Jeremy Cox | The Daily Times

CJZ Photography

The Eastern Shore’s business community is uncommonly excited about what’s to come in 2018, according to a poll that has tracked the local economy for three decades.

For the first time in its history, Salisbury University’s ShoreTrends economic forecast showed executives have more faith in local business conditions than in the national level, said Memo Diriker, the report’s author.

The survey of business leaders found that 55 percent believe local economic conditions will be better or much better in 2018. That percentage fell to 53.5 for the national climate.

“This is exciting,” said Diriker, an SU economist. “This is truly a seminal moment.”

Diriker unveiled the poll results Tuesday at a forum at SU sponsored by the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce. He is a former president of the business advocacy organization.

Several industry leaders gave upbeat assessments of their own fields.

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“I’m busier now than I’ve ever been," said John McClellan, senior advisor for SVN-Miller Commercial Real Estate in Salisbury.

He pointed to several large commercial projects that have taken steps forward in 2017, including an Aldi grocery store at Route 13 and Dagsboro Road and a new Burger King in front of the Walmart a few blocks away.

The German grocery chain Lidl has pulled out of redeveloping the Americas Best Value Inn along the same north Salisbury strip, he said. But he expects transactions to continue apace in 2018 as favorable interest rates persist and the stock market's gains pad investors' confidence.

Tourism is also trending upward, said Steve Miller, director of Wicomico County's Recreation, Parks and Tourism department.

Hotel room tax collections swelled from $1.2 million in 2013 to $1.5 million in 2017, he said. The number of visitors streaming into the county each year has grown 20 percent over the same span.

“All these statistics are telling the same story, and that is over the past five years we have seen significant growth in tourism," Miller said.

He warned that taxpayers will have to keep investing in tourism infrastructure to ensure the county doesn't get trumped by its competitors, particularly in the youth sports market.

Wicomico is home to several youth sporting events with national profiles, including the USSSA Softball tournament, the biggest girls' tournament of its kind in the country, and the Governor's Challenge, the largest holiday season basketball event.

In 2000, the National Association of Sports Commissions counted 40 organizations competing for events nationwide; by 2017, that number had swelled to more than 500.

“They’re popping up everywhere because people are fighting for this business," Miller said. “If we allowed us to get old and stale, this would bypass us very quickly.”

The county is finalizing a $3 million expansion of Henry S. Parker Athletic Complex, renovating one field and adding three new ones.

Diriker listed other auspicious findings in the survey, which polled about 600 executives in the nine-county Shore region. Among them:

Forty percent predict wages will increase locally while 52 percent say they will go unchanged. But no one went as far as to say they would rise "much higher."

Forty-five percent say employment levels will increase while 50 percent don't see any movement. Less than 5 percent see a decline in the offing.

In one of the biggest jumps, 65 percent foresee better or much better conditions in the local construction sector.

“I guess there was so much inactivity over the past 10 years that the fact there is activity is being recognized," Diriker said.

Wicomico County Superintendent of Schools Donna Hanlin called on the gathering to shore up such gains by investing in universal pre-kindergarten education. About one-third of Wicomico children aren't prepared to learn when they enter kindergarten, she said.

Staff photo by Ralph Musthaler

It gets costlier with each passing year to get children on the right track, she said, so early interventions are crucial.