Economic developments in the Midlands

[CorgiMatt]

A high-tech German company has chosen Richland County for its first U.S. office. Initially it will bring five high-paying jobs and looks forward to expanding here.

http://www.columbiabusinessreport.com/news...-midlands?rss=0

[scnative]

A high-tech German company has chosen Richland County for its first U.S. office. Initially it will bring five high-paying jobs and looks forward to expanding here.

http://www.columbiabusinessreport.com/news...-midlands?rss=0

Would be nice if they were to locate in Innovista.

Edited May 7, 2009 by scnative

[waccamatt]

"High paying" is the operative word here. I'd rather have 5 high-paying jobs come in than 50 low-paying jobs. Of course 500 high-paying jobs would be even nicer!

[krazeeboi]

Some info about the company from the article:

Carl Zeiss Optronics USA, a subsidiary of Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH, plans to provide its optronics products in support of the U.S. military, homeland defense and law enforcement communities. The company will partner with the S.C. Research Authority and the University of South Carolina to obtain research and development and supply contracts for the manufacture of products.

Headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany, Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH is a member of the Carl Zeiss Group. The company manufactures advanced optronic, optical and precision engineered products for military and civilian applications. These include border surveillance, space technology and reconnaissance on land, on water and from the air.

Sounds like a good, solid company. Good to hear Columbia scoring a few of these small victories lately. It definitely sounds like a candidate for Innovista to me.

[CorgiMatt]

The attached series of articles from The State, albeit most of them probably written by whiner Jeff Wilkinson, indicates that South Carolina, and especially Columbia, will come out of the recession a lot later than the rest of the nation. They say that when manufacturing and tourism start making their comebacks, Columbia will be waiting on the sidelines a while longer. No new downtown development is in the pipeline for Columbia, and Innovista has been grounded by a lack of financing.

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/781296.html

I think we can forget about another high-rise for some time to come and just be thankful that we have the one currently under construction to look forward to on the skyline, however big or small its impact. We can hope the recession creates a more inward approach to development; that is, a sizing up and sprucing up of our current built environment, what with the smaller pools of cash among developers, and with any new entrepreneurs born out of the rising numbers of unemployed.

We can expect much smaller numbers in population growth. The bright side is that we shouldn't have a population decline, because no one can afford to move. We are in a new reality. Columbia is what it is.

[waccamatt]

Gloom and doom sells newspapers.

[CorgiMatt]

Jeff Wilkinson sure seems to think so. That's why I assume he wrote a lot of the series. I don't know whether to think I can hear him crying and see him wiping tears in his articles because he loves Columbia and is upset when he perceives it to be struggling economically, or whether I'm detecting that he loves to hate Columbia and wants to expose its vulnerabilities. I'm sure he'd say he's not making the news but just reporting it.

[Spartan]

That's an awfully pessimistic outlook. I don't know if I agree with it entirely, except that those things are impacting cities across the nation, so the future is not one that will be unique to Columbia.

It's true that financing anything from individual home mortgages to skyscrapers is going to be more difficult nationwide. What remains to be seen is how that will impact Columbia. IMO, its going to be a more dramatic effect in the cheaply-built outer suburbs (the ones that were most impacted by the sub-prime mortgages, etc).

The future will also depend on what happens with Innovista. It is not gaining momentum due to the economy being what it is and due to the fact that it's target industry is one that is still in its infancy (and not highly supported by Obama).

[krazeeboi]

I'm not sure if I totally agree with his assessment as to when Columbia will recover vs. other regions of the state, but it certainly highlights the need for the Columbia metro area to be more aggressive when it comes to job creation and expansion. And that has to go wayyy beyond Innovista, which is apparently at a standstill at the moment.

[CorgiMatt]

Columbia Regional Business Report this week:

The Columbia MSA was the only one in the state to see a gain in residential real estate equity over a three year period ending in 2008, with a $2,700 gain. For comparison's sake, Charleston's was down $4,600 and Greenville's was down $5,300.

[waccamatt]

Columbia Regional Business Report this week:

The Columbia MSA was the only one in the state to see a gain in residential real estate equity over a three year period ending in 2008, with a $2,700 gain. For comparison's sake, Charleston's was down $4,600 and Greenville's was down $5,300.

VERY positive news.

[CorgiMatt]

Even though the Columbia MSA's labor force increased in April, its unemployment rate fell 3/10 of a percentage point to 8.5% and is now 4/10 of a percentage point below the national unemployment rate of 8.9%.

[CorgiMatt]

According to a story on Wach Fox News at 10 tonight (can't find the story on their website), the down economy has been good for tourism's bottom line in the Midlands. It has not been just my imagination. People in South Carolina's most populous city and metro are choosing to explore what's in their "back yard" instead of gassing up their vehicles and taking advantage of Columbia's location halfway between the mountains and beaches. I know I've seen more people in the Vista in the evenings than ever before. And Lake Murray's marinas are doing very well this season according to the report.

[CorgiMatt]

I didn't know where else to put this. Columbia and USC just won an innovation award for the southern region of the United States for their fuel cell collaboration.

http://www.columbiabusinessreport.com/news...nnovation-award

[CorgiMatt]

The Brookings Institution says Columbia is the bright spot in the Carolinas during this recession.

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/831343.html

[krazeeboi]

That's good in times like these, but the city is going to have to do more to build on the base of state government and USC, especially with Innovista sputtering.

[CorgiMatt]

They're working on it night and day. Let's hope the determination pays off.

[CorgiMatt]

Metro Columbia's unemployment rate was 9.2% in May, not good but still the lowest in the state.

[CorgiMatt]

I don't know whether The State did their homework on this, but they're saying a green Food Lion that is believed to be the first green grocery store in South Carolina is being built on Hardscrabble Road in NE Richland County.

http://www.thestate.com/business/story/841612.html

[CorgiMatt]

Here's a report on the latest office vacancy and absorption rates in the Columbia market. It looks like the CDB and close-in suburbs are faring the best, and SCANA's departure is being seen as an opportunity to lure more businesses downtown.

http://www.columbiabusinessreport.com/news...ate-drops?rss=0

[krazeeboi]

Per the article, the relocation of NBSC, The McNair Law Firm, and Edens and Avant from their present locations to TMG, coupled with SCANA vacating the Palmetto Center, will result in a projected occupancy rate of approximately 73.2% in the downtown office market by mid-year 2010. That's a pretty big chunk of vacant office space downtown (27%). The bright side is that this should be around the same time SC should start rebounding from the recession, at least according to a projection from Moodys.com.

[CorgiMatt]

Diamond Pet Foods is expanding in Gaston and adding 37 jobs. Read about it in "The State."

[sonofaque86]

According to TheState UCI Medical Affiliates is moving it's Forest Acres office to downtown at 1818 Henderson St. They employ 100 employees.

[waccamatt]

According to TheState UCI Medical Affiliates is moving it's Forest Acres office to downtown at 1818 Henderson St. They employ 100 employees.

That will make up for about another 10% of SCANA's move. We may have that move covered by the time it happens. Arrivederci, chumps!

[CorgiMatt]

A British medical technology firm is investing $5 million at USC for an orthopaedic reconstructive sciences center. The company is 150 years old. Successful cities of the future will be the ones with lots of research going on, and USC is designated as a Carnegie Institute university of very high research activity. This ought to help keep the university on that list.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10724481