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Spartanburg Area Economic Developments


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I'm sure BMW will hire more workers but you have to understand if they are building more cars, they are going to need more seats, wind screens, mirriors, etc. This means the suppliers are going to have to turn out more parts and do more coating and painting of these parts. Plus a couple of companies that I work with handle a lot of warranty work for BMW such as repairing bumpers and fenders. This has caused an increase in employees and these companies as well as others.

There is a rumor out there right now that with the presence of ICAR in the Greenville area that Volkswagon is looking to possibly locate a manufacturing facility nearby. If this is the case, you could well have another BMW size plant on the map.

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This is moderately good news. A small CPA firm called Strovolo & Co. has relocated to downtown from is suburban westside location. They've invested about $20k into their building at 189 S Converse St. They say they want to "aggressively" grow. Its always good to have more companies like this downtown. The only caveat here is that their location on Converse St is not what I would call "urban" in character, but its downtown nonetheless.

The HJ makes a good point that this is the 4ths recent financial company to relocate downtown after Suntrust opened its Spartanburg HQ on Henry St, Carolina Alliance on Church and Carolina First on East Main.

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[housing market]

The HJ has an article today about the Housing Market in Spartanburg County. It seems that growth in Spartanburg is, as always, slow but steady. The job growth has lead to a continuous demand for housing. The numbers form 2007 are lower than 2006, but only by 190 units. It also appears that Spartanburg may weather the national housing bust unscathed. So in summary, its business as usual. Nothing exciting, but nothing bad either.

Building Permits:

2003 - 1,640

2004 - 1,937

2005 - 2,193

2006 - 2,100

2007 - 1,810

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Here's a nice 'feel-good' article about the Adidas distribution center. Construction will begin soon and the center should be fully operational by December of 2009. The original job estimate was about 1200, but the article mentions it could go as high as 1550, depending on how well business is doing. The 1200 job estimate could bring the county's unemployment rate down almost a full percent (0.9) :)

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From Citydata.com

Greenville County Building Permits:

2000: 2822 buildings, average cost: $89,900

2001: 3088 buildings, average cost: $92,200

2002: 3194 buildings, average cost: $94,500

2003: 3491 buildings, average cost: $95,100

2004: 3630 buildings, average cost: $98,500

2005: 4223 buildings, average cost: $103,700

2006: 4307 buildings, average cost: $106,300

Anderson County Building Permits:

2000: 952 buildings, average cost: $112,900

2001: 995 buildings, average cost: $120,300

2002: 1150 buildings, average cost: $113,900

2003: 1092 buildings, average cost: $130,100

2004: 1212 buildings, average cost: $131,500

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  • 2 weeks later...

To off set some of the bad news, the shining star of Spartanburg County, BMW, is planning a "major" expansion. No word on what what means for Spartanburg yet.

HJ Article

There should be a news conference going on Monday that gives the details of what BMW's plans are... "the expansion could mean substantial job growth for the Spartanburg plant. "

Article

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Check out the discussion of a new ad campaign for the Upstate called "I was blown away" in this thread. This new campaign will feature tv spots and a website to promote the Upstate as a region, apparently more than just the cities individually. There is a video linked to this discussion. Interesting stuff...

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BMW has announced a $750 million expansion that will create 500 new jobs in Spartanburg County by 2012. They will add 1.2 million sq ft of production space. This is great news for Spartanburg and our neighbors in Greenville as well as the rest of the Upstate. :shades:

Other coverage:

The Herald-Journal

The Greenville News

The State

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This article in today's HJ highlights the expansion, though we don't really have any more details worth mentioning on this development. There is some speculation that BMW may be adding capacity to build more than just the X3.... the 3 series may be coming to town later on.

The economic multiplier for BMW is 3.9... so with 500 new jobs that translates to about 1,950 other new jobs that will be generated in Spartanburg, Greenville, and other Upstate counties because of this expansion. This really is great news for South Carolina.

BMW to add 500 jobs

Expansion should boost SC economy

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This article in today's HJ highlights the expansion, though we don't really have any more details worth mentioning on this development. There is some speculation that BMW may be adding capacity to build more than just the X3.... the 3 series may be coming to town later on.

The economic multiplier for BMW is 3.9... so with 500 new jobs that translates to about 1,950 other new jobs that will be generated in Spartanburg, Greenville, and other Upstate counties because of this expansion. This really is great news for South Carolina.

BMW to add 500 jobs

Expansion should boost SC economy

Most of the BMW suppliers are running full tilt right now, so look for them to begin hiring extra when the time comes.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

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

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.metrocorpcounsel.com/current.ph...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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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
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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.

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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

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