Success Stories

The place-based investment is core to EDA’s mission, with our team working closely with local community leaders to ensure EDA’s grants support targeted economic development based on each community’s unique needs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, which allows EDA’s grants to be flexible, dynamic, and meet the moment that’s called for in each community. In Lubbock, Texas, that has translated into multiple EDA investments, as leaders turn a painful Air Force Base closure into economic opportunity for the region.

In September 2022, President Joe Biden announced the 21 winners of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC), a key component of his American Rescue Plan. The competition was designed to boost economic recovery from the pandemic and rebuild American communities, including those grappling with decades of disinvestment.

Throughout much of the 20th century, Shelby, North Carolina, about an hour west of Charlotte, was a powerhouse of textile manufacturing. It was home to several mills, which produced yarn and thread for the clothing industry. It also had considerable transportation assets, making these products readily available throughout the United States. By the dawn of the 21st century, however, all of that would change.

When Centrepolis Accelerator launched just over five years ago, it only had capacity to help a couple startups bring their products to market.

White Sulphur Springs is a city in southeastern West Virginia, about two hours from Charleston. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it is home to approximately 2,400 people, as well as the famed Greenbrier Resort. For several generations, it was a coal community, but like other parts of the state, it must now redefine itself.

North Carolina has a vibrant history in textile manufacturing, which dates back decades before technological advances such as the high-tech...

An EDA University Center partner, the Tom Love Innovation Hub at the University of Oklahoma (OU), is participating in a cross-campus effort to create...

A $3.2 million EDA public works project to help fund water and wastewater facility upgrades in Grayling, Michigan, resulted in...