MrBeast scoops up more land and homes as YouTuber broadens reach across NC city

Two watchtowers stand outside MrBeast’s “top secret” filming studio, their height difficult to discern from across an expansive field. The towers weren’t erected to provide actual security. Like most of what MrBeast builds, they were there to make content.

It was a recent weekday in North Greenville, a section of the Eastern North Carolina city dense with manufacturing and pharmaceutical operations like Thermo Fisher, Catalent, Hyster-Yale forklifts, and Grady-White boats. Among these traditional employers is a new multi-million dollar complex from a thoroughly modern industry.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the world’s most popular YouTuber. At 25, he has amassed 244 million subscribers — more than any other person on the platform. Since he first went viral in 2017, his videos have featured increasingly large prize giveaways, mass acts of philanthropy, eccentric tasks and elaborate stunts all designed and edited in the city where Donaldson was raised.

There is evidence of MrBeast across Greenville, a college town of 89,000 divided by the Tar River in Pitt County. Locals will see luxury sports cars zip past. The local fire department has issued public noise warnings ahead of certain stunts. And East Carolina University is developing an online content creator program in partnership with the city’s most famous resident.

It’s far from shocking to meet someone in Greenville who’s appeared in a MrBeast video. Several have won cash, jewelry, cars, even an island. But other MrBeast signs are more subtle. Like the new studio built on land Donaldson purchased in 2021 through an entity called Creative Grid LLC. No name or logo indicates it is a MrBeast building, but Pitt County records connect the facility to the YouTuber.

‘Still trying to grasp how do we best help?’

In a 2022 interview, Donaldson showed off this $14 million facility, which includes a 50,000 square-foot warehouse called Studio C where he and his team construct dream-like sets. Three years ago, Creative Grid also bought a 28-acre field outside the complex, which is where the watchtowers recently hovered above several big ramps, mounds of straw and a makeshift structure simply labeled “Bank.”

It isn’t clear if these were all for a specific stunt, but a previous MrBeast competition did award $100,000 to whoever first pretend “robbed” a fake “bank.”

Last year, Donaldson acquired more land around the complex, county property records show, with Creative Grid scooping up an additional 95 acres. Part of this property was sold by the Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance, a nonprofit promoting the city’s business profile.

“He’s operating in a new industry that even the state and localities are still trying to grasp how do we best help?” Greenville ENC Alliance president Josh Lewis said.

The News & Observer asked MrBeast, the business, what the company intends to do with the North Greenville land it purchased last year but did not hear back. Nor did MrBeast share its local headcount, which Lewis estimates to be “closer to 200 direct employees” along with a steady flow of construction and video contractors.

Donaldson has previously discussed his disinterest in relocating MrBeast operations to a larger city, citing the affordability and support of his Eastern North Carolina community. Every job position currently posted on the company’s website is based in Greenville.

Chatting with MrBeast’s neighbors

Property records also shed light on Donaldson’s residential holdings. In 2019, he spent $318,000 on a single-family home in a quiet upper-middle-class neighborhood south of downtown Greenville named Windsor. Over the next three years, he purchased four surrounding houses, forming a cluster of MrBeast houses near a cul-de-sac on a street called Royal Drive.

These properties ranged in price from $260,000 to $680,000. One former owner, who requested to speak anonymously, said she wasn’t looking to leave the neighborhood when MrBeast’s team approached her in 2021. After the owner rejected offers on the house from MrBeast intermediaries, Donaldson called her himself.

“He asked what it would take to complete the deal,” she said.

The former owner acknowledges she received above market value for the house but wasn’t pleased with being bought out of a home in which she had only recently moved.

Neighbors on Royal Drive say the prominent social media influencer hasn’t upset the street’s tranquility. “Unless you know, you wouldn’t know that he operates around over there,” Malcom Dcosta said.

Another neighbor, Raymond Neelon, said kids used to approach MrBeast for autographs when they saw him on the street. This stopped, Neelon said, after Donaldson seemed to stop casually going out in the neighborhood.

Job postings for MrBeast, the business, offer new employees 90 days of company-provided housing, suggesting one possible use of the homes today.

But it’s unclear how often Donaldson lives in the neighborhood. It’s been reported he routinely films up to 15 hours a day, and he keeps a small apartment at the North Greenville studios to remove a commute.

Small city, big celebrity

Though Donaldson has scaled back his appearances around Greenville, he used the city as a playground when he was starting out on YouTube. Just from walking around Greenville, residents might pass a tree full of money or be given $10,000 without explanation. A camera crew chasing a Lamborghini started making sense in a small city historically known for farming and tobacco.

Once, in 2019, Donaldson’s brother CJ spent 24 hours in a dumpster behind the popular downtown bar Sup Dogs.

“I remember another time we were in the middle of lunch and like 100 Zombies in full paint walked in and just started walking everywhere in our restaurant,” said Sup Dogs owner Bret Oliverio. “That was him. And a member of his crew once pulled up in a car made of Legos.”

But today, random street stunts have largely been swapped for highly produced spectacles contained within Studio C or in locations far outside Greenville. The new studios have sound-proof ceilings, and the Greenville fire and rescue department hasn’t made a public noise alert for a stunt in more than a year.

Many of Donaldson’s crew members have become famous in their own right, and locals also note their presence around town. But as for MrBeast himself, even his hometown isn’t immune to the unprecedented hype that shadows a person with 244 million followers.

Oliverio, who had a front row seat to Donaldson’s career, said he’s scaled back his visits to Sup Dogs.

“People respect him and he’s not overly bothered or annoyed,” said Oliverio. “But I do think we’re probably one of the most high-volume restaurants in Greenville, and a busy restaurant might not be a place where he wants to spend a ton of time.”