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Economic developments in the Midlands


krazeeboi

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Doug Woodward taught my International Trade class back in the day. He's a really smart guy.

This sums up the problem I've seen though:

Despite the attractiveness of Main Street, new sidewalks have drawn few retailers. North Main Street runs through a largely poor area, making it even less likely that improvements will attract business.

Having formerly worked on Main Street, it's really depressing how unsuccessful some businesses have been there. I'm glad to see some new faces finally emerging, but only time will tell if it has been worth the effort.

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself though...it's entirely likely that once the tower at Main & Gervais is done, more business will come back to Main street, and street-level retail will re-emerge just as the economy is turning around.

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Doug Woodward taught my International Trade class back in the day. He's a really smart guy.

This sums up the problem I've seen though:

Having formerly worked on Main Street, it's really depressing how unsuccessful some businesses have been there. I'm glad to see some new faces finally emerging, but only time will tell if it has been worth the effort.

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself though...it's entirely likely that once the tower at Main & Gervais is done, more business will come back to Main street, and street-level retail will re-emerge just as the economy is turning around.

I think that in order for people to come to main street, we need more people living there. All though all the office workers could support businesses, you don't really see them staying there long. Instead of wig shops and empty stores, a pharmacy, drug store or something like that should do well there. We don't need it full of restaurants and bars necessarily.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

A high-tech business incubator is being planned for downtown Columbia. The $4.5 million Innovation Center is to be located across Assembly from the Swearigen Engineering Building in a 73,000 sq ft brick warehouse (next to the Citgo and Plasma Services). Article

Some hightlights:

- Aligned with USC

- Larger than other incubators in the Midlands

- Last step before high-tech companies are on their own

- Rent rates will be 50 to 60% of market rate

- Building renovations could start as soon as July or August

This is excellent news, we need more home grown companies, especially high-tech high-paying ones.

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  • 2 weeks later...

^You would think every mid-sized and major city in the US is pretty much on the same boat.

Didn't know where to post this picture, but wanted to show the size of Aspyre, just below Carolina Walk gameday condos. The brick warehouse on the left and in front of Aspyre will house the new high-tech business incubator mentioned a few posts back.

IMG_7750-1.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Collexis seems to be doing well. The company reports that its BioMedExperts.com website is growing at a fast rate with over 145,000 registered users. They think that they will get a boost since the stimulus funding targets scientific research. Its good to see an Innovista company doing well.

Article

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A group of USC students will be talking with Mayor Bob Coble and USC President Harris Pastides about making the university and Columbia leaders in the new green economy. The attached article is from the Charleston Post and Courier. The P&C lately seems to be no longer afraid to report on good things coming out of Columbia.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/ap..._usc_president/

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