‘Support local’: Concord opening social district in hopes of boosting downtown business

CONCORD, N.C. (WBTV) – It has been several months in the making, but on Thursday, the City of Concord will officially open a social district.

Concord is the latest city to jump on the bandwagon of allowing people to carry alcoholic beverages from business to business within a set boundary.

Starting at 11 a.m. people in downtown Concord will be able to experience the social district.

Patrons can walk into one of the participating businesses and get a drink. They can then exit the building with that drink and walk down the street and into another business.

There are more than 10 participating businesses that will sell alcohol. There are about 15 more that are not selling it but will welcome people inside with their alcohol. Drinks cannot be brought from home, and any purchased will be served in a specially designated cup.

Window stickers will indicate whether a business is participating, welcoming alcohol or not participating at all.

Downtown Development Manager Paige Grochoske did a walk-through earlier this week to hand out stickers and share reminders to everyone involved.

The goal of the social district is to bring more people to the downtown area to support the local shops and restaurants.

“We’re excited for this to kick off and we hope that people will come out and enjoy, and just visit the businesses,” Grochoske said. “If you haven’t been out in a while, you can see a lot of the progress going on that we have in downtown Concord. So, we have that that’s an opportunity for folks to come and check that out and just gather with one another to support local. That’s our biggest thing is we really want to support these local businesses.”

Construction happening downtown almost delayed the opening of the social district, but city councilmembers decided to get things started on time.

Social district hours will run daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Earlier this year, Charlotte opened its first social district in the Plaza Midwood area. According to state officials, about 25% of North Carolina’s 100 counties now have one.

Grochoske said it was a lengthy process for Concord to get to this point, with lots of discussion having happened around what has worked well in other cities.

“We’ve had good participation. With the businesses coming to the information sessions, we’ve actually held those with our Concord Police Department so that they could be on hand to answer any questions as far as the law goes,” she said. “That’s been really great to see everybody coming together, wanting to make sure that they know all the rules. And also, you know, hearing from the police perspective, you know what they expect.”

Boundary signs are placed around the downtown area, so anyone who purchases a drink knows when they are exiting the district.

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