Gov. Josh Stein is putting serious money behind his promise to bring jobs closer to home in rural North Carolina, rolling out roughly $43 million in public and private investment tied to a new batch of state-backed infrastructure grants. State officials say the cash will help small towns fix sewer and road connections, rehab older buildings and spruce up downtowns so employers actually consider setting up shop there instead of skipping past them on the highway.
📢More rural jobs are coming to North Carolina!📢
— Josh Stein (@nc_governor) Feb 23, 2026
We’re investing $43 million to strengthen infrastructure to make our rural communities more competitive and give people opportunities to have great jobs close to home.
What Officials Approved
According to the N.C. Department of Commerce, the Rural Infrastructure Authority signed off on 15 grant requests totaling $5,876,853. Those awards are expected to leverage more than $43 million in combined public and private investment and support the creation of 277 jobs. Stein also pushed the news out on X, casting the package as part of a broader effort to make it easier to land a good job without leaving town.
The grants land across several state programs, including the Building Reuse Program, the Industrial Development Fund - Utility Account and Rural Downtown Economic Development grants. All are meant to get sites and central business districts “ready for business” so that when a company goes hunting for its next location, rural North Carolina is not an afterthought.
Projects That Stand Out
The governor’s office spotlighted a handful of deals that show how the money will actually be used. Chatsworth Products in New Bern, for example, is slated to receive a $360,000 grant tied to a projected 45 job expansion. LS Cable and System USA in Tarboro is expected to get $500,000 toward a 480,000 square foot renovation that officials say will support about 85 jobs. The package also includes a $500,000 expansion award in Surry County for Altec Industries, along with utility extension grants in Nash and North Wilkesboro meant to prep industrial corridors for future employers, according to the Governor's Office.
Why Officials Say It Matters
“When rural North Carolina wins, all of North Carolina wins,” Stein said, arguing that companies will not even consider a community if the buildings and basic utilities are not ready to go.
N.C. Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley framed the grants as more than pipes and pavement. The money is “more than infrastructure; it’s providing opportunity,” he said, stressing that renovated sites and certified industrial parks make small communities far more competitive when they are trying to recruit employers, according to the governor’s office.
How The Funding Works And What’s Next
The Industrial Development Fund - Utility Account and its companion programs bankroll the unglamorous but essential work: sewer lines, road access and water system upgrades that developers and manufacturers expect to see before they will commit to a site. A slice of the funding is tied to Job Development Investment Grant awards in distressed counties, essentially layering job-creation incentives on top of the bricks-and-mortar improvements.
Press aggregators that reposted the announcement also broke out the fine print and county by county totals; LegiStorm carries a full rundown of the entire package for those who like to wade into the line items.
This latest round is part of a steady pattern of rural investments over the past year, a trend a steady drumbeat of rural investments previously noted by state watchers and economic development officials. State leaders are upfront that these grants will not show up as instant paychecks, but they insist that getting sites truly shovel ready chips away at the structural barriers that have long pushed employers to bypass smaller towns.
