Only 45 miles separate Wilson and Raleigh, but their trajectories are distinct. While Wake County’s population nearly tripled since 1990, Wilson County advanced 19%, and declined during the 2010s. Median family income in Wilson is about half as much as in tech and government powerhouse Wake.
It’s been a bumpy road for Wilson, which is famous in North Carolina for its barbecue restaurants, former tobacco warehouses and Truist predecessor BB&T.
But the county’s economic fortunes are turning, which local chamber chief Ryan Simons calls “an overnight success that has been decades in the making.”
In early October, Johnson & Johnson said it would invest
$2 billion near Wilson to manufacture medicines. Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of the world’s largest healthcare products company, expects to employ 420 people by 2031 with salaries averaging almost $109,000, J&J is in line for about $30 million in incentives from the state and $54 million from the city of Wilson and Wilson County.
The record investment for the area continues a series of expansions that stem from decades of groundwork, notes Jennifer Lantz, who has led the Wilson County Economic Development Corp. since 1989.
County officials started Wilson Corporate Park in the early 1990s and it now will be home to operations of five major pharma operations: Merck, Fresenius Kabi, Purdue, Reckitt and J&J. While J&J is building a factory, Reckitt plans to make Mucinex and other products at a site formerly owned by Novartis.
“We’re very much patient about who we will put in the park,” Lantz says.
Economic developers often talk about collaboration, but Lantz says the J&J deal was more than a cliché. She cites state lawmakers for approving construction of a Wilson Community College worker-training site and the Golden LEAF Foundation for pledging $13 million for equipment for the college building. She also credits city and state officials for approving more than $80 million in incentives, mostly tied to J&J meeting its job and investment targets.
“The new biologics training center is a big reason J&J chose to come to Wilson,” she says. “Every life sciences company needs to know that we are doing things to ensure that their workforce will be here not just today, but in five to 10 years.”
The NC Bioworks program affiliated with community colleges in Pitt, Wilson and Johnston counties enables industry entrants to secure enough training, within a few months, for an entry-level position paying $80,000 a year, Lantz says.
Wilson is also showing new energy in its downtown area after apartments and retail stores replaced the former BB&T headquarters buildings. The bank shifted headquarters to Winston-Salem in 1994, then headed to Charlotte during the 2019 merger creating Truist.
A downtown YMCA opened two years ago, while a baseball stadium to house a Milwaukee Brewers-affiliated minor-league team should debut in April.
Truist still employs about 2,000 workers in Wilson, while the city’s 1,900-worker Bridgestone tire factory has received massive investment in recent years from its Japanese parent company.
“Truist has been respectful to its roots,” says Simons, who has led the chamber since 2013. “They’ve been joined by some visionary leaders in city and area county governments who wanted to be partners to make it happen.
“I would be surprised if you are going to find the level of collaboration between local government, nonprofits and the business/industry sector as you will find in Wilson. We are all going in the same direction.” ■
