Moore opportunities: fueled by an influx of soldiers at nearby Fort Bragg, Moore County is growing by adding services, recreation, businesses and population.

• Position: SPONSORED SECTION: REGIONAL FOCUS: MOORE COUNTY

Kim Freigo arrived in the Moore County seat town of Carthage in 2010. She cooked and baked for her military husband and his soldier buddies stationed at nearby Fort Bragg before enrolling in the Baking and Pastry Arts program at Pinehurst-based Sandhills Community College. Utilizing the college's small business center, she devised a business plan and, after graduating magna cum laude, opened Aroma Cafe & Bakery in a former sandwich shop in 2014. "We're proud to have the military and happy to have them," says Carthage Mayor Lee McGraw'. "We always respect and appreciate them. When you bring in new people from different areas, you benefit from the influence of those people. We have [military] families where some of the spouses and children have started businesses, and one family got the permission of an owner of a vacant storefront to paint the window with 'wouldn't this make a great bakery?' It turned into an antiques store, but now we also have a great bakery."

Carthage is home to about 2,300 people. Its Mother's Day weekend Buggy Festival honors Tyson & Jones Buggy Co., which gave the town its identity in the post-Civil War South. It has an annual Christmas parade, and the popular Pik-n-Pig restaurant lists the coordinates of nearby Gilliam-McConnell Airfield on its website, because barbecue enthusiasts are known to fly in to sample its wood-smoked pork. The town demonstrates that Moore County's appeal extends beyond the region's famed golf industry and meets the needs of its newest residents, the military families and retirees who choose to live there. "The towns are small, and there's a lot of room for growth inside the towns. But I don't think we're going to lose that charm because of any changes in the core communities," says Pat Corso, executive director of economic booster Moore County Partners in Progress. "Each town is quaint in its own way and has its own unique charm, but in each you'll find commercial and retail found in much larger cities." That's because they also are neighbors of 251-square-mile Fort Bragg, headquarters for the U.S. Army's airborne and special operations forces.

The 2011 Base Realignment and Closure Plan shuttered Fort McPherson, Fort Gillem and the Navy Supply Corps School, all in Georgia, swelling Fort Bragg's ranks to about 45,000 military personnel and their families. In response, Moore and 10 surrounding counties, along with 73 municipalities, formed Fayetteville-based Fort Bragg Regional Alliance to handle the growth brought by the realignment. "On our end of the base is where all the special forces train," says David Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines and president of Old North State Magazines LLC...