County Commissioners Exercise Option to Purchase Land for Clayton Medical Campus

With the county’s help, Johnston Community College is a step closer to building a medical campus in Clayton.

County Commissioners on Oct. 20 exercised their option to purchase roughly 51.5 acres on Johnson Estate Road near UNC Health Johnston’s Clayton hospital. Commissioners secured the option at their meeting on Sept. 15.

“As soon as you approved that transaction, we got to work on due diligence,” County Attorney Jennifer Slusser told Commissioners at their most recent meeting. To date, the county has surveyed the tract, identified wetlands and completed an environmental assessment. “Everything was good with that,” Slusser said.

Now the County is working on access to the tract, both from Johnson Estate Road and nearby Springbrook Drive. So far, the news there is good.

“We’ve had some communications with the Town of Clayton and have been assured that any development on the adjacent properties over by Springbrook would be required to stub out to our property,” Slusser said.

The county had until Oct. 21 to exercise the option.

“We are prepared to move forward with closing by the end of the month, which is what the contract requires,” Slusser said. She cautioned commissioners that the deal to pay $6.4 million for the land could still fall through. The geotechnical survey, for example, could find flaws with the land. If that happens, “our remedy is not to close,” Slusser said, noting that the County would lose only the $5,000 it spent on the option to purchase.

Though the County is buying the land with a JCC medical campus in mind, the college has no immediate plans to begin work.

Page last updated on:  November 14, 2025