Here’s a peek at plans for Johnston County’s new Waterfront District
A new kind of mixed-use development is coming to Johnston County.
Flowers Plantation — one of the largest master-planned communities in the Triangle — has released renderings for its new Waterfront District slated to begin construction later this year. It will bring retail, restaurants, a hotel and up to 300 new residences, mostly condominiums, to the 3,000-acre property east of Clayton.
“This will be the only neo-urban-type development in the surrounding area,” Reid Stephenson, CEO of Flowers Plantation, told The N&O this week.
“Neo-urbanism” is a planning approach based on urban-design principles: walkable blocks and streets, housing and shopping in close proximity, and accessible public spaces. Historically, these types of developments have been more common in urban centers like downtown Raleigh and North Hills than in rural outposts such as Johnston County.
But that’s changing, Stephenson said. The new district will be built at the intersection of Buffalo Road and NC-42 E at Flowers Crossroads, overlooking the property’s northeast lake. It will be connected to roughly 25 miles of walking trails and sidewalks that run throughout the community, “providing easy access to all of the retail, restaurants and other commercial properties.”
The project is yet another sign of Johnston County’s growing appeal in recent years. Its population grew by 4.9% between April 2020 and July 2021, the third-fastest rate in the state, according to the latest Census data. That growth led the NC Rural Center to reclassify Johnston County from rural to urban in 2021.
“Flowers Plantation is approximately 25 minutes from downtown Raleigh. With the existing residential and commercial properties, the timing for the Waterfront District is excellent,” Stephenson said.
Once a plantation, businessman Joshua Percy Flowers began purchasing the land to farm cotton and tobacco in the late 1920s. It produced crops until the 1970s when his daughter, Rebecca Flowers, began developing the property.
Today, the community has more than 4,000 homes, with 700 apartments and 315 townhomes under construction. It’s approved for up to 7,790 single-family homes at full build.
Stephenson said the district is expected to be completed in phases over the next four years. “The total cost is undetermined, but [it] will be a multimillion-dollar project.”
This story was originally published January 20, 2023 at 10:38 AM with the headline "Here’s a peek at plans for Johnston County’s new Waterfront District."
