Details Coming Together on Economic Coup

The Town Council has taken the first step in formalizing its financial arrangement with commercial baker Northeast Foods, the town's latest economic development coup.

Town officials outlined the details of the almost $800,000 deal in a public hearing last week, and also announced they are seeking a $750,000 Community Development Block grant to help with related infrastructure.

"You're going to be happy here," Mayor Jody McLeod told company executives. "We're a good match, and we'll go to bat for you."

Town Manager Steve Biggs said the Block grant, if awarded, would require the company to make at least 60 of the anticipated 84 new jobs available to low or moderate income workers. The new jobs will average nearly $42,000 a year in salary, which is much more than the Johnston County average of $31,408.

Northeast Executive Michael Tsakalos told the Council his company is "happy to be in Clayton. We like the family atmosphere."

He said the company, which began years ago as a small family bakery in Baltimore, has grown large over the years "but we're still a family bakery." He has two brothers, five uncles and a "batch" of cousins working with him.

The company announced last week it is planning to begin work on a $25.4 million state-of-the-art commercial bakery in East Clayton this summer.

Part of the economic package that lured the company to Clayton is an Economic Development Incentive Grant from the town that's expected to amount to almost $800,000. The details of the Grant call for the town to reimburse the company's property tax payments for the next five years, plus a portion of their payments for the three years following.

The company is also expected to get about a million dollars in tax breaks from Johnston County, as well as a $350,000 grant from the NC Commerce Department's One North Carolina Fund.

Northeast Foods bakes hamburger buns for McDonalds. The new 80,000-sq.ft facility, which should be operational in about a year, will serve two Golden State Foods distribution centers, one in nearby Garner and another in Lexington, SC. The company is the largest supplier of buns for McDonald's in the United States.

BusinessWeek magazine's recent ranking of Clayton in the top 10 of the best towns in the nation for affordability and quality of schools made the town attractive, company officials said, along with the nearby Interstate highways.

The commercial baker is just the town's latest economic development success. A few weeks ago, the town succeeded in convincing drug-maker Talecris Biotherapeutics to locate a $269 million expansion here and last year lured multi-national bakery equipment manufacturer Turkington to relocate its North American operations to Clayton and equipment-maker Caterpillar to build a new Product Development Center here.