provided 1,164 jobs.

Total visitor spending in Randolph County during 2024 was $199.86 million, an increase of 5.4 percent over 2023, according to data by Visit North Carolina, a unit of Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina by Tourism Economics.

Scarlett’s report revealed that occupancy tax revenues in 2024 were up by 5.3 percent over 2023 and demand for hotel rooms increased by 8.4 percent. Revenues increased by 11 percent.

The TDA is supported primarily by the 5-percent occupancy tax charged by hotels. Overall revenues for 2024 were $1,523,584, an increase of 5.45 percent over 2023.

Of the 32 attractions in the county that were surveyed, total attendance in 2024 was 1,701,999. The top states providing visitors were North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and Illinois. Domestically, the top regions were the Piedmont Triangle, the Charlotte Metro area and the Piedmont Triad.

The I-73/74 Visitor Centers greeted 133,827 people in 2024, compared to 109,353 in 2023. They distributed 40,000 Heart of NC Travel Guides, 30,000 NC road maps and 28,450 NC Travel Guides.

Sportsplex effects

At the end of the meeting, board members Barbara Gallimore and Shawn Patel complimented Asheboro’s Cone Health Zoo City Sportsplex, which has eight artificial turf fields for soccer and lacrosse and are available for large tournaments as well as team practices.

“The Sportsplex is booming and bringing in so much business,” said Gallimore, co-owner of the Flying Pig Food & Spirits in downtown Asheboro. “The average citizen doesn’t realize how much” business the Sportsplex attracts.

“That place is so beneficial,” added Patel, manager of the Quality Inn in Asheboro. He said visitors to the Sportsplex are “shopping here, spending money here, buying gas here.”