Sampson County: well-positioned for growth
By Scott Nunn, posted Jan 28, 2022 on BizFayetteville.com
It may be the second-largest pork-producing area in the nation, but Sampson County remains hungry. It’s not the kind of hunger a barbecue plate can satisfy, but a hunger for new and expanding companies, both small and large, according to Stephen Barrington, executive director of the Sampson County Economic Development Commission.
“Sampson County and our local municipalities are hungry for growth,” Barrington told the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal recently.
Perhaps overshadowed by its status atop the pork industry (the county is second only to neighboring Duplin in hog production, according to Farm-Journal.com), Sampson does have a growing industrial base.
“Sampson County is known for its amazing agriculture – crops and animals. We are proud of this,” Barrington said. “However, one only needs to delve into [the] data to see that Sampson County has a [diverse] industrial base. There are numerous sub-industries that have a strong location quotient that speaks to its competitiveness across the country.”
In the past year, Barrington said, the county landed two significant companies – Montauk Ag Renewables and Garland Apparel Group, which is already expanding its new facility.
Once both are fully operational – in 3-5 years – their combined presence will yield over $150 million to the county’s annual tax base and 350 new jobs, according to Barrington.
“This said,” he added, “there is plenty of room to further our community’s growth and diversification of business and industry.”
With 946 square miles of land – a close second to nearby Robeson– Sampson County has plenty of space for industrial and commercial development. But having land – even when it can be purchased at a good price – doesn’t necessarily draw employers.
Companies need infrastructure and, these days, often are looking for an existing building to expedite startup times.
“The single biggest obstacle Sampson County currently has with regards to economic development is the lack of industrial buildings,” Barrington said. “75 to 80 percent of all prospect inquiries are focused on existing buildings or shell buildings.”
And not just any building. Barrington said clear ceiling heights are important as are floor thickness and numerous other variables.
David Stroud is vice president for industrial and land services at APG Advisors, a large, Raleigh-based commercial real estate firm that covers much of the state.
“There's often land, plenty of land, but your infrastructure … that’s the biggest need,” said Stroud, the broker for the Liberty Point industrial park in Hope Mills, where the U.S. Postal Service recently opened a facility. “You can sit down and find plenty of land for three or four thousand dollars an acre – cheap land – but it's gonna cost you three million bucks just to bring sewer, things like that. So that’s often what makes it prohibitive.”
Like Barrington, Stroud says businesses often are looking for a specific type of structure, which means a new building – whether spec or built-to-suit – may be more likely to attract an employer. Instead of the large but-flat buildings of the past – which is much of North Carolina’s older stock – businesses want taller, more efficient spaces.
“They can stack multiple levels,” Stroud said. “From a distribution standpoint, they want to maximize how high they can stack. So if you are looking at older buildings, they often are in the 16-to-18 foot range. Now everything being built is 32 feet.”
With new construction technology such as insulated panels, the buildings also are much more energy efficient, a stark contrast to the spacious and airy older industrial buildings, such as textile and apparel plants.
“Water and sewer infrastructure – availability, capacity, flow – is another significant obstacle we continue to run into across the county,” Barrington said. “Available and sufficient natural gas and electricity, at times, provide challenges, though to a lesser extent.”
As for actually obtaining the land for possible spec buildings, Barrington sees that as an existing strong point.
“The county’s biggest strength, currently, as related to economic development opportunities, is the county board of commissioners’ vision and investment in land acquisition for future industrial development,” he said. “Over the last 16 months, the county has invested approximately $2.5 million in land acquisitions. An additional 120 acres was purchased within Clinton’s existing industrial park, Sampson Southeast Business Center.”
Barrington said that the county also has purchased 20 acres in the western part of Sampson. “The latter property has a couple of existing buildings in which we are identifying the feasibility of upfitting those buildings or putting up new ones in its place,” he said.
Another challenge for Sampson is a common one in many North Carolina counties, especially rural and smaller areas.
“Talent continues to be an issue, not only in Sampson County, but across the country,” Barrington said. “It is important that we understand our regional talent characteristics, and inbound and outbound migration patterns.”
Barrington said the need to provide existing and would-be employers with qualified employees has been on the county’s radar for a while, but the COVID outbreak has magnified the issue.
“Workforce will continue to be an important topic for existing and new companies,” he said. “We will continue to support Sampson Community College, local school systems’ Career and Technical Education (CTE), and business and industry efforts to move the needle.”
Jim Anthony, CEO and founder of APG Advisors, thinks Sampson has the potential for something big … really big. While nearby Cumberland and Wayne counties have been on a roll in attracting industry [both benefit from large retired-military populations], neither has what Sampson could offer – a true megasite that could work for a giant employer such as an auto manufacturer.
Compared to some thriving neighboring counties, Sampson has struggled to attract job creators, Anthony said. With the right groups on board – notably the state and the county – and with some inventiveness, Anthony says, the county could make itself stand out in a state that is experiencing, according to many observers, the biggest industrial-development booms in its history
“One of those inventive ideas,” he said, “would be, ‘Hey, let's put together a super site. Because we have all this vacant land, we can put together 10,000 acres for somebody.’”
There aren't many such places, if any, in the rest of the state, Anthony said.
As an official of a government agency that must answer to the wider community, not just prospective businesses, Barrington has a more-modest vision.
“Our team is continuously identifying new industrial sites, including a potential mega site,” he said. “Ideally, we would like to set the stage over the next handful of years to have the infrastructure and property to compete for a larger manufacturer.” “Our proactive business recruitment efforts, however, are not focused on whale hunting,” Barrington explained. “We are focused on diverse companies that need 10,000– 150,000 square feet and employ 15-250 people. We believe this is our community’s bread and butter.”
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