ROCKINGHAM — Staff at Jersey Mike’s were busy at work Tuesday making final preparations for the restaurant’s grand opening.
On Wednesday, they’ll be making subs.
Franchise owner Daniel Terracciano was in the shop lending a hand, accepting deliveries and turning away potential customers and telling them, “We don’t open until tomorrow.”
“Jersey Mike’s was a venture for me that started about four years ago,” he said. “Two of my friends had gotten into through ties that they had at school — we all went to East Carolina University together…A local franchisee in Greenville got them into it and they, in turn, have been trying to show me the way into it for a number of years.”
When the Sandhills market — including Rockingham, Southern Pines and Fayetteville — opened up, Terracciano said they came to him with the opportunity.
He already had some institutional knowledge of the business from his friends.
“It’s a great brand,” Terracciano said about Jersey Mike’s. “It’s got support from the corporate perspective. It’s a highly known brand, great quality product. It was somewhat of a no-brainer … it’s a great business opportunity for us as well.”
Terracciano went through the training and interview processes and was granted a franchise.
He said the Rockingham location is the eighth store in three years and the growth wouldn’t be possible without the “great staff.”
Until about a year ago, Terracciano was in sales for a medical device company, working his way up to national director of sales and vice president of sales. But he left to “take on the business here full time.”
The Rockingham Jersey Mike’s will start off with about 35 employees, settling to about 30 after the opening “and find out … who all wants to work and kind of go from there,” Terracciano said, adding that they’d be able to pull from other regional stores if need be.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “This market has been looking for us for a while…It’ll be a big opening … we’re ready for it though.”
For all new openings, Jersey Mike’s always ties in with a local charity or school, according to Terracciano.
In Rockingham, the shop is handing out cards to get a free regular sub for a minimum $3 donation to the Richmond Senior High School Athletic Boosters Club, which is valid through March 26.
“March is the month of giving for us,” he said. On the last Wednesday of each March, 100% of sales go toward the local partnering charity.
Jersey Mike’s will be the third and final business to open in the new Broad Street Commons development by C.F. Smith Property Group.
T-Mobile, which is next door in the same building, opened last week; and Starbucks opened its Rockingham location across the parking lot on March 3.
Broad Station Commons occupies the site of the former Mi Casita’s Mexican restaurant, between the Chiba Japanese drive-thru, and Dieffenbach G.M. Superstore.
Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s were both announced in early 2022.
Since early 2020, C.F. Smith has opened several new businesses in nearby Richmond Plaza, including Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Black’s Tire, Firehouse Subs, Planet Fitness, Aspen Dental and Burke’s Outlet, the latter of which now occupies part of the retail space left by the corporate closing of J.C. Penney. Headlines also moved to the plaza from its downtown location.
Ross Dress for Less is scheduled to open soon at the shopping center.
C.F. Smith recently relocated its office from Richmond Plaza to Pinehurst.
