The Courtney Pogue Files
Title: Director of the Clayton County Office of Economic Development and Film
Age: 42
Residence: Gwinnett County (Why Gwinnett? So he could be closer to his mother who lives in Snellville.)
Education: Undergraduate degree from Howard University and master’s in business administration from the University of Notre Dame. He is a licensed managing real estate broker.
A snapshot of Clayton County
Population: 270,000
Median Household Income: $42,569
Unemployment rate: 6.6 percent*
Labor Force: 125,410
Retail space: 18 million square feet
* December 2015
A poor perception of Clayton County has kept people from learning about the milestones the county has achieved in the last few years, Clayton’s economic development czar told a group of business and government leaders Thursday morning.
Courtney Pogue left Cook County, Ill. - the country’s second largest county - last summer to head Clayton’s Office of Economic Development and Film, a task that he said has held several pleasant surprises for him in his nearly eight months on the job.
While Clayton’s 6.6 percent unemployment rate is still the highest in the metro area, the county has shown the greatest improvement among the metro counties in its unemployment rate in the last year, Pogue told the audience gathered at Clayton State University for the Chamber of Commerce’s monthly breakfast. Unemployment fell from 8.4 percent to 6.6 percent. The actual number of unemployed people in Clayton is about 8,000 compared to 18,000 in Cobb and about 26,000 in Fulton, Pogue said.
“Clayton really hasn’t told its story,” Pogue said. “So now we have to get out and tell the story.”
He noted that the county continues to have a tough time attract certain retailers like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods because its median household income of $42,529 is still about $20,000 below the income levels they look at when determining to open stores in a community.
“We have to raise our income,” Pogue said. “We have to attract certain jobs.”
Thursday’s breakfast session was Pogue’s first public assessment of the county since he arrived in July. Pogue told the group he hopes to create or bring in 1,000 new jobs and $50 million in new private investment by the end of the year. Before coming to Clayton, Pogue oversaw 150 projects in Cook County valued at more than $800 million.
Pogue sat down with Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Tammy Joyner after his talk.
Q. What is your biggest challenge in selling Clayton County?
A. The perception of the county. Once we meet people on a one-on-one basis or various meetings, the lightbulb comes on. We talk about (Clayton having) the largest labor force in south metro, the $2.9 billion in retail sales and we talk about Clayton’s unparallelled assess: four interstates and the airport and Norfolk Southern rail lines run through the county.
Q. As Clayton’s economic czar, how would you assess the county’s current condition?
A. It’s definitely improving, stabilizing. The concern before was there was a perception about the county. People had a lot of misinformation . Clayton’s unemployment rate showed the largest improvement of any other metro Atlanta county last year. We have $2.9 million in annual retail sales. Clayton had one of the best wage growth of any metro Atlanta county in the past year. A weekly paycheck in Clayton averages $977.
Q. How many jobs were created in Clayton last year?
A. We saw 1,800 to 2,000 jobs created in the private sector.
Q. What are some of your top priorities this year?
A. I want to focus on logistics and transportation, manufacturing,warehousing and working with our retail businesses in the county. I’m looking to attract some major retailers down here and I want to look at some catalytic large-scale projects and working more with the film and TV entertainment industry. Last year, about 17 productions were shot in Clayton County. I also want to make sure Clayton remains active in the Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance.
Q. What is your assessment of the religious liberty bill currently before the legislature? What do you think its potential impact will be on Clayton and the film industry?
A. We’re still evaluating the overall bill and assessing it impact. We want to make sure we talk to our state delegates about it. Our goal is to maintain the economic vitality of the county.
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