"We haven't felt it here at all," Terry Bralley, town manager of Mocksville and chairman of the Davie County Economic Development Council, tells Globest.Com. "There hasn't been any slowdown at all in our area in the past 12 months."
Mocksville has 4,000 residents and the entire county of Davie has only about 34,751 people, but the area has been growing so fast, residentially and commercially, that it has created fears of water and sewer shortages.
Davie County and Mocksville may be only an hour from Charlotte along busy I-40 but their fortune has been more tied to much-closer Winston-Salem, about 20 miles away. Population growth in the area has been about 25% to 30% a year.
"Our growth in eastern Davie County has been driven by our proximity to Winston-Salem and the Interstate," Bralley says. The area is located on I-40 near I-77, both major highways.
In addition to attracting housing, Davie County in the past five years has added three new industrial parks for a total of 250,000 sf. Leasing rates range from $3 per sf to $3.50 per sf. "All three parks have plenty of space available," Bralley says.
Leasing has gone quicker in various mixed use developments such as Kinderton, NC, on the way to Winston-Salem, a 100-acre development where shopping and office are planned along with 600 residential units. Several golf courses help anchor the planned development.
Another mixed-use project where a corporate office is being courted is Boxwood Village in Mocksville. Some of the area's first class A offices are planned, as well as medical offices, and a 132-unit, multi-family development should break ground next month.
Unlike many areas, Davie has done well enough on its own to offer only limited economic incentives. For a new $10 million cold storage plant, for example, the county gave out $200,000 in costs towards infrastructure such as roads and sewer.
Growth has been fast enough so that it was recently estimated there was only 50,000 gallons of water treatment capacity available from the City-Council Utility Commission of Winston-Salem, much less than historical demand of 142,000 gallons a year for Davie County.
"But we think we'll be able to find additional capacity with no trouble," reassures Bralley.
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David Wilkening
David Wilkening began his long journalism career as a police reporter for Chicago-area newspapers. He became a writer-editor for major newspapers in Chicago, Washington, Detroit and Florida. He has been a business editor, political editor and travel editor for newspapers and magazines. He tried for a while to be a political operative but did better as an adjunct college professor teaching English and journalism. He is the author of several books, both ghost-written and under his own name. He is also a widely published freelance writer who currently lives in Orlando.
