City of New Bern talks about a concept plan to develop the property at the corner of Hancock Street and South Front streets.
The newly elected Board of Aldermen talked about a concept of using Municipal Service District tax dollars to build seven small shops on city-owned property during their day-long retreat at the Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 7, 2026, in New Bern, NC.
While reviewing the aldermen’s and mayor’s responses to survey questions about their goals and strategies, City Manager Foster Hughes said “we” have been working on a concept that would use Municipal Service District funds to build about seven specialty shops at the corner of Hancock and South Front streets in New Bern, NC. One of Mayor Jeffrey Odham’s answers to the survey was “Incubator chalets on the old railroad lot.”
The city manager said there weren’t a lot of available retail spaces downtown, so the goal would be to create an incubator for niche type businesses. He said the goal would be for Swiss Bear to operate it if everything could be aligned and worked out. He also said they would add an exterior restroom at the Farmers Market if the project came to fruition. He said they were pricing it out and were talking to the Historic Preservation Commission and would talk about it with the MSD Advisory Committee at the next meeting in February (17). He said it would be brought to the Board of Aldermen for approval.
Alderman Trey Ferguson said he liked the idea and they would bring it up to the MSD Advisory Committee. He also said a lot of the work could be done in-house.
Alderman Dana Outlaw said they could lose about 30 to 40 spaces and said, “I’m sure you figured out a replacement for that.”
On Thursday, NewBernNow.com asked the Board of Aldermen, city manager and mayor, “Has this project been discussed during your groups of three meetings? Who else has been working on the proposed project for the last year?”
City of New Bern Public Information Officer Colleen Roberts said the city manager had been working with staff.
“As a follow-up to that discussion (Jan. 7, 2026), a survey was sent to the Governing Board in which specialty shops (downtown incubator) scored very highly as a priority project,” she said.
We asked for a copy of the survey and the answers but had not received a response by press time.
“Right now, this is a general discussion and preliminary plan. The City Manager is formulating cost estimates. There are no confirmed costs to share at this time,” Roberts said.
“There have been no formal discussions with Swiss Bear on operation of the shops,” she said.
This is the same parcel that Sabrina Bengel said was purchased by the city with ($227,000) of Municipal Service District funds during a debate when she was running for re-election for Alderman of Ward 1 in 2022. She said, “We’ve just recently used funds to buy a piece of land across the street from the Farmer’s Market … we hope that it may be the site of the future Pepsi Museum if we can get Pepsico back in November.”
We reached out to the chairman of the city’s Municipal Service District Advisory Committee, Sabrina Bengel, for a comment. We also asked if she had an update on a potential site of a future museum, but she has not responded by press time.
MSD Tax
Property owners in the Municipal Service District pay city and county ad valorem taxes plus an additional tax of $0.1375 per $100 of assessed value.
Also happening on Hancock Street
A few weeks after the January retreat, the city sent “a courtesy notification to property owners, along the 200 block of Hancock Street (between Pollock Street & South Front Street), regarding an upcoming City of New Bern agenda item that is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Aldermen on Feb. 10,2026,” according to a public document obtained from the city.
The notification said the Public Works Department received a request “to evaluate the 200 block of Hancock existing roadway dimensions, vehicular traffic needs associated with adjacent railroad infrastructure, and current on-street parking conditions.” The document noted that the easterly side of the 200 block currently has 2-hour parallel parking and the westerly side doesn’t have parking restrictions. “The easterly side of the street has a paved width of 13 feet, and the westerly side has a paved width of 15 feet” between the curbs and train tracts. The document said the PW department recommended removing the parking restriction on the easterly side and eliminating parking on the westerly side. “This will improve vehicular safety and traffic operations while maintaining on-street parking on the westerly side for adjacent property owners,” according to the document.
We also asked the city who asked the Public Works Department for the changes to Hancock Street?
“Potential changes to Hancock Street regarding traffic and safety concerns have been discussed internally with Public Works and Police staff for the last year. The City Manager approved this item being added to the February 10th Board of Aldermen meeting agenda for consideration by the Governing Board,” Colleen Roberts said.
On Feb. 10, Alderman Trey Ferguson said he had received feedback that numerous constituents felt blindsided and made a motion to remove the item from the agenda until he had time to discuss the matter with stakeholders. The motion passed with Trey Ferguson (Ward 1), Sharon Bryant (Ward 2), “Bobby” Aster (Ward 3), Lainy White (Ward 4), Barbara Best (Ward 5) and Dana Outlaw (Ward 6) voting yes. Mayor Jeffrey Odham (of Ward 6) also voted yes.
About 20 people got up and left the meeting. As they were walking out, the mayor told them to go eat downtown.
A couple of people spoke about the proposed changes to parking during the Requests and Petition of Citizens.
One resident said he was opposed to the letter he received from the city and urged the aldermen “to not to make it a mini–Union Point Park moment where transparency and trust are tossed into the wind. Please do what’s right for the Hancock Street residents and the city long term and provide transparency so we can regain trust in our city government.”
Another person said he loves the town and has owned property on Hancock Street for many, many years. He said within a short period of time, 37 people signed a petition against the proposal to eliminate 100 percent of unrestricted parking. He said a number of people who live there don’t have driveways or share driveways, so they are forced to park on the street. He said the proposal would have a disparate negative impact on all property owners on the block. It would force residents to compete for parking spaces. He said non-resident visitors have an option to use public parking, but many residents are senior citizens, 65-plus with mobility issues and can’t walk blocks away and return with groceries. He said it would create severe hardship for them. He also noted potential measures that could possibly alleviate safety concerns, like reducing speed, signage and other things.
We also asked the Board of Aldermen, city manager and mayor about a possible the timing of the request and the project.
The public information officer said, “Any suggestion that the timing coincides with the discussion of the small incubator shops is an assumption and is inaccurate.”
NewBernNow.com also reached out to Swiss Bear for comment but have not received a response by press time.
By Wendy Card, co-editor. Send an email with questions or comments.