Charlotte Companies moving to Lancaster, SC

[infobuff]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet on the Forum, but what are your thoughts about Charlotte companies moving to Lancaster, SC? This appears to be a trend, so I'm wondering how this will affect: sprawl, Charlotte in general, and NC in the future.

I'm not sure if Lancaster County is offically counted in the Charlotte MSA.

[Raintree21]

This seems to be a topic that pops up on the news radars every now and then. It was in The Observer or on one of the news websites recently. It seems that companies are always threatening to move to SC so that they can get incentives to stay from Charlotte, even if they have no intention of actually moving. It seems that if a company just mentions moving, the City Council starts throwing money at them.

[monsoon]

Lancaster is in its own micropolitan area so it is not counted as part of the Charlotte MSA.

Lancaster has a couple of geographic disadvantages. First only a thin sliver of the county is close to Mecklenburg so the vast majority of the county is too far away from Charlotte to share in its economy. And while Hwy 521 is a very nice road, it is not an Interstate and there are no interstates in the county which is another major disadvantage. Companies looking to relocated to SC are probably going to go to York.

[teshadoh]

Lancaster County is part of Charlotte's CSA though.

Unfortunately it is just part of the bigger picture - the dispersal of office centers to not just 'edge cities' but 'edgeless cities' (compare South Park to Pineville / Hwy 51 corridor). And even more unfortunate, it illustrates the issue of the greater metro - it doesn't matter if Charlotte is following the guidelines for smart growth if the rest of the metro counties aren't (i.e. Atlanta / Atlanta metro).

But as long as Charlotte can retain the 'big' corporations, then I think that is a very positive sign. Particularly if larger businesses that the smaller businesses depend on, flex some muscle in order to encourage a greater civic minded prescence.

[dubone]

i imagine some ballantyne-style residential will spill into lancaster county, but major business relations. for some reason, i have the impression that lancaster county wants to maintain a rural image.

[atlrvr]

More than you would imagine. The first link is from this weeks business journal.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte.../18/story3.html

This is a blurb from a relase last fall:

Alemite Corp. Relocates to Lancaster County

Alemite Corp., a producer of lubrication and fluid handling equipment for the automotive industry and others announced plans in November to relocate its international corporate headquarters from Charlotte to Lancaster County, S.C. The company will invest $2.5 million in the move, which is expected to create 45 jobs.

There was another big announcement in the last several months involving a media production company to open in Lancaster (this is not the Front Door deal that fell through). I'm not sure if this is a new company or a move from Charlotte or elsewhere, but it was a significant number of jobs.