February 17, 2025

Deniz meditera

Imagination at work

New growth to come from MeMa’s Chick’n & Ribs in Pender

4 min read
Myra McDuffie, the owner of MeMa's Chick'n & Ribs in Burgaw, shows off the plans for The Creek Shopping Center. McDuffie is partnering with Genesis Block to raise funds to develop the center. The development will include MeMa's restaurant along with event and retail space and a manufacturing facility. The project will create around 30 jobs in the Burgaw area. [KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS]

Very last yr at this time, Myra McDuffie, the proprietor of MeMa’s Chick’n & Ribs in Burgaw, was optimistic the cafe would shortly split ground on their new spot.

The company experienced acquired the land, labored with architects to draw up designs, and gotten approval for a financial loan to finance the job.

“Every little thing was on observe in February,” McDuffie claimed. “And then COVID hit.”

The cafe did no matter what it took to keep open for the duration of the pandemic. They commenced providing meals, presenting curbside decide on-up and allowing buyers to get on the net and above the telephone, McDuffie explained.

But the pandemic cut the restaurant’s dine-in capacity in half and enterprise was slower than typical.

The lender that experienced permitted the mortgage financing the new improvement withdrew $800,000 of funding because of the restaurant’s switching financials.

But that failed to stop McDuffie.

Myra McDuffie, the owner of MeMa's Chick'n & Ribs in Burgaw, is partnering with Genesis Block to raise funds to develop The Creek Shopping Center. The development will include MeMa's restaurant along with event and retail space and a manufacturing facility. The project will create around 30 jobs in the Burgaw area. [KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS]

Involving July and November, she raised $187,000 by means of a GoFundMe marketing campaign.

Now the restaurant has partnered with Genesis Block, a Wilmington-based mostly nonprofit that supports minority and gals-owned start out-ups and smaller organizations. The group is using its connections to help bridge the restaurant’s funding gap, mentioned Girard Newkirk, the CEO and co-founder of Genesis Block.

They are doing work with Folla Money, LLC to discover investors and crowd-fund the income.

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