Statement on the Kinston Enterprise Center being listed for sale

Downtown Kinston Revitalization (formerly known as Pride of Kinston) has announced their intention to sell the Kinston Enterprise Center where Kinston Teens has leased office space and been headquartered at since 2015. The building was officially listed on the market yesterday.

Downtown Kinston Revitalization chose not to provide many of the tenants in the building, including Kinston Teens, with a lease agreement after 2020–citing the COVID pandemic and other issues related to their organization. As it stands, we are currently in a month-to-month rental arrangement and, should the building be sold, the new owner could ask us to vacate with as little as a 7-day notice. In addition to Kinston Teens, this may negatively impact several other nonprofit organizations and small businesses housed in the Kinston Enterprise Center.

I am not extremely alarmed, because we have been working for quite some time on finding or creating a larger space that would better suit the needs of our growing organization. Since 2020, we’ve shifted a significant amount of our programming to focus on the East Kinston neighborhood through our Kinston Teens Neighborhood Hub (www.kinstonteens.org/hub). However, the Neighborhood Hub does not have adequate space for us to fully operate out of administratively nor to store all of the supplies, equipment, and tools we use for our programs and currently store at our Kinston Enterprise Center office. I do believe that this challenge presents us with a unique opportunity to explore plans to deepen our focus on the East Kinston neighborhood and potentially move all of our operations there.

I am, though, a bit concerned about the timing and the necessity for us to act sooner rather than later. As we enter Spring and Summer, which are typically our organization’s busiest programming seasons, I do not want this to interfere with our planned events and the opportunities we typically provide for our community’s youth while they are out of school.

As founder and Executive Director of Kinston Teens, I look forward to engaging our volunteers and community stakeholders to ensure that our next steps honor the mission and history of Kinston Teens and reflect our commitment to the community we serve. Your feedback, input, thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and concerns will be very welcomed and appreciated as we chart our path forward.

In gratitude for your support,

Chris J. Suggs
Kinston Teens, Inc.