State business records cited by the News & Observer list Rep. Greg Murphy as the registered agent for GUC Properties and give its address as 275 Bethesda Drive in Greenville. The newspaper reported that ECU Health Urology of Greenville operates there, at an address previously used by Eastern Urological Associates.
According to the News & Observer’s account of North Carolina Secretary of State records, GUC Properties was reinstated in January 2026, then administratively dissolved again on September 18 after failing to file an annual report due April 15. The newspaper also reported that Murphy said GUC Properties and Greenville Urology Clinic no longer existed.
The Brody building’s funding timeline
The funding effort began with a 2021 joint letter from Murphy and then-Rep. G.K. Butterfield to state lawmakers supporting a request for $215 million over several years for a new building at ECU’s Brody School of Medicine. Butterfield said the pandemic had underscored the need to address health care gaps in rural areas, WITN reported.
The General Assembly approved $215 million in 2021 and added $50 million in 2023 for the project, according to The Reflector. Construction on the seven-story, 195,000-square-foot Brody Center for Medical Education began in 2025; completion is expected in August 2027. The Reflector reported that the building is expected to help increase enrollment from 80 to 120 students.
What the data show about rural practice
Available statewide data do not establish whether Brody graduates practice in rural North Carolina at a higher rate than graduates of other medical schools. A 2025 report from the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and the NC Area Health Education Centers program found that, among graduates of all North Carolina medical schools in the class of 2019, 5 of 628 were in primary care in a rural North Carolina county in 2024.
The same report found that ECU had the highest share of its 2024 graduates matching to primary-care residencies in North Carolina: 32%, or 23 students. That is initial match information, not a measure of where those graduates ultimately practice.
Murphy’s professional and financial ties
Murphy’s medical career has included leading Eastern Urological Associates, teaching and heading the urology division at ECU’s Brody School of Medicine, and serving as chief of staff at Vidant Medical Center, now ECU Health Medical Center, the News & Observer reported. Vidant Health acquired Eastern Urological Associates in 2019. In 2021, Vidant Health and the ECU School of Medicine formed the arrangement that created ECU Health, according to the newspaper.
The News & Observer reported that Murphy signed an agreement to provide medical services to ECU Health and that the health system described the arrangement as a physician services agreement. Murphy told the newspaper he sees patients a couple of days each month without personal compensation. The newspaper found no ECU income on the federal financial disclosure forms it reviewed for two years.
House ethics guidance requires annual disclosure of members’ personal financial interests, including income, investments and liabilities. It also says members generally need not give up assets or avoid votes on matters that broadly affect their financial interests, while prohibiting improper use of office for personal gain, according to the House Committee on Ethics and its overview of the rules.
Murphy’s support for ECU-related health care efforts continued after the state funding request: five members of the House Ways and Means Committee, including Murphy, toured two ECU Health facilities in 2023, and ECU Health leaders testified to the committee about health care affordability in April 2026, the News & Observer reported.
Asher Hildebrand, director of Duke University’s Master of Public Affairs program and a former Democratic staffer, told the News & Observer that ethics questions would depend on Murphy’s financial interests and disclosure. North Carolina Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton also said Murphy’s actions and motivations were concerning. Murphy has said there is no conflict of interest and that his activities were cleared through the House Ethics Committee, according to the newspaper.
