Carlton Farms project ‘is a match made in heaven’

SALISBURY — “People make deals, not companies. It’s relational,” said John Barker Jr., president and chief development officer of Red Rock Developments, as he spoke at the Oct. 17 Power in Partnership Breakfast.

He began as he encourages company employees, which is to share about themselves and put things in context as he shared about the project Red Rock Developments is spearheading on Long Ferry Road.

Barker shared personal and company background noting that the company is a faith-based company which began in 2007 and is directed by God and family.

Population growth is coming this way, he said, and that is where they are focusing their development, having this project in Rowan County and surrounding areas including Atlanta, Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina.

The Rowan County project, Carlton Farms, is “a match made in heaven,” Barker said.

They began working with the Carlton family in 2019 to acquire the three farms, totaling 379 acres.

In the development process, Barker said they felt it was “very important to develop in a way to reflect who the family is. This will always be the Carlton family land, so it’s very important to us to give them that legacy and so we did it by branding them Carlton Farms to honor them.”

And the family trusts them to do the right thing to make nice looking, good and diverse buildings.

Red Rock sat down with the community not to ask for incentives, but to say “here’s what we’re thinking. What’s your reaction to that?” and he said it was a good meeting with good conversations.

This led to his first point of why this site is special. Community leadership and support are important.

He said, “the community had a need and Red Rock had a need and we’re coming together,” and said he thinks this match was made by God.

There are 2.7 million square feet of space available, and he said it’s the company’s objective to build speculative buildings in a variety of sizes, saying that “diversity creates strength” referring to diversity in building sizes because not everyone needs a big building. This was intentional because Rowan County wants a mix of buildings.

The company, he said, is designing these buildings to accommodate manufacturing and logistics companies.

Additional criteria included in his PowerPoint that makes this site important is it’s in the middle of two large metro areas, Charlotte and Greensboro, thus providing a more dynamic and available workforce.

Not only can the workforce be pulled from those two areas, but, he said many from Rowan County drive to Charlotte who have skills that could be used here.

A third criteria is the site has a “runway which would allow Red Rock to develop over time, not a one and done site” thus allowing them to do multiple buildings.

Diversity in product type, small, medium and large buildings for manufacturers and distribution was another factor, along with good infrastructure, good roads and an active DOT that listened to leadership

The property’s proximity to I-85, fair incentive policy, great recruitment from the EDC and chamber and reasonable and patient partners in the Carlton families rounded out the remainder of these criteria.

Other developments of theirs are farms and he noted they have a farm motif going on and explained the importance saying there are businesses that have few trees, but they feel having land and trees can have an impact on the employees.

“If I can do something to have an impact on them, maybe I’m impacting their day and they will be more productive or the employees will be happier.”

From the viewpoint of those buying or leasing, he said occupants will be “looking at the community” and shared criteria for them. The top five criteria on his list included proximity to raw materials, transportation infrastructure, access to labor, cost of labor and utility availability and cost.

“You as a leader can look at these things,” he said “and ponder how do we continue to make Rowan County great, to pay attention to the things you can change.”

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