128 replies to this topic

[hub-city]

I didn't see any plans, so is the addition going to be serviced by the new B-M interchange or Hwy. 101?  Doesn't really matter, just curious.

Edited by hub-city, 11 March 2008 - 07:17 PM.

[Spartan]

Spartanburg County is getting another job boost. A new company is set to open up in Duncan and employ 120 people.

Article

[Spartan]

This was posted in the Greenville Forum, but I thought my fellow Spartans might appreciate this:

gsupstate, on May 1 2008, 10:28 AM, said:

Excellent article here titled: "The Southeast - Dispelling the Economic Gloom"    GSA is called out along with Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte and Atlanta as one of the most attractive business locations.

http://www.metrocorp...mp;EntryNo=8267

A bit from the article:

The following areas in the Southeast were identified as the most attractive locations for the following reasons:
In South Carolina: Greenville/Spartanburg/ Anderson Counties because all three have access to small, international airports, as well as direct interstate connection to the nearby ports of Charleston and Savannah. All of the advantages listed in the preceding paragraph fully apply in this tri-county region, which already boasts a large number of national and international companies. The region offers a superior quality of life and very solid public and private education, as well as a very strong university presence with Clemson, Furman, Wofford and excellent technical colleges with flexibility in creating training programs. Greenville possesses a heavy concentration of foreign companies and all that is ancillary to them.

In Georgia: Atlanta offers all the advantages associated with a major metropolitan area. One firm emphasized that from Atlanta you can do business anywhere in the world because you can fly out of Atlanta or have your clients fly directly in.

In North Carolina: Charlotte offers a world class financial service infrastructure, while Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill offer a superior knowledge and technology focus.

[roads-scholar]

This morning's H-J reports that a Clifton, N.J.-based manufacturer of high-quality hermetic seals, plans to relocate its production operations to Spartanburg. Platronics Seals is investing $2 million to renovate a vacant industrial building at exit 1 off Business 85. The company said it expected the move to create 20 new jobs.

This is not a huge investment but in my opinion an interesting one.  Here's a company from busy Northern New Jersey that obviously finds the Spartanburg area attractive.  Moreover, an otherwise empty building is being renovated - at an investment of 2 million.  I think that's pretty impressive!

[Spartan]

Yeah, I'm not super excited about 20 jobs, but renovating an older industrial operation gets some major kudos from me. And in this economy, pretty much any economic development is good. Its really amazing how everything has dropped off in terms of development in the past 6 months. I mean, there have been a few things, but it hasn't been at the level its been for the past few years. This is from my semi-outside perspective of course.

[roads-scholar]

The credit markets are extremely tight right now.  In other words, lenders are ultra cautious about loaning money, particularly for commercial projects.  The long-awaited Easton development will probably be delayed and perhaps downsized until the money starts flowing again.

[Spartan]

I think that filling up Hillcrest Shopping Center with national tenants is more likely at this point than Easton being constructed.

[breed]

erm1981, on Feb 12 2008, 12:12 PM, said:

How did Greenville and Anderson come out as far as building permits?  I know its off topic but just wondering.

Here are the latest numbers... development is slowing across the Upstate, it appears to be impacting Spartanburg and Anderson more than Greenville and Pickens.  That's not surprising.  When things get slow, the development that struggles are those in less developed areas... as they present a little more risk.  Applies more to Greenville than Pickens.  Pickens is small, so just one project going through or not going through can send the numbers flying in either direction.  This is a short-term issue though, as growth is continuing and we have minimal price speculation.

Spartanburg County
2008 Q1 303 (1212 pace)
2007 1646
2006 2156
2005 2131
2004 2219
2003 2081
2002 1986
2001 1572
2000 1567
1999 2020
1998 1774

Greenville County
2008 Q1 950 (3800 pace)
2007 4665
2006 4495
2005 4290
2004 3770
2003 3604
2002 3299
2001 3259
2000 3411
1999 4037
1998 3321

Anderson County
2008 Q1 156 (624 pace)
2007 1226
2006 1596
2005 1931
2004 1248
2003 1384
2002 1554
2001 1117
2000 1110
1999 1323
1998 1536

Pickens County
2008 Q1 192 (768 pace)
2007 572
2006 893
2005 599
2004 1065
2003 752
2002 853
2001 795
2000 611
1999 843
1998 741

Totals
2008 Q1 1601 (6404 pace)
2007 8109
2006 9140
2005 8951
2004 8302
2003 7821
2002 7692
2001 6743
2000 6699
1999 8223
1998 7372

Edited by breed, 09 May 2008 - 08:56 AM.

[roads-scholar]

Spartanburg's median home price rises, defies nationwide trend as reported in this morning's H-J.  

In spite of the headline, I don't think Spartanburg's real estate market is booming but I do think the wisdom of not overbuilding and over speculating has helped to maintain a stable market.

[Spartan]

Being 3rd in the nation is not bad at all. I think that we shouldn't downplay what this is, but that we should also take it in context. Relative to larger cities, we have fewer housing units, so it takes less change to make more of an impact (for better or for worse). I think its pretty obvious that the market is down given the fact that we have seen zero new projects announced in the past few months. The subdivisions that are being built now were probably approved well before this recession. So, having said all of that, the fact that we are bucking the national trend is definitely a good thing. Since we know BMW is expanding, I think we will be able to maintain if not improve our status, regardless of the national trends.

Article

[Spartan]

Some major bad news for Spartanburg... the Steadman Hawkins Clinic- a world-class orthopedic center that focuses on research and education might by leaving. The reason is because Mary Black Memorial was purchased by a new corporate hospital management company with completely different ideals than the previous owner. This new company is purely profit driven, and apparently has no use for education and research. Not only will they be bad corporate citizens for Spartanburg, they are running off one of our most significant white collar investments in the past few years. Nothing has been made "official" yet, but the article makes the situation seem pretty dire. They operate a surgery clinic at Mary Black in Spartanburg as well as GHS's Patewood Campus in Greenville.

I sincerely hope that they find a way to stay in Spartanburg, but in all honesty I can see this one been gobbled up by Greenville, because the Greenville Hospital System has a relationship with the USC School of Medicine, and has a much more dedicated research priority than Mary Black. Perhaps Spartanburg Regional will step up and help this group stay in town. Their loss would be a huge blow to Spartanburg. Not in terms of jobs, but in terms of reputation. Do we really want to be known as a community that can't retain research jobs?

Herald-Journal Article

[roads-scholar]

This news is terribly depressing since big things were envisioned when Steadman Hawkins and Mary Black announced their partnership four years ago.  

Spartanburg lost Hubbell Lighting to Greenville and now might lose Steadman Hawkins too.  I'm not angry with Greenville and not really blaming Spartanburg.  Greedy corporate executives are only interested in their earnings statements and don't give a damn about Spartanburg.  Sadly this is happening all over the country, not just here.  Personally, I'm happy to see foreign ownership of American companies.  CEO's overseas are more interested in building relationships (with suppliers, customers, employees, and their communities) rather than short term financial goals.

[Jael]

roads-scholar, on Jun 18 2008, 03:46 PM, said:

Personally, I'm happy to see foreign ownership of American companies.  CEO's overseas are more interested in building relationships (with suppliers, customers, employees, and their communities) rather than short term financial goals.

Oh, like Ahold?

[Spartan]

roads-scholar, on Jun 18 2008, 03:46 PM, said:

This news is terribly depressing since big things were envisioned when Steadman Hawkins and Mary Black announced their partnership four years ago.  

Spartanburg lost Hubbell Lighting to Greenville and now might lose Steadman Hawkins too.  I'm not angry with Greenville and not really blaming Spartanburg.  Greedy corporate executives are only interested in their earnings statements and don't give a damn about Spartanburg.  Sadly this is happening all over the country, not just here.  Personally, I'm happy to see foreign ownership of American companies.  CEO's overseas are more interested in building relationships (with suppliers, customers, employees, and their communities) rather than short term financial goals.

Yeah they said that it would play a role in reinventing the Eastside. I was under the perception that much of the commercial growth that has occurred there was in anticipation of this supposed Eastside residential boom. I could be wrong about that though because there has been some moderate residential growth on Zion Hill Rd and off of Fernwood-Glendale Rd.

Its certainly not Spartanburg's fault this time around, but it doesn't help our cause IF they move to Greenville. And that is a MAJOR assumption on my part. They could just leave SC altogether. Its simply unfortunate that we got a bad corporate partner to invest in Mary Black. I think its pretty well proven that hospitals associated with research universities have a better reputation. Good hospitals are not exclusively tied to universities (Regional is one of the best in the state, and it has no research affiliation that I'm aware of).

Also, I don't have a problem with hospitals making a profit (I'm all for that) but those that are purely profit based would have more of a reason to scam patients. Bad management can ruin a hospital.

[Spartan]

Spartanburg is one of three places in the country that has seen a double digit gains in "the percentage of existing homes under contract during May." It shows that our economy is doing pretty well for itself considering national trends...

HJ Article

[Sparkleman]

Spartan, on Jul 12 2008, 06:29 PM, said:

Spartanburg is one of three places in the country that has seen a double digit gains in "the percentage of existing homes under contract during May." It shows that our economy is doing pretty well for itself considering national trends...

HJ Article

This is good news as I bought my house last year and was beginning to think I might have over paid.

[hub-city]

SC is planing an impact study concerning our railroad systems and their potential fo new economic development.  The article mentions the possibility of connecting our ports to "mega" sites in the Upstate.  With the rail infrastructure that we have in place, could this be the rebirth of our "hub city"

LINK from HJ

[Spartan]

While I would like to keep most of the general discussion about passenger rail in the topic located here: SC Passenger Rail ... I think a discussion about this development as it relates to Spartanburg specifically is ok.

In general, I would like to see a larger, more "official" looking train station. It would be awesome if this means that I could take the train down from Charlotte in a few years and be able to arrive in Spartanburg at a reasonable hour.

[hub-city]

A nice article in today's HJ about Spartanburg's BMW plant and the money it has poured into the Upstate and SC as a whole.  It sounds like it should do nothing but keep getting bigger.

ARTICLE

[Sparkleman]

It powers 65% of my business with food and drug plants taking care of the rest.