Clayton on the Rise in Johnston County’s Growth

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Our guest was Joe Stallings, the new town of Clayton Economic Development Director. We talked to Joe a little bit about his growing up in the suburbs of Hickory if Hickory has suburbs. His time at Appalachian state university, his how he got to Benson for a while.

He was the Benson Economic Development Director and that’s when I met him back in like 2012 or 2013. And his sort of route to get to where he is now, the economic development director of Clayton, we talked about some of the new industrial projects the town of Clayton is working on. We talk about the new wastewater treatment plant that’s gonna be coming online in early 2026 and the new retail development.

That might have a Costco and possibly a Chick-fil-A. So if you’re interested in economic development and Clayton and what might be coming and what is coming, listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to [00:01:00] take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode we have the Clayton Town Economic Development Director Joseph Stallings. He’s been on the job for a little while now. He just came over from the town of Garner. We’re gonna talk to him a little bit about growing up in Johnston County. his education, his roundabout way from Benson to Garner, the North Carolina railroad, and then back to the town of Clayton a little bit about that and we’re gonna talk to him about some of The exciting economic development projects going on in Clayton. It’s absolutely fascinating. Clayton is on fire, everybody knows that, and he is one of the people that’s helping orchestrate that fire right. Now. Before we get to that, I’d like to ask you to like, follow and subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on [00:02:00] YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Spotify, Apple so that you’ll be aware of future episodes of The best of Johnston county podcast. The Best Johnston County Podcast comes out every single monday and has now for over two years. So go back and list some of our previous episodes. We’ve had the vast majority of the Johnston county Commissioners. We’ve had now Congressman Brad Knott. We’ve had Adrian O’Neal from the County Parks Department now twice. We’ve local dentist, Tim Sims. We’ve had a lot, a lot of great guests on here. If you love Johnston County as much as I do. This is the podcast for you. Welcome Joseph.

Joseph Stallings: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jonathan Breeden: Or Joe, which one do you go by?

Joseph Stallings: I’m not really in a formality.

Jonathan Breeden: So Joe will work. Alright, Joe will work. That’s cool. So, anyway, tell the Audience who you are, what you do.

Joseph Stallings: Sure. So I’m Joe Stallings. I’m the Economic Development Director for the Town of Clayton. I’ve been there all about seven months now, So, still getting my feet a little wet, but I came to Johnson County in 2011, fell in love with the area, and have had a number of roles in economic development, both in local governments on the state level, as well as on the county level. And luckily enough found myself back here in Johnson County. I moved my [00:03:00] family here to Johnson County and I’ve been enjoying it ever since.

Jonathan Breeden: Where are you from originally?

Joseph Stallings: So I grew up in a little community called Mountain View. It’s out as, it’s a, now a suburb of Hickory, but it was at the foot of Baker’s Mountain right before you hit the real mountains of Western North Carolina. Went to App State, got my undergrad and graduate degree from there, followed my wife or at the time my, my girlfriend down here to, to Raleigh, so she’d go to grad school and we just wound up being in Johnston County and it’s been a great place for us ever since.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. What degrees did you get?

Joseph Stallings: So, at the time, and, and it’s still the case, you could go to Appalachian State and get a concentration in town, city, and county management. And they call it T and program. At the time that I went, about half of all town, city and county managers in the state of North Carolina came outta upstate. So I fell in love with local government, the idea of serving your people, making a positive difference. We had this fantastic alumni network, so I went and got my degree in political science. That concentration in 2009 hit the market was awful, even for government employees. So I stayed in and got my graduate degree in public administration, [00:04:00] was lucky enough to come out and find a job here in Benson, North Carolina and started my economic development career there.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s when I met you, ’cause you were doing Leadership Johnston and you were the economic development director for the town of Benson.

Joseph Stallings: That’s right.

Jonathan Breeden: And I’d done it the year before and I was going back and sort of helping mentor the people that were coming after me and we had a lot of fun. We did a couple projects.

Joseph Stallings: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: did a couple community service projects together. And I’ve always told people when I had Rick Hester on a few weeks ago, I was like, if I didn’t get into law school, my backup plan was to get a, a Master’s in public administration from NC State. I took some of those classes, undergrad, absolutely loved them, loved the structure, how it worked, providing for the citizens, helping people out. But they did let me into law school, so I became a lawyer, but, but my absolute backup plan. And now Campbell Law School has a joint JD MPA program

Joseph Stallings: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: With NC State. And you can graduate with both a Master’s of Public administration and a juris doctor, which is what is, they call a law degree [00:05:00] now. And a lot of young people are doing that and I think that’s great too.

Joseph Stallings: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, ’cause there’s so much law, like, I mean, I mean, I mean, you know more, a lot of crossover municipal law than I probably do because you have to deal with it in development from zoning to all that type of stuff. So, what attracted you? I mean, you were with the town of Garner for several years right before you came here. What attracted you, to come back to Clayton at this point in time?

Joseph Stallings: Well, I think Clayton is in a really unique position and it’s kind of a great transitional period from say the small town to now where it’s really growing and it’s got a lot of assets and things going for it, and it also has a lot of opportunity there.

And So Wake County in general is starting to really get built out, and that means deals are harder to get done. It’s a little bit more nuanced in what you can and cannot get, you know, go after and attract to your community. And I think Clayton really offers a lot of more of a blank slate. You know, we do have existing large corporations and a fantastic small business community, but we also have a lot more room to [00:06:00] grow.

And I know a lot of people in Clayton are seeing that growth coming at ’em. You know, we’re adding about five people every single day. So a kindergarten class every day comes to Clayton And our population is increasing and so part of the work that we’re doing right now in economic development is making sure that we are securing those real estate opportunities where we can continue to attract businesses to the community so we don’t just become a bedroom community of Raleigh.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, right. And, and I was on the economic development board of the county with Chris Johnson a few years ago when your predecessor did a great job.

Joseph Stallings: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: He was, He was phenomenal. And you know, part of that was identifying sites trying to get deals of landowners so that if you could get a tenant to come here, you could actually have the land for them to put it on it pre-qualifying sites. I know Clayton has done that same thing. What kept happening with the county was before we got an industry to come and. Take down the land, a track builder would buy it and then it would become houses. And I couldn’t tell the farm, we couldn’t tell the farmer, don’t sell your land. Like, like, everyone sell it to the first person that came with the money. You [00:07:00] know, a hundred percent.

Joseph Stallings: And they should. That’s the only market and they should,

Jonathan Breeden: it’s their land. Right? right. But it was somewhat frustrating to have very good tracks that we thought were very attractive and then have a track builder buy it before we could get a actual industry to buy it.

Joseph Stallings: No, a hundred percent. And we have fantastic relationships with Chris and his team at the county as well as our other economic development partners around the state. And I think generally, you know, looking at the state of North Carolina, we’re really a victim of our own success. We’ve been so good at recruiting companies that we’ve essentially exhausted our site banks.

And so now there’s a real effort. And you saw the legislature a few years ago put millions of dollars into that effort to go out and begin looking for those new sites and starting putting things in place to make them market ready. And that’s exactly what we’re doing at the town of Clayton, is trying to get after it be more proactive, ensure that whenever a company comes, we have the right site for them whenever they’re ready to make that location decision. And at the same time, you know, we’re talking about sites, but that also means buildings. So for a long time, both the County and the town [00:08:00] were suffering from a lack of inventory when it came to ready buildings. And so we’re seeing more industrial activity in town. A lot of it’s spec coming in, and that’s really gonna offer us the opportunity to be more aggressive when it comes to locating new companies in the community by offering them that turnkey space whenever they’re ready to make that decision.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and one of the things that’s gonna be sort of. Spec turnkey, and I learned this when I was with Chris Johnson, was like, they don’t want to wait two or three years to get it built. They want to come in and in six months they wanna put their equipment in it and go. And if you don’t have the building, they’re going somewhere else.

Joseph Stallings: A hundred percent. Time kills deals. Whether it’s real estate or otherwise. And so being able to put something in front of somebody and say, Hey, look, you can get in here, you know, tomorrow, right? That’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but just to say we, we can move at the speed of business and we’re talking about real estate assets, but it also means that our government processes have to be able to move at the speed of business. Whether that’s planning and zoning or building inspections. Our ability to accommodate and, you know, make things happen so that we’re [00:09:00] keeping up with the business needs is gonna be vital for us to be contin, you know, continue to be successful. And getting companies through the area.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, there’s no doubt. And one of the things that the town just approved is the, I think they’re calling it Clayton Commerce center, right? Which is gonna be 300,000, 370,000 square feet. And that’s largely gonna be spec industrial space. Is that right?

Joseph Stallings: Right. That’s right. So we have, Really two, major industrial parks going on right now. The Clayton Commerce Center, which is about 350,000 square feet on Highway 70. And then we have Crossroad Trade Center, which is on 42, which is about 555,000 square feet between a multi, you know, multiple buildings. And so whereas we were running, let’s say 0% or 2% vacancy on industrial assets, now we’re gonna see this new space come on the market that’s gonna put some more arrows in the quiver for us to go out and hunt some of these companies to come in and land here in Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So what type of companies would go into one of these industrial spec buildings? I mean, I know that ’cause I was economic develop.

Joseph Stallings: Sure.

Jonathan Breeden: Board you do. But the listeners don’t. What kind of businesses would come into one of these [00:10:00] 300,000? They wouldn’t take down all 300,000. But give the listeners some ideas.

Joseph Stallings: Well, I mean, it can really be a whole host of anything, whether it’s, you know, distribution, manufacturing, you know, even some, you know, R&D type operations. For us, specifically in the town of Clayton, we focus on pharmaceutical life sciences, events, manufacturing, and a little bit of data and technology.

And so we’re not going actively pursuing distribution deals. Frankly, the wages associated with the distribution industry don’t really move the needle for us here locally, and so we have to be a little bit more selective on who we target. But that being said these, you know, buildings all have their own private brokers.

They’re gonna be going out to the market trying to fill that building with good quality companies, but not necessarily in the same way we would when we target a specific industry.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Joseph Stallings: So they’re really a blank slate when it comes to what you can put in there.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, and retail has sort of not gotten to Clayton as fast as I think some of us would’ve liked to have seen, but the Town council just approved a new [00:11:00] major development between the Walmart and the ABC store on what will always be 70 to me, but now Clayton Boulevard y you know, yeah, let’s talk a little bit about That, that, I mean, could possibly have a Costco, possibly have a target. I mean, it’s gonna be a fairly big re Commercial development, whether it’s those tenants or not, but That’s a big deal.

Joseph Stallings: Sure.

No, it’s, it’s a huge opportunity for the town. You know, it’s 120 $550 million retail anchored center. That’s that what, that is what we do know. Right. But I think what’s really interesting about that is, you know, whenever I came in 2011 at Johnston County, the town of Clayton had, a desire for Chick-fil-A and that desire has never gone away.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Right.

Joseph Stallings: And I, I think this particular development in particular may be able to satisfy that desire but it is gonna give us the opportunity to recruit a lot more of those retail amenities. The, the citizens of Clayton have been demanding for years, and I think it you know, it’s one of those opportunities where you’re starting to see the evolution, that transition.

I talked about how the community is really moving into its own. For years, the community has heard, you know, [00:12:00] retail falls, rooftops, retail falls, rooftops. Well, I think we’re actually at a point now where the rooftops are there, and so now the retail is coming in behind it and. There is gonna be some significant investment in that project.

It’s both apartments on the backside with some major retail anchors and then the out parcels that will allow us to be more attractive for those retail tenants looking to locate here in Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. ’cause I mean, I do think that that is one of the things that Clayton has lagged in is the retail.

Joseph Stallings: Sure.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, and I’ve watched White Oak explode and I go to White Oak at least three times a week for something, you know, there’s a Chick-fil-A, there’s Dick’s sporting Goes, there’s Best Buy. You, you know, you know, we spent a fair amount of time over at what I call the colors crossroads, which is. Or, or Wake Tech or 4 0 1 and 10 10 or whatever goes. There’s a Costco there and that kind of stuff. So I’m excited to see that possibly somebody like that could come to Clayton. Cause I think it’s needed. And then we’ve watched Adventure Development, do everything in Selma and [00:13:00] they’ve got that massive, you know, huge retail development there with Hobby lobby and they’re getting a Target and a Chick-fil-A there and, academy Sports and all that. So I’m glad to see that. Because this could be just the first of many projects, right? Like these projects sort of follow themselves. That’s why walgreens, and CVS are next to each other. I could see another one of that size. in clayton on Clayton Boulevard, you know, be approved in the next 12 to 24 months. Because once somebody says, okay, this guy can do it, and this is gonna bring people there.

Joseph Stallings: Sure.

Jonathan Breeden: I can do that.

Joseph Stallings: Oh, a hundred percent. It’s dominoes, right? So once you get the first dominant fall, you’ll see consecutive ones come down the path. And I think right? now what we’re seeing from the market is there’s a lot of interest.

And being in the town of Clayton, whether it’s on the retail side, the industrial side, or otherwise, and it’s a great opportunity for us to be able to capture some of that interest and, you know, bring those amenities to the community. And so it’s exciting. I know it doesn’t come its, you know, without some cons, right?

It’s not all fairytales, but [00:14:00] I think at the end of the day, it’s gonna be a huge asset for the community. It’s gonna deliver those amenities that people want to see, and frankly, are a matter of quality of life in a lot of instances. And I hope it will help continue to spur more good quality economic development in the community.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, another big project that they’re, they’re getting started on is the Copper District.

Joseph Stallings: Sure.

Jonathan Breeden: It’s been sort of on the back burner for a few years, but they’re now moving dirts, doing some of the site work, river Wild, and reed Smith and Ed Aldridge are doing that. You know, what do we know about what it’s going to look like now? I mean, it, I mean, it’s, it’s in development. I mean, it may not be what it was, but I mean, what as your understanding is what they’re looking to do there right now, especially in the next, you know, 12 to 24 months?

Joseph Stallings: Sure. I think, I think it still will be a marquee development in the community. People are gonna see this and they’re gonna have a great, you know, a great visual as they come into our community. it will be the mix of uses that, you know, we talk about many North Hills, something like that.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Joseph Stallings: So I think it’ll be something that’s gonna be really attractive. It’s gonna add a lot of value to the community and it’s gonna give people in the community a little bit of a [00:15:00] different asset class to be able to.

To play with, right? So whether you can live and work and then shop and you don’t necessarily have to touch a car, you know? And I, at the end of the day, I think it’s gonna be a huge opportunity for the town of Clayton to continue to raise our, profile in the region and show that a development such as that can make it here in Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, I’m ex, I’m excited about it.

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Jonathan Breeden: So the Copper District is going to be at. I 42, I guess they call it now, and Veterans Parkway across from the hospital. And that area right there, I, I don’t know. It’s, it’s it’s 70 bypass and 42 to me, officially. It’s I [00:16:00] 42 and Veterans Parkway.

Joseph Stallings: That’s right.

Jonathan Breeden: Hot slash 36, somewhere in there. But, but right there, there’s a Hardy’s there. Now there’s a seven 11, but right there if you’re going into Clayton on the right from Cleveland. but that, but that’s gonna be nice. It’s gonna be mixed use walking, high-end stuff. I, I’m excited about what Craig Davis and, and the, the Penny family are gonna do with that. that’s exciting. What else is, what else you got you’re working on? I know you’ve got three or four other big projects.

Joseph Stallings: Well, I was gonna say, we’re all over the place, right, right now, you know So it’s a little bit of everything, both from say inter entertainment based development down to more industrial product, trying to find sites, getting out and really telling our story to the right people about why they should do business in the town of Clayton.

And it’s about it supporting our existing industry. We have almost a thousand companies that call Clayton Home. And so we’re trying to get out every day and build relationships with those folks. So if there is a way that we can help them expand, we’re helping to do so and keep ’em right there in our hometown.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that, that’s great. And for everybody listening, Novo and Grifols are not in [00:17:00] the town of Clayton. They’re in an economic development zone on their own right. They are not gonna be in the town of Clayton, but they do.

Buy water from the town of clayton.

Joseph Stallings: Water and sewer. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Water and sewer. Right. And so one of the things the town is doing to help their expansions ’cause they’re both expanding and to help the expansion of Clayton, is there’s a new wastewater treatment plant that is almost finished. When I first heard about it five years ago, i’ve been assuming that it’s done even though it isn’t open yet.

Oh, well Clayton’s got that new plant and it’s gonna do 7 million gallons a day, but like. It hasn’t been built yet, but it’s like like. People like me are like, as soon as I hear about it, i’m like, what a great idea. Like, oh, it’s already done.

Joseph Stallings: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish it was, but it’s not. It’s on its way. Yeah. So you know, it, it gets back to the old adage. If you can’t, if you can’t wash it, you can’t flush it. You can’t locate it. Right. So the town to the Great Vision, you know, to the great credit the town council has put hundreds of millions of dollars into upgrading our water and sewer system. And so what you’re seeing out there at Sam’s Branch Water reclamation facility is a fantastic state of the art. Sewer plant, [00:18:00] water reclamation plant that will allow the town to continue to grow as the town grows. And so they’ve already built in expansion capabilities within that plant to be able to accommodate the new growth. At the same time, we’re also undergoing a project called the ECIA or the East Clayton Industrial Area, which will upgrade the pump station that services our large industrial area and our partners at Grifols and Novo and others so that we can continue to grow with them as well. So that’s a massive project that upgrades the sewer lines all the way from, you know, highway 70 East back to Sam’s branch water reclamation facility.

A massive project, but it will allow us to continue to be able to service those corporate citizens there, well into the future.

Jonathan Breeden: So where is this Sam’s branch? Where is the new water plant?

Joseph Stallings: So if you. Go out O’Neill Street, essentially north of town, along the News River. Okay. O’Neill Street. Okay. towards, Ashcroft up in that area. And, it’s, an amazing place, but it, it is in such a way that where we’re decommissioning the current facility, [00:19:00] which is south of 70. This will be back towards the Neuse River, which is north of 70. So essentially what we’ll be doing is putting a, a larger pump station that will be the collector on the south side of town, and that will pump back to the new water reclamation facility there on the north side of town along the Neuse river.

Jonathan Breeden: I gotcha. And then that is gonna allow Clayton possibly to do. Some satellite annexation of, of annexations, of some other developments that may be around the town that are sort of in its ETJ or a little bit out, which would allow the town to continue to grow. I think people don’t understand in North Carolina, towns can no longer just annex, right? There’s no such thing as. Force annexation anymore. The only way to annex a town, and, and I don’t know if I agree with this, but this is what the legislature did about 10 or 12 years ago, which is they said if the town is gonna annex, there has to be a vote. They have to go sell it to the citizens as to why they should be in town. And most citizens are not gonna vote to tax themselves when they’re using the town services anyway. Just on the outside of the towns that use the parks they [00:20:00] use the libraries and stuff like that. So, so now these towns, the only way they can really grow is through sort of voluntary annexation, where these developers would like the water and sewer, they would like the police protection, and they come to the town and say, will you annex this? In the town? Could say yes or no. You’ve been in town, government business now for 14 years, most of it with this new law.

Joseph Stallings: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: How are towns doing? Are towns as healthy as they were? Is Clayton healthy? Because I know that makes it very difficult.

Joseph Stallings: The town of clayton’s doing great. We’re in a great financial position. We continue to be, conservative in our approach and our budgeting and our expenses. I think generally speaking, most towns in the state of North Carolina are doing well, although there are pockets of, especially in the rural areas of our state where communities are struggling and a lot of that. You know, it’s because of the lack of growth and lack of development and the depopulation. Luckily enough for us here in the town of Clayton, we are seeing more people pour in.

We’re seeing a lot of development activity, and those companies specifically larger developers who [00:21:00] want a Class A product, right, are going to demand water and sewer utilities. And that’s where we can come in as a service provider and make sure they have access to those utilities that they require.

I think long gone are the days. Where it was seen as a negative for double taxation at the County and the town. case in point, Holly Springs, they’ve had tremendous amount of project activity there. They’ve landed three major pharmaceutical deals, both of which will be on town and County taxation tax rolls.

And so there was, I, I think back in the, especially in the eighties and, and before there was this idea, don’t. Put industry in towns. I think maybe there were some towns that actually encouraged that as well because of the idea that being dirty or noisy or whatever. But more now, today than ever before, we’re seeing companies actually wanting to be inside municipalities so they can take advantage of those services.

But you hit on another great point. You know, the town of Clayton is about 32,000 people, but we’re servicing every day, probably about 60,000 people because all those people that live in the area are coming to the [00:22:00] town of Clayton for their services. Parks are a great example, but it also goes to a whole number of other things that they’re taking advantage of that they’re not necessarily having to pay taxes for. And so that’s, that’s kind of the rub between etj, you know, involuntary annexations, or it’s voluntary annexation and the like. But at the end of the day, you know, the town of the Clayton is in a good, sh good health position as far as financially and service delivery wise. And I, I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, well the last question we ask everybody on this podcast, what do you love most about Johnson County?

Joseph Stallings: I love the fact that it feels like home. And there’s, I, I’ve traveled the world. I’ve been all over the place living in a few different spots, but there’s no place, and I would rather be than right here in Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Johnston County’s the best, and I always say it’s the people. Absolutely the people. Almost everybody. We’re well over a hundred episodes now and, and the people and the hometown feel. and everybody is, is, is, is nice and, and, accommodating. It’s still the south, just, and and, I think even the people from the north that are moving here are [00:23:00] adjusting and, and even becoming nicer.

I think it’s rubbing off it.

Joseph Stallings: Let’s hope.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Right. So anyway. Well, we’d like to thank Joe Stallings, the Clayton Economic Development Director for coming and being on this episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. If you have. Any questions for Joe or the town of Clayton, you can reach out to him with At the town website.

Joseph Stallings: Town website. Or just shoot me an email at JStallings@townofclaytonnc.org.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. So you can reach out to him. We’d be glad to answer any questions you have. If you know any businesses that might be looking to locate in this area, definitely reach out to him or reach out to Chris Johnson. His office, is at the airport in Smithfield, because this area is absolutely exploding. Great leadership with Joe and Chris, our county commissioners, the town board, and Clayton. I mean, like I know people get frustrated about the growth, but like they’re all doing a really, really good job and you don’t have to travel a whole lot of places to realize how good our town boards and our county commissioners are doing. At least in my opinion, managing this [00:24:00] growth that you just. You’re not going to stop. You just have to make it as good as you can. If you wouldn’t mind as we mentioned like, follow, subscribe to the podcast, share it on your instagram stories. Tag us best of johnston County. Also leave us a five star review down below, and let, so we can let others know what you love about this podcast, which is you love Johnson County as much as I do. Until next time, i’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

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