Peter Johnstone photos
A former Rhode Island man says the R.I. Economic Development Corporation did little to help him open a boat-building factory here, propelling him to move his company this spring to North Carolina.
Peter Johnstone started Gunboat Co., a catamaran design company, in Rhode Island about a dozen years ago. Johnstone says the EDC didn't give him enough help in 2011 when he decided to bring the manufacturing work here from overseas.
A single email to North Carolina's economic agency drew a quick, detailed offer of help, which ultimately led to Johnstone moving Gunboat in May to Wanchese, near North Carolina's Outer Banks.
With approximately $500,000 in state aid, Gunboat will hire 100 people in North Carolina, where the unemployment rate is 9.6 percent.
More: Explore more of our continuing special report on the economic recovery in the Ocean State: Reinvent Rhode Island