Nov. 4, 2016 UBJ

NOVEMBER 4, 2016 | VOL. 5 ISSUE 45

Beginning a Biotech

BOOM Wayne Roper and SCBIO’s prescription to add $50 billion to the state economy

It’s time to look back to what started it all.

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TOP-OF-MIND AND IN THE MIX THIS WEEK

| UPFRONT | 3

SELLING IDEAS, CREATING FUTURES, CHANGING LIVES Bob Howard, president of the Greenville Tech Foundation, who will be retiring in December, closed his remarks at the annual Greenville Tech Foundation Workforce Development Salute by literally dropping the mic.

RYAN JOHNSTON | PUBLISHER

rjohnston@communityjournals.com I first met Bob Howard over lunch at Rick’s Deli, where I quickly learned how passionate he was about his work at the Greenville Tech Foundation. Bob is the definition of a salesman. He is personable and energetic, and he knows how to tell a great story. The product he sells is the idea of a bigger and brighter future for Greenville Tech. But when you talk to him, you see immediately it’s not the bricks, the buildings and machines that delight him – it’s the people in those buildings, using those machines to create their future.

During his nine years as president

of the Greenville Tech Foundation, Bob has asked people for their money and time, which is sometimes more valuable than money. If you’ve ever had to help raise funds for an organization, you know how hard it is to do for just a few weeks or months, let alone every day for nine years. I think Bob’s secret is getting to see firsthand the lives that Greenville Tech has changed. That’s what drives his belief in the product he is pushing. This December, he will retire.

Bob opened and closed this year’s Greenville Tech Foundation Workforce Development Salute strong. He

began by reading quick excerpts of letters from Tech students who had been awarded scholarships. These students’ words were powerful, citing just how their lives were about to change and how thankful they were for the help. Holding up a stack of letters several inches thick, Bob quickly reminded the audience that these were just the acceptance letters; the ones he had to deny scholarships to were much larger.

Take a look at the photo above to see how he ended his tenure in style, dropping the mic and exclaiming, “Bob Howard, out!”

Greenville Tech President Keith Miller then took the stage and made sure to thank Bob and Les Gardner, the development director for the foundation, who is also retiring. He read quotes from others, as well; my favorite was from Leighton Cubbage, who said, “Bob leads from the front with a smile on his face.”

Bob and Les, we at UBJ believe in your product, too. Thank you for the years of dedication you have given to the Greenville Tech Foundation.

Despite the millions and millions of dollars you have raised, your efforts are measured in more than dollar bills.

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UBJ

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

COUNTY SQUARE

Fluor Field

Falls Park

Peace Center

Y A W A D E R A SQU

LE DOWNTOWN B A U L A V T S O M ARE THE IS COUNTY SQU DEVELOPED? E R E B O T G IN PROPERTY WAIT

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hoc committee studying the potential redevelopment, said the idea enjoys support on council.

“The land is too valuable for what it is right now,” Burns said. “We don’t need it. We don’t need all that land. What we need is a nice, functional county office building to be able to provide services to the citizens.

That piece of land is so valuable, and it’s not even on tax rolls.

“Everybody wants to do this,” Burns said. “They want to make sure it’s done right.”

County Administrator Joe Kernell said developers from Atlanta, Charlotte, New York and Dallas have expressed interest in the property, as have local developers.

“If a deal looks like it’s doable, I think we’ll get it done,” he said.

In addition to the main County Square property of a little more than 30 acres, the county owns two office buildings with parking lots across University Ridge that comprise another seven acres or so. Wrapping all the parcels together into a single, master-planned development would change the face of downtown.

“I don’t think there’s anything you couldn’t do there because it’s so large,” said Bob Hughes, the Greenville developer behind many of Main Street’s biggest and most-prominent developments. “And I don’t think there’s anything that wouldn’t do well there.”

Brody Glenn, president of Greenville’s Centennial American Properties, which paid $13.25 million for four acres along Main Street to launch its Camperdown development, called County Square “the biggest contiguous piece of property downtown” and a “great development site.”

“It’s something that can be a real asset for the city of Greenville if it’s done right,” said Glenn, a former chairman of the city’s Planning Commission. “And

INSIDE THE SQUARE

46 YEARS OLD SITS ON 38 ACRES RUDOLPH BELL | CONTRIBUTOR

rbell@communityjournals.com

How much would a developer pay for nearly 38 acres of high ground within walking distance of Falls Park, Fluor Field and the Swamp Rabbit Trail in downtown Greenville? Greenville County may be posing that question to developers in a formal way early next year in what could signal the beginning of one of the biggest downtown development deals to date, if not the biggest.

For a decade, county officials have mulled turning County Square, the site of county headquarters, over to the private sector for redevelopment. In exchange for the land, county officials think they could get a new office tower and parking garage on the same site — and if they had to kick in some cash as part of the deal, it should be far less than what an office tower and parking garage would normally cost.

Another benefit: A valuable property that is not

currently on the tax rolls because it’s owned by the county would begin generating tax revenue — not to mention the jobs that would come from firms recruited by the developer.

County officials put the idea on hold during the Great Recession, but now the real estate market has recovered and developers are paying record prices for downtown property. And the county’s main office building at County Square — constructed 46 years ago as a shopping center — is beginning to show its age. The county is looking at having to spend as much as $3 million to repair the building’s leaky roof, said John Hansley, deputy administrator.

A new chapter in County Square’s rich history could begin as soon as County Council gives the go-ahead for redevelopment. “We’ve all discussed it, and it makes absolute sense,” said Councilman Fred Payne.

“It’s one of the most valuable pieces of property in the city, and there’s a high demand for it.”

Outgoing Councilman Jim Burns, chair of an ad

COST TO REPAIR LEAKY ROOF:

$3 MILLION

FURMAN MOVED TO THE SITE IN

1851 345,000-SQ.FT.

THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL MALL ON THE SITE COUNTY COUNCIL PAID

$2.3 MILLION FOR THE PROPERTY IN 1984

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“I don’t think there’s anything you couldn’t do there because it’s so large. And I don’t think there’s anything that wouldn’t do well there.” developer Bob Hughes

hopefully the county will select a developer that will be able to keep the foundation that we have built along Main Street and downtown.”

Earle Furman, a longtime local commercial real estate broker, ticked off the features of County Square that a developer would find attractive: It’s owned by a single entity; it’s adjacent to a vibrant downtown; it has the elevation to offer views of Main Street and the downtown skyline; it’s accessible from major roads. “All of those come together to make this an absolutely prime development site for a major mixed-use development,” he said.

Furman said he thinks the county will be able to cut a deal with a developer eventually. “I think the land, while pretty much stagnant for a number of

years, is going to see a rapid rise in value due to not only its location but also its elevation,” he said.

A RICH HISTORY The property where County Square now sits has played a prominent role in Greenville history since 1851, when Furman University relocated to the site from Winnsboro.

That year, the Baptist school bought 25 acres on a bluff overlooking the Reedy River from businessman Vardry McBee, known as the “father of Greenville,” according to a 1951 history of Furman. The university then moved to its current campus along U.S. 25 north of Greenville in the 1950s, but had originally intended to stay downtown, according to local historian Judy

Bainbridge, who has studied the history of County Square.

Furman “had tried for years to buy up land around [the County Square site] because they knew they had to expand,” Bainbridge said. “And everybody raised their prices, doubling them over what they really ought to have been.”

Furman completely vacated the County Square site in 1958 and eventually turned it over to a real estate developer. A 345,000-square-foot shopping center called Bell Tower Mall opened on the site in 1970.

It was anchored by discounter Woolco and included a Winn-Dixie grocery, an Edwards department store, a multiscreen theater and an 18-foot replica of the old Furman bell tower,

| DEVELOPMENT | 5

according to Bainbridge. The mall had to compete with a Kmart on Mills Avenue and the McAlister Square shopping center on Pleasantburg Drive, which was new at the time. Plus, Bainbridge said, there weren’t enough shoppers in Greenville’s West End to support Bell Tower Mall. It died not long after Woolco closed in 1982.

Greenville County bought the property in 1984 for $2.3 million and made it the county’s main base of operations in 1987.

A DECADE-OLD IDEA The idea of redeveloping County Square once again surfaced a decade ago after a Miami developer named Jackson Ward bought the former Greenville Mall property on Woodruff Road.

Kernell, the county administrator, remembers calling Ward the day after the transaction closed to explore the idea of relocating county headquarters to the property Ward had just bought.

They couldn’t agree on a price the county might pay for the former Greenville Mall, so they started talking about the possibility of Ward buying County Square and redeveloping it to

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include a new office tower and parking garage for the county, Kernell recalled. As the talks progressed, the county drew up an incentives package for the project and gave it the code name Project Skyline. The deal, however, fell apart with the onset of the Great Recession.

Over the years, county officials have watched as the wave of redevelopment that began on Main Street three decades ago began to splash onto properties all around County Square.

Hughes, the Greenville developer, turned a former warehouse into office space at the corner of University Ridge and Church Street, right next to County Square, and Charleston’s Beach Company put apartments and restaurants on the same corner. A stone’s throw from County Square on Augusta Street, Greenville developer Steve Navarro turned the former Claussen Bakery into office and retail space.

Kernell thinks the time may be ripe to redevelop County Square itself.

“We feel the market right now anyway, the downtown market, has been very strong,” he said. “And based on the number of discussions we’ve had with outside developers, they feel it’s very strong.”

As a first step, the county has hired a local architectural firm, McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture, to study the county’s needs for office space.

After the study is complete, the county could issue a request for proposals to redevelop County Square and get responses back from developers sometime in the first quarter.

WHAT MIGHT GO THERE? Kernell said the county won’t tell a developer what to propose for any new development, except it would like to have a new county office tower and parking garage on the site. He also said an ambulance station and ambulance resupply operation located at County Square now probably won’t go into any new county office tower, if one gets built, nor will certain state government offices that the county is required to house. Those include the departments of Health and Environmental Control, Social Services and Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. The county also owns enough property to facilitate a possible realignment of University Ridge, connecting it to Augusta Street by means of Claussen Avenue or Thruston

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11.4.2016

Street, instead of Harris Street. That could improve the flow of traffic and keep it away from neighborhoods, Kernell said.

Darrell Cobb, owner of a tire store and auto repair shop that’s been on the County Square property for 39 years, declined to comment about the redevelopment plans.

Greenville developer Paul C. “Bo” Aughtry, who has developed three hotels downtown, said the County Square property is big enough to accommodate significant employers, including corporate headquarters. “In my opinion, with all of the new housing downtown, meaningful employment opportunity is what is needed in order to make the urban equation function as it is ideally intended — live, work and play without having to get into one’s vehicle,” Aughtry said.

The city of Greenville will have to sign off on any redevelopment of County Square since the property is inside city limits, and City Manager John Castile said public parking is one issue the city may want to address.

Right now, County Square and its acres of blacktop provide some of the parking for Fluor Field, the minor league baseball stadium at the south end of Main Street, which has no parking of its own.

“As that West End continues to change, parking in the West End becomes more and more important, especially if County Square is redeveloped,” Castile said.

Hughes, whose downtown developments include Poinsett Plaza, RiverPlace and ONE City Plaza, said any new county parking garage would be virtually empty at night and could be shared with an apartment complex or a movie theater. He hopes any developer picked to remake County Square would donate land to the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, which abuts County Square and where Hughes is on the board.

“I would definitely, definitely give some land to the Governor’s School so it could expand and create a front door,” Hughes said. “Good mixed-use development has public elements like the ONE Plaza, or the Riverwalk at the Reedy or even the little square in front of Poinsett Plaza. You want a public square, and the Governor’s School makes a good public partner if they can connect up.”

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| LEADERSHIP | 7

CEOs for Cities Coming to Greenville Meeting will feature 250 civic leaders and Atlantic writer James Fallows RUDOLPH BELL | CONTRIBUTOR

rbell@communityjournals.com

More than 250 civic leaders from around the country are expected to visit Greenville in May for a personal inspection of some of its achievements and to share ideas about urban renewal.

A well-known journalist and author who has written about Greenville with admiration — James Fallows of The Atlantic — is also scheduled to take part, according to Greenville Mayor Knox White.

White said Green- James Fallows ville is the smallest city to host a meeting of CEOs for Cities, a nonprofit organization based in Cleveland that promotes ways of improving cities.

The group’s Spring Cluster Workshop is scheduled to take place in Greenville on May 14-17, according to its website.

Details have not been announced.

White, who has attended numerous CEOs for Cities meetings around the country, and has been a guest speaker or panelist at some, said the attendees are typically “high-caliber folks, mayors and council members, civic leaders across the board in different communities.” The mayor said he expects the Greenville event to highlight globalization and foreign corporate investment in the area.

“We are looking forward to telling the Greenville story again, as well as learning from others,” he said.

White said the workshop will begin just as Artisphere, the annual downtown arts festival, is coming to a close “so people can come early, as they often do.”

Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, and his wife, Deborah Fallows, have written several articles about different aspects of Greenville, such as the emphasis on engineering at A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School, as part of a series entitled “City Makers: American Futures.”

The series led to a 10-minute segment about Greenville on "PBS Newshour" in March that was narrated by anchor Judy Woodruff.

CEOs for Cities, among other activities, maintains a national network of volunteer teams in 27 urban areas around the country, including Greenville/Greer.

The teams, called “clusters,” are composed of civic-minded leaders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors “who love their cities and don’t wait for others to lead,” according to the CEOs for Cities website.

Members of the Greenville/Greer cluster include Greenville real estate executive Brad Halter.

“If I got down to one sentence to what this is about, it’s [that] the federal government is not going to take care of your city,” Halter said. “The state of South Carolina is not going to take care of your city. If the cities are going to continue to thrive, they're going to have to benchmark against other cities … to get it right.”

A CEOs for Cities cluster workshop in Des Moines, Iowa, in June included appearances by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Michael Gartner, a former president of NBC News, according to the organization’s website.

Clusters from Cleveland; St. Louis; Milwaukee; Indianapolis; Waco, Texas; and Greensboro/High Point, N.C., made presentations.

There was also a talk by Ryan Gravel, who came up with the idea for the Atlanta BeltLine, a developing network of parks, trails and streetcar routes around downtown Atlanta.

Attendees visited a test garden outside the headquarters of Better Homes and Gardens magazine that doubles as an outside studio for photographers.

Topics ranged from the value of adding bicycle lanes and artist studios to helping at-risk youth and improving a city’s “talent pipeline.”

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‘Start with Awareness’ UCB’s Rich Bradshaw discusses how lenders can help entrepreneurs

R

DAVID DYKES | STAFF

ddykes@communityjournals.com Photo by Will Crooks

ich Bradshaw, president of specialized lending at United Community Bank, recently attended a small-business technical assistance conference in Washington, D.C., at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House.

The one-day conference – Reimagining Small Business Technical Assistance – was convened by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and the Small Business Administration.

Microbusinesses make up almost 90 percent of the nation’s businesses and an even higher proportion of small businesses in low-wealth communities. The goal was to understand opportunities to improve the support landscape for microbusinesses so they can grow and hire. To do that, conference attendees sought a deeper understanding of the needs of small-business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs, including training and business development.

Bradshaw, 54, sat down in his Greenville office with senior business writer David Dykes and discussed efforts that could lead to programs and initiatives focusing on supporting entrepreneurs more broadly.

Here are excerpts from that conversation.

UBJ: What was behind the conference title – Reimagining Small Business Technical Assistance – and the subtitle – Shifting the Support Landscape for Main Street?

Bradshaw: The really interesting part about the conference was reimagining.

Parts of it were, “Let’s have a clean slate and start over.”

These are a lot of organizations. Many are not for profit that have been organized to support women-owned businesses, African-American businesses.

There was one on just Native American.

There was one just for vets [veterans].

There were some of the organizations that SBA has – the SBDCs [Small Business Development Centers] that are out there and provide financial assistance. There’s SCORE [the organization previously known as the Service

Corps of Retired Executives, now known just as SCORE]. The spectrum was about technical assistance, which incorporates lending, of course, but it also incorporates many of the services beyond just lending. These people, in many cases, aren’t familiar with a business plan. They don’t know what a

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“When you go see a bank, what do you bring to your banker? Oftentimes, people come in and they have a great idea. They just can’t convert the great idea to a business plan. They can’t convert it to a spreadsheet and how you’re going to make payroll on Friday.”

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Rich Bradshaw bank requires. When you go see a bank, what do you bring to your banker?

Oftentimes, people come in and they have a great idea. They just can’t convert the great idea to a business plan. They can’t convert it to a spreadsheet and how you’re going to make payroll on Friday.

That’s where many of these services help provide guidance, or at least that service can put you in the right direction. One of the tools was lending.

My role there was I’m a banker, I’m a community banker and I’m a small business SBA lender. One of the tools there is to get an SBA loan. But there’s many steps often beforehand that have to take place before you get to that and that’s what many of these groups that provide the technical assistance do.

They may have a great dress pattern that can really make a beautiful dress, but they need help in understanding that in the end it needs to make money.

When you look at your pricing, it needs to cover your cost plus some profit.

Those are the type of things that are important.

As part of this reimagining, one of the things you talked about was creating inclusive high-tech incubators and accelerators – strategies to increase participation rates of women and minority entrepreneurs. Why is that important?

A big part of SBA is the public-policy aspect of it. From a bank perspective, the SBA provides a credit enhancement to a deal to make it, from a risk standpoint, a better opportunity to lend to small businesses. However, the SBA isn’t in place just to make banks credit-structure their loans better. It’s also to help America’s entrepreneur in the public-policy aspect of it.

I co-chair the public policy committee for NAGGL, which is the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders. Our focus is making sure that we’re cognizant and always paying attention that this is a public-policy

program, and as part of our fiduciary responsibility we need to be making sure that we’re reaching out and covering these markets and making sure we’re able to do our own education and be able to provide guidance and structure.

It also overlaps with our CRA [Community Reinvestment Act] requirements under the regulators. These two things tie together.

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When you come back to Greenville and you talk about building capital, networks and skills, particularly for minority and women entrepreneurs, how is it going to change what you do?

Does it change the goals of your lending activity, the percentages of your goals there?

First of all, it’s awareness again. Start with awareness. It was a conference with very highly placed people, very smart people. Many of these people, that’s their entire focus. Like everything else, I have a business to run here. It really helped me be very laser-focused on this. I sit on our bank’s CRA committee, so it provided more insight into some of the needs and some of the requirements that they [community residents] have that I wasn’t aware of, or some of the impediments and challenges that they face just getting to the bank. It will help me as we work through our goals on how we’re able to reach out better and assist in some of these matters.

I don’t know that it changes our goals because we already have goals via CRA. We [conferees] talked about the barriers for those businesses to even get technical assistance. It was better for me to understand what their specific needs were. Sitting sometimes at this desk you don’t have that same feel. And then what are some of the barriers to us providing technical assistance and reaching out to them? I’m not certain it changes the goal numbers as much as it changes the focus and the understanding.

| Q&A | 9

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11.4.2016

Lowes Foods announces third location in Greenville market DAVID DYKES | STAFF

ddykes@communityjournals.com

Proposed location

Lowes Foods, a Carolinas-based grocer, said it would add a third store in the Greenville market, with the new location at Pelham and Boiling Springs roads.

The store at 2702 Pelham Road will open in spring 2018, company officials said.

Lowes Foods opened its first Greenville market store in Greer on Sept. 23 and is building a second store in Simpsonville in the Village Market-East shopping center on the northwest corner of Woodruff Road and Sunnydale Drive in the Five Forks area. The Simpsonville store is anticipated to open in spring 2017.

“The Greenville market is an important part of our company’s overall strategy to remodel existing stores and build new ones,” Lowes Foods President Tim Lowe said. “We have been thrilled with the incredible welcome we have experienced since the opening of our Greer store just a month ago and are very excited to

Bi-Lo

Walmart

Pelham Road

Bacon Bros. Public House

extend Lowes Foods’ unique grocery shopping experience to our neighbors in the Pelham Road area.”

In addition to the Greenville market, Lowes has two stores under construction in Lexington just outside of Columbia.

The new Pelham Road store will feature a wide assortment of organics, premium aged beef, chef-inspired prepared foods, bulk foods and Lowes Foods-To-Go online shopping service.

Plans on file at County Square show

a strip retail center at the site anchored by a 50,000-square-foot grocery with smaller shops on either side.

The development site is located along Pelham Road near its intersection with Boiling Springs Road, across Pelham from a new QuikTrip convenience store.

Greenville County Council voted unanimously to rezone about 9 acres for the development in September over the objections of county plan-

ners, records on file at County Square show.

“The proposed intensity for this site is out of character with the surrounding land uses and traffic would lack adequate access,” county planners wrote.

Some county residents also objected to the rezoning from a residential category to Flexible Review District.

Debbie Fischer, a resident of the nearby Green Creek Townhomes, said in an email to county officials that Pelham Road “simply cannot handle all this extra traffic, and we are very concerned that we are turning into another disaster like Woodruff Road.”

Timothy Yale, pastor of Pelham Road Alliance Church, which sits on the development site now, lobbied in favor of the rezoning.

He told county officials that Alliance Realty Services of Atlanta, the company that applied for the rezoning, had worked to find a new location for the church.

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| DEVELOPMENT | 11

Delegations from around the country are heading to Greenville, and taking home lessons in downtown development RUDOLPH BELL | CONTRIBUTOR

rbell@communityjournals.com

Greenville continues to be a popular destination for chamber of commerce-led delegations from around the country in search of lessons about downtown redevelopment and a good time while learning them.

Nearly 1,400 people from 38 cities in 15 states have visited Greenville as part of such delegations since February 2012, according to a tally kept by the Greenville Chamber, which leads the efforts to host the groups.

One of the most-recent groups arrived Oct. 16 from Mobile, Ala., for a three-day stay.

The delegation of about 80 included Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who said he was curious how Greenville was able to spur residential and retail development along its Main Street.

“We are a very old city, 300 years old, a lot of historic structures, a lot of renovation going on, but we’re still not quite where we need to be on the retail and the residential,” Stimpson said just before he and other members of his group ate breakfast at the Westin Poinsett Hotel.

Bill Sisson, president of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, said Greenville and Mobile both have a lot of international residents who came to town with the operations of foreign-owned companies.

In Mobile, those companies include Austal, an Australian shipbuilder that makes ships for the U.S. Navy at a 164-acre shipyard, and Airbus, the European aviation giant that began making its A320 commercial jet in Mobile in July 2015.

“We are getting a lot of foreign direct investment, a lot of European families in Mobile,” Sisson said. “Of course, Greenville has had that for decades.”

The guests ate lunch at the Commerce Club, walked Main Street during the Fall for Greenville festival and toured Fluor Field. They chose whether to visit the NEXT Innovation Center or the Swamp Rabbit Trail, walk Main Street accompanied by city officials or ride a bus to see housing redevelopment.

Their itinerary called for dining at downtown restaurants and visiting Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research before returning to Mobile on Oct. 18.

Along the way, they were scheduled to meet Greenville Mayor Knox White and other city officials, local developers and business executives, the owner of the Greenville Drive minor league baseball team, the associate dean of Clemson University’s downtown business school and ICAR’s executive director.

Other delegations over the past two years have come from as far away as Evansville, Ind.; Springfield, Mo.; Akron, Ohio; Longview, Texas; and Wichita, Kan. Last month, 143 people from Columbus, Ga., chartered a plane for a two-and-a-half-day visit, said

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, far left, and other members of a delegation from the Alabama city in a dugout during a tour of Fluor Field on Monday, Oct. 17.

Hank Hyatt, vice president for competitiveness at the Greenville Chamber. Another delegation of 60 was scheduled to visit this week from Fayetteville, Ga. Hyatt said the visitors spend money downtown and spread the word about Greenville’s success when they go back home.

“So people in Akron, Ohio, in Mobile, Ala., in Longview, Texas, they know about us now,” he said.

“We’re on their radar. We’ve got articles in their newspapers. It’s unpaid media. We’re getting that in those communities. That can be very helpful.”

It’s common practice for chambers of commerce to lead groups of their members and local officials on trips to other cities in the hope of learning things that might prove useful.

Nashville, Denver and Pittsburgh have all been popular destinations for such intercommunity visits in the past, Hyatt said.

He said the Greenville Chamber tries to organize such a visit every two years and in past years has dispatched delegations to Austin, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Boston, Baltimore and Indianapolis.

In 2007, the Greenville Chamber organized a trip to Dublin that proved to be a factor in the later redevelopment of a building near downtown Greenville.

While in Dublin, the Greenville delegation visited a former Guinness beer warehouse that had been converted into office space for digital media companies, Hyatt recalled.

That was part of the inspiration, he said, for Greenville’s NEXT Innovation Center, a former

warehouse at the corner of Church Street and University Ridge that was turned into office space for firms belonging to the Greenville Chamber’s NEXT group of technology entrepreneurs.

Hosting the regular stream of delegations from other cities sometimes takes a lot of work, but the Greenville Chamber doesn’t charge a fee as some other chambers do.

It sees the work as part of its mission, Hyatt said.

“We are there to be that front door to the community, that entity that welcomes other communities in,” he said. “It fits our DNA.” Plus, hosting the groups is part of the Chamber’s obligations under a contract with the city of Greenville, said Hyatt and Julie Horton, the city’s governmental relations manager.

Under the contract, the city gives $50,000 a year to the chamber in exchange for various services, mostly related to economic development, Horton said.

Y’ALL COME BACK, NOW

1,366 39

delegates from

cities have visited Greenville

12 | BANKING |

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11.4.2016

Digital-banking business poses challenges for First Citizens DAVID DYKES | STAFF

ddykes@communityjournals.com First

AUTO HOME CLASSIC CAR MOTORCYCLE

|

Citizens

Bank

has

apologized to its customers, including account holders in Greenville, after they were unable to access their accounts when the company experienced technical issues in launching its digital banking platform.

“We owe you an apology,” officials with the Raleigh-based bank told customers in an email Oct. 25.

“Despite months of planning, testing and giving it our best effort, yesterday’s First Citizens Digital Banking launch was not the seamless transition you deserve. We sincerely regret the frustration and inconvenience you experienced.

“We have been working around the clock to correct any technical issues,” she said. “We’re making significant progress every day.”

The progress includes increased capacity for customer access and more customer support, she said.

Building a digital-banking business isn’t an easy task, according to industry observers.

For traditional banks, evolving into a streamlined digital business requires the organization equivalent of “a hammer and nail,” officials with New Jersey-based Cognizant, an information technology provider, said in a report last year.

“Structures must be deconstructed and reassembled in new ways,” the officials said.

“We owe you an apology. Despite months of planning, testing and giving it our best effort, yesterday’s First Citizens Digital Banking launch was not the seamless transition you deserve.”

“Though you should now be able to use Digital Banking to access your accounts through your computer, tablet and mobile phone, we’re aware that some of you are experiencing limited functionality, delays and other inconsistent service,” the email said. “Be assured we’re working diligently to correct these issues and improve the experience for everyone.”

It wasn’t known how many customers were affected. Bank officials in Greenville referred questions to other corporate officials. First Citizens has nine offices in the Greenville and Simpsonville areas.

There was no indication security issues were involved, said Barbara Thompson, senior vice president and manager of corporate communications. “Absolutely not,” she said.

Problems arose because of technical issues related to the volume and timing of usage and “some of the architecture behind the platform,” Thompson said.

Despite a flurry of effort, most traditional banks were falling short of their digital goals, the Cognizant report said. “Many add digital tools as an afterthought rather than folding them thoughtfully into existing operations,” the report said. “For customers, the result is a jumble of processes that seem decidedly out of step.”

For assistance, First Citizens officials said customers can call 888.FC DIRECT (888-323-4732) and use the automated system to conduct basic inquiries such as checking account balances.

They also can go to a First Citizens ATM or branch to transfer funds and obtain other services, bank officials said.

“Once First Citizens Digital Banking is operating at full capacity, we pledge a new and improved user experience and richer and more robust resources for you to manage your money,” bank officials said in the email to customers.

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| ENERGY | 13

Clemson study spotlights state's solar capabilities TREVOR ANDERSON | STAFF

tanderson@communityjournals.com The outlook for South Carolina’s solar energy capability is bright, according to a new study.

Clemson University industrial engineering major Amanda Farthing and a team from its Center for Geospatial Technologies recently unveiled the study.

It found the state has more than enough suitable land to generate large amounts of solar energy that would be needed to meet goals calling for all energy to come from renewable sources.

“The big takeaway is that solar presents a great opportunity in South Carolina and that it can be developed in a way that considers both environmental and social preferences,” Farthing said in a statement.

Farthing worked on the study for two years as her undergraduate research project.

She and her team created maps showing properties across the state that are most suited for generating solar energy at utility scale, including land suitable for five-megawatt developments and lands for one-megawatt developments.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the current national average of homes powered by one megawatt of solar energy is 164.

Clemson said the research could help South Carolina grow its generating capabilities while minimizing conflicts that could arise regarding land use.

SEIA said the state’s solar capacity has grown 303 percent during the past year.

The study said the highest concentration of suitable properties is a swath that runs from the North Carolina state line around Marlboro, Dillon and Horry counties to the Lake Marion area.

“From this initial study, we’ve seen there are plenty of suitable land areas for the development of solar energy,” said Michael Carbajales-Dale, an assistant professor of environmental engineering and earth sciences at Clemson, who co-authored the study, in a statement. “Regardless of policy, it’s very physically feasible.”

The study was published by the journal BioPhysical Economics and Resource Quality.

Farthing said the model developed for the study could be applied to analysis in other states.

The Clemson team ranked South Carolina properties on a scale from zero to 100, with the higher numbers more suitable for development.

Farthing and her team found that almost 1,256 square miles, or 4.2 percent of the state’s land area had a suitability value of at least 70 for five-megawatt developments.

For one-megawatt developments, the amount of land that had suitability value of at least 70 was 2,340 square miles, which is slightly smaller than the size of Delaware and would provide enough space to install 69.6 gigawatts of solar capacity, according to the study.

The state’s total capacity, if reached, would be enough to power more than 7 million homes. It exceeds the 6.7 gigawatts that a separate Stanford University study said the state needs to generate by 2050 in order to convert 100 percent of its energy infrastructure to wind, water and solar.

In the study, researchers said properties had to be 44.5 acres for five-megawatt developments and about 8.9 acres for one-megawatt installations.

The team eliminated unsuitable lands, including urban areas, airports, national forests, parks, national wildlife refuges, wilderness areas and protected marine environments.

The study said the best place to install the “photovoltaic” panels that soak up the sun’s rays are in flat areas.

Pee Dee and inland areas of the Lowcountry were the best places in the state for utility-scale solar generation. The study also identified a diagonal swath running from the southern Upstate and northern Midlands at the Georgia border northeast to the North Carolina border near Spartanburg, Cherokee and York counties.

The least suitable land was along the coast.

“Wetlands have a lot of environmental benefits, and the wet ground is not a good place to install photo-

Amanda Farthing and Michael Carbajales-Dale talk about the solar-energy maps they created as part of their research with the Clemson University Center for Geospatial Technologies.

voltaic panels,” Farthing said.

Other co-authors on the study were Scott Mason, the Fluor endowed chair in Supply Chain Optimization and Logistics; Patricia Carbajales-Dale, co-director of Clemson’s Center for Geospatial Technologies; and Palak Matta, the center’s GIS manager.

The title of the paper is “Utility-Scale Solar PV in South Carolina: Analysis of Suitable Lands and Geographical Potential.”

For more information, visit clemson.edu.

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InnoVision Awards celebrate technological achievement STAFF REPORT

Eight awards recognizing

Carol Haynsworth Kilby The Rock House Antiques

leadership, innovation and technological achievement were given to businesses and individuals in South Carolina at the 18th annual InnoVision Awards Dinner, held Thursday Nov. 3, at the Hyatt Regency in Greenville.

Kayla Shine and Alexa Eyring won the Young Innovator Award, named in honor of Dr. Ibrahim Janajreh. As students at USC’s Center for Advanced Technical Studies in Chapin, S.C., under the leadership of Krystal DuBose, the two developed assistive technology that benefits unsteady hands by way of a unique feeding utensil.

Zverse, based in Columbia, received InnoVision’s Technology Development Award for their LAYR

given the Small Enterprise Award.

Cognito Forms is an intuitive, user-friendly online document builder that enables companies all over the world to create sophisticated and complex forms for the best value.

SmartVista, based in Spartanburg, received the Sustainability Award.

The company has repurposed reclaimed fibers into a rapid deployment absorbent media to contain dangerous spills. The SpillArmor absorbent barrier can be deployed in 30 seconds and requires no more training than is necessary to work a fire extinguisher.

Pursuit Alert in Pickens received first place in the Community Service category for their development of a patented, state-of-the-art mobile warning system to alert motorists and civilians of the danger of an active law enforcement pursuit or

“It Was Simple. Countybank Listened.”

Long before we explored the intricacies of a loan to help launch The Rock House, we listened as Tom and Carol Kilby shared their vision and passion for creating a different kind of antique business. Then we went to work to design a package perfectly tailored to their short-term and long-range needs. The willingness to listen, the attention to detail, the commitment to build lasting relationships: That’s the culture of Countybank.

Five Upstate Financial Centers to serve you.

Greenville: 864-335-2400 • Greenwood: 864-942-1500 www.ecountybank.com

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technology, which is a revolutionary software that readily analyzes and converts 2-D images into 3-D printable content.

Milliken & Company, headquartered in Spartanburg, earned the nod from the independent judging committee for the Technology Integration Award, for their Milliguard UVX200 HF product. Milliguard is a novel reactive ultraviolet absorber that allows the polyurethane industry to reduce UV absorption while improving indoor air quality.

SC Future Minds in Florence received the Education Award for developing a branded, digital “Donate Now” button for school websites across the state. Their innovation provides an easy way for public schools to solicit online donations for students and teachers.

Cognito Forms in Columbia was

emergency response.

Dennis Hayes won the 2016 Dr. Charles Townes Individual Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes an individual who exhibits a commitment to the advancement of technology and the community through his technology-oriented contributions. A Spartanburg native, Hayes, along with Dale Heatherington, developed and marketed the first high-quality IBM PC modem.

Founded by Deloitte in 1999, the InnoVision Awards Program is “dedicated to the advancement of technology in the state through communication, education and recognition of the spirit of innovation and technological progress,” according to event organizers.

For more information, visit innovisionawards.org.

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AUTOMOTIVE

MANUFACTURING

Sage Automotive Interiors buys Apollo's auto portfolio

BMW names new president and CEO of Spartanburg plant

Greenville-based Sage Automotive Interiors has opened a new door to the European market.

The company announced recently it has acquired the automotive manufacturing assets of Apollo S.p.A. in Florence, Italy, and Bucharest, Romania.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but Sage said Apollo is “ideally suited” to supply automotive fabrics and sewn covers in Central and Eastern Europe.

“Europe remains a key growth area for Sage Automotive Interiors,” said Dirk Pieper, CEO of Sage, in a statement. “In addition, the technology and capabilities that will now be part of Sage Automotive Interiors will strengthen our ability to serve customers from current locations in Europe and the rest of the world.”

The company said it has a history of working with Apollo in Europe.

Apollo, based in Italy, was originally founded in 1969 as a producer of upholstery fabrics and velvets. It entered the automotive market in 1986, according to Sage.

In 2005, Apollo became the first European automotive textile company to earn the Eco-Label certification.

Sage said the company’s manufacturing operations will continue with woven and knitted products for original equipment manufacturers in the automotive industry.

It specializes in the production of interior surfaces for seating, door panels and headliners.

The company said it will position Apollo’s facilities for “continued growth in capacity and employment for production of automotive textiles.”

Sage was launched in 2009 as a joint venture between former Spartanburg-based Milliken & Co. executives Dirk Pieper and Brian McSharry and the investment firm Azalea Capital LLC, who purchased Milliken’s auto body cloth division.

In 2010, the company moved its headquarters to the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research.

According to Sage’s website, it has four facilities in South Carolina, including Milliken’s former Cotton Blossom warehouse in Spartanburg, two plants in Abbeville, S.C., and another in Marietta, S.C. The company also has a presence in Mexico, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea and Thailand.- Trevor Anderson

Spartanburg County-based BMW Manufacturing Co. will soon have a new head honcho.

The automaker announced last Friday its current president and CEO Manfred Erlacher will depart for Germany to become managing director of BMW’s plant in Regensburg on Feb. 1.

Knudt Flor, who currently serves as head of corporate quality for BMW Group, will succeed him at the Spartanburg plant on Dec. 1.

Erlacher succeeded Josef Kerscher in 2013. Under his leadership, the plant has increased production from 300,000 vehicles per year to more than 400,000, making it the largest BMW plant in the world in terms of volume.

The more than 5 million-square-foot plant, which is the production hub of BMW’s line of X models, has also garnered several J.D. Power quality awards since Erlacher’s arrival.

Those awards include a bronze Initial Quality Study (IQS) for North and South America in 2014, a 2016 silver IQS award, an IQS award for the X5 in 2016 and an 2016 APEAL award for the X6.

The plant has also added several vehicles to its lineup during Erlacher’s tenure, including the X4, X3 LCI, second-generation X6, the X5 M and X6 M and the X5 xDrive40e, the first plug-in hybrid produced in Spartanburg.

Flor, who has been a BMW employee for 28 years, has served in a variety of roles within the company, including a three-year stint in Spartanburg as head of the plant’s quality assurance of car assembly and purchased parts.

He has also served as vice president of production at the company’s plant in Munich, director of the Rosslyn plant in South Africa and senior vice president of technology at BMW’s Brilliance Automotive Joint Venture in Shengyang, China.

Flor takes over management of the Spartanburg plant as it is nearing completion of a $1 billion expansion that includes construction of a new 1.2 million-squarefoot body shop, a 200,000-square-foot expansion of its X5/X6 assembly hall and a 100,000-square-foot addition to its logistics operation.

The expansion is expected to boost production capacity at the plant to 450,000 vehicles by the end of the year and increase its employment to 8,800 associates.

For more information, visit bmwusfactory. com. - Trevor Anderson

| NEWS IN BRIEF | 15

Manfred Erlacher

Knudt Flor

BANKING

share, for the third quarter of 2015. Net income for the first nine months of 2016 was $73.4 million, or $1.02 per diluted share. Net income for the first nine months of 2015 was $53.4 million, or 84 cents per diluted share.

On an operating basis, net income rose to $27.8 million for the third quarter of 2016 compared with $21.7 million for the third quarter of 2015. Operating net income excludes pre-tax merger-related charges of $3.15 million in the third quarter of 2016 and $5.74 million in the third quarter of 2015. On a per diluted share basis, operating net income was 39 cents for the third quarter of 2016 compared with 33 cents for the third quarter of 2015. For the first nine months of 2016, operating net income was $77.8 million, or $1.08 per diluted share, compared with $59.3 million, or 94 cents per diluted share, for the first nine months of 2015.

"Our third-quarter results underscore the positive momentum from our investments in new businesses and markets," said Jimmy Tallent, chairman and CEO of the Blairsville, Ga.-based bank holding company. "Our mortgage banking business continued to produce record quarterly results which, combined with strong performance from our SBA business and solid customer derivative sales, led to a 44 percent increase in fee revenue from a year ago."

Tallent said the Tidelands Bancshares acquisition, completed July 1, had a positive impact.

"As expected, the acquisition was immediately accretive to earnings per share," he said. "Systems conversions are scheduled to take place in November, after which we expect to achieve the remaining targeted cost savings.” - David Dykes

Southern First, UCB report Q3 income Greenville-based Southern First Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: SFST), holding company for Southern First Bank, reported third-quarter net income available to common shareholders of $3.4 million, or 51 cents per diluted share.

The bank holding company reported net income available to common shareholders of $2.7 million, or 41 cents per diluted share, a year earlier. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, net income to common shareholders totaled $9.7 million, or $1.45 per diluted share. That compared with $7.3 million, or $1.12 per diluted share, in the year-earlier period.

For the quarter, gross loans increased 12 percent to $1.11 billion. Total deposits increased 11 percent to $1.05 billion.

Total revenue increased 16 percent to $13.9 million. Return on average assets increased to 1.08 percent.

Net interest margin, the percentage difference between interest income from loans and investments and interest paid to depositors, was 3.63 percent. That compared with 3.62 percent for the third quarter of 2015. Net interest margin is a key measure of bank profitability.

Bank officials announced in August that Southern First would expand into the Raleigh, N.C., region.

“This was an outstanding quarter for Southern First with excellent growth and earnings performance. We are also excited to have introduced our new Raleigh team and to begin building client relationships in the Triangle region,” said Art Seaver, the company’s chief executive officer.

United Community Banks Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI) reported continued momentum in the third quarter.

Net income grew to $25.9 million, or 36 cents per diluted share, compared with $17.9 million, or 27 cents per diluted

16 | COVER |

WAYNE ROPER & SCBIO

SCIENCE LESSONS

SCBIO president Wayne Roper’s $50-billion hypothesis: Biotech will be a huge catalyst for economic growth in South Carolina Words by Melinda Young | Photos by Will Crooks

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Keep these three numbers in mind, because each has a crucial role in the state’s next big economic story:

FIVE YEARS, $15 MILLION, $50 BILLION.

L

et’s start with the $50 billion. The state’s economy could increase by more than $50 billion — $2.5 billion in Greenville County alone — if one thing were to happen: the average per capita income rises to the national average of $46,049. Statewide, per capita income is now $38,302. Greenville’s average per capita income is close to $41,000.

That $50 billion number is the most important one to keep on the radar, says Wayne Roper, president of the S.C. Biotechnology Industry Organization (SCBIO), a Greenville-based nonprofit trade organization that promotes the life science industry statewide. One of the best ways to attract those high-paying salaries, he says, is to encourage more biotech and life science startups.

And here’s where the $15 million comes in. Life science industry startups — like all innovation-based startups — need seed money. SCBIO is asking for the state’s S.C. Launch program funding to increase from $6 million to $15 million annually. The money supports new companies developed from South Carolina technology.

The trouble is, this push didn’t get going until 2006. “We have catching up to do,” Roper says.

“Nearly every state in the Southeast has been at it longer and has put more capital and initiative into growing innovation companies, and particularly life sciences.” For example, the Georgia Research Alliance has an $18 million-plus budget, while Florida had a $1.5 billion life science initiative under former Gov. Jeb Bush (1999-2007). North Carolina gave $20 million a year to life science funding until cuts last year.

Finally, five years. This is when the region may start seeing results.

It took Charleston’s Digital Corridor initiative five years to begin paying off with high-value jobs. The Charleston area’s per capita income has risen now to above the national average and well above the state’s 80 percent of national per capita income, Roper says. Meanwhile, an 8 percent jump in technical jobs in 2015 resulted in $309 million added to the South Carolina economy.

“These jobs pay double the typical office job and provide opportunities for our brightest graduates,” he says. “We need to create wealth here.”

NEW AREAS OF GROWTH

SCBIO’s chief aim is to bring industry partnerships to the Upstate’s life science assets and to nurture an innovation ecosystem that creates those high-salary jobs, Roper says. The goal is to think bigger than branch manufacturing plant announcements and much bigger than service sector growth.

“Manufacturing is the traditional wheelhouse of the Department of Commerce,” Roper says. “SCBIO’s focus is moving up the value chain to high innovation and innovation-based jobs in research and development, where angel investors, venture investors and equity capital investments are made.”

Life science industrial growth already is showing up locally and across the state in recent investment headlines, including the $4.6 million invested in Valeant’s Spartanburg distribution facility, the $20 million in Greenville’s Bausch & Lomb plant and $20 million in Haemonetics’ Union County plant.

In Lexington County, Nephron Pharmaceutical began production this year at its $313 million plant and headquarters, and in Richland, the Ritedose Corporation is in the middle of a $110 million expansion of its plant.

The more South Carolina promotes innovation businesses, the more the life science and biotech industry will grow, and the more it grows, the higher the area’s per capita income will climb.

PLUGGING THE BRAIN DRAIN

The problem isn’t a lack of extremely intelligent and talented people in the life science and biotech fields — Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the University of South Carolina (USC) produce many such graduates.

It’s just that most of them don’t stay in South Carolina. About two out of three advanced engineer and life science graduates leave the state, Roper explains — and some only leave because they have to.

“An increasing number of entrepreneurs do not want to leave South Carolina,” Roper says. “They love the state.”

The problem is that these graduates have specialized training and there are not enough local jobs for them. More would stay in the Palmetto State if they received the same kind of job offers they field from companies across the nation.

“For folks going through Clemson, you hear it expressed over and over, ‘Boy, I wish I could stay here and work,’” says Tom Strange, past chair of S.C. Launch, SCBIO board member and the founder of a successful startup, Maven Capacitors, which was sold to medical device company St. Jude Medical of St. Paul, Minn. Strange is now head of research and development for St. Jude Medical, which employs around 500 people in Pickens County and has a $12 million, 60,000-square-foot expansion underway.

To develop a technology and life science hub like the ones in North Carolina’s Research Triangle area, Atlanta, Boston and elsewhere, state and local leaders need the foresight to attract and assist startups and keep the companies here once they prove successful, Strange says.

Strange started Maven Capacitors, which designed capacitors for use in the human body, in Pickens two decades ago. After his company grew and was sold, he worked to keep the operations in South Carolina.

“I convinced the management that we had the technical innovation in South Carolina, and we were very successful at hiring well-trained people out of the local universities,” he says.

STARTUPS GET A LEG UP

Other key components to growing the life science industry are federal grants, state small-business grants and seed money from nonprofit groups.

SCBIO, for instance, provides seed grants, support services and other assistance to promising biotech entrepreneurs. “SCBIO is at the door of all three research universities, trying to encourage the commercialization of the most promising concepts,” Roper says.

An example is Jinxiang Zhou, who was the top chemical engineering student at Tongji University in Shanghai, China. He received a Ph.D. from Clemson University and now is co-founder of Greenville-based Purilogics.

Zhou collaborated with his Clemson professor and mentor, Scott Husson, to start a company to improve the current purification process for biologic drugs under development. Their process could help the biopharmaceutical industry get lifesaving cancer drugs and other biologics to market faster.

Purilogics recently received a $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), helping to fund the small startup’s first full-time staff. The company’s first help in getting started came from a $50,000 National Science Foundation grant, a $30,000 Clemson University Research Foundation (CURF) grant and hands-on marketing, business planning, intellectual property and negotiation mentoring and assistance from SCBIO experts.

SCBIO’s help was invaluable, Zhou says. “We had no idea about what a license registration looks like, and the license is the key to enable us to produce output legally.”

Located in the Institute for Translational Oncology Research (ITOR) at the Greenville Health System, Purilogics is currently testing its patent technology. “We are currently collaborating with two pharmaceutical companies,” Zhou says, adding that the company could have its first customer by the end of 2017.

With a matching grant from the S.C. Department of Commerce Office of Innovation, SCBIO QuickStart provides expert assistance to new life science companies, including Purilogics.

“With QuickStart we provide mentoring and

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A glove box in the Purilogics facility allows scientists to work with materials in a separate atmosphere.

professional services to an early-stage company for one year,” Roper says. “We provide up to $10,000 in professional services, including legal, prototyping, marketing, website and business plan developing.”

TOUCHED BY ANGELS

Angel investors are crucial to nurturing life science startups, Strange says, and the Upstate Carolina Angel Network, launched in 2008, can help.

Roper calls the boom in active angel investors — high-net-worth investors who put their own money into startups — “the great untold story of the last three years.”

Angel investor networks might

put $200,000 toward a new company, providing critical funding to help companies get off the ground. The number of South Carolina investors who are helping local companies has increased from about 40 in 2013 to more than 240 today, and the increase is due to the state’s passage of a 35 percent tax credit for angel investors, Roper says.

The Upstate Carolinas Angel Network and Matt Dunbar, its managing director, helped expand the number of groups and developed networks of funds since the act was passed, Roper says. UCAN has now formed VentureSouth that encompasses some of North Carolina.

Fifteen years ago, life science

entrepreneurs would move to Boston or Minnesota to start their companies because that’s where they found the venture capitalists and the money to make it happen, Strange says. That’s no longer true, and state governments and local angel investors are helping to fill in the gap left by venture capitalists who have moved on to later-stage deals, he explains.

“Our big challenge in South Carolina is how to keep the successful startup here once it gets to that point where it’s middle-sized,” Strange says. “We have in the Greenville area this crop of people who are wealthy and looking for the right kind of investment.”

Purilogics co-founder Jinxiang Zhou is trying to get lifesaving cancer drugs to market faster.

Headquartered at GHS’ ITOR facility, KIYATEC has developed a process to test cancer cells in experiments with different cancer drugs, to help predict the best treatment for an individual patient.

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KIYATEC GOES FROM STARTUP TO BREAKOUT SUCCESS MEINDA YOUNG| CONTRIBUTOR

myoung@communityjournals.com

I

nvesting in startups in the Upstate is a great way to expand the number of headquarters here, says Wayne Roper, president of the SCBIO. “Any company headquartered in South Carolina has a much greater multiplier effect on the economy than other companies because they hire professional engineers, accountants and lawyers, and profits are invested in your state,” he says. “That’s why seed money is so important. You can’t tell which companies will be the breakout success.

It’s a combination of timing and management expertise, so you need to create a lot of startups, doing your very best to see that they’re trained and mentored and have a lot of support.”

One local and very promising biotech startup is KIYATEC, the first tenant in Greenville Health System’s Institute for Translational Oncology Research (ITOR). The company launched in 2011, around the same time SCBIO transitioned from being an all-volunteer organization into a professional organization.

KIYATEC is growing, attracting scientists from across the country, and appears to be on the precipice of something big because its technology could expand across the globe in many areas of medicine and a variety of investigational pharmaceutical applications. For instance, KIYATEC has new contracts with pharmaceutical companies, which will use its novel technology of growing cells that can more accurately mimic the way cells behave in the body, to gain more information about drugs in development, says Matt Gevaert, KIYATEC’s founder.

“We have a value proposition that the world needs,” Gevaert says. “We can start to receive patient samples from across the country and we can expand into other cities and regions, but Greenville is the mothership right now.”

Gevaert is a good example of how South Carolina’s universities are incubators for future entrepreneurs who could help the state retain successful jobs and industries. He moved from Canada to the Upstate to earn a master’s

degree at Clemson University, and stayed to earn a doctorate in biomedical engineering. While working on his graduate degrees, he had four inventions and worked with the university’s technology transfer office. This experience led to his becoming a technology commercialization officer for the Clemson University Research Foundation.

Eventually, he started his own life science company.

KIYATEC has patents on technology that should give oncologists and cancer patients a more accurate and efficient way to predict the best cancer treatment.

Its goal is to solve the problem of cancer patients taking drugs that work poorly until the right combination is discovered through trial and error.

“They may get a drug, take it for a few weeks and then come to find out their cancer has progressed or gotten worse, and they’re having side effects,” Gevaert says. “That’s not good for the patient, but it’s the best we can do right now because there’s no way today to viably know in advance if someone is going to

be a responder to that drug.”

But thanks to KIYATEC that could change. The firm is testing cancer cells in experiments with various cancer drugs. “We’re doing it in a way that predicts what the cells inside a patient will do, so we then circumvent the nonresponse scenario,” Gevaert explains.

Their process is superior to growing cells in a petri dish, the method scientists have used for more than 60 years, Gevaert says. The process is largely inaccurate because the environment is so unnatural. “It’s like making a glass floor, putting a camera underneath it and watching what people do. But then you make the people lie down on the floor and move around like starfish,” he explains. “This wouldn’t give you a good measure of how people behave.”

Instead, KIYATEC puts cells in a more natural environment, and — like its potential to stir up the local life science industry and economy — just lets the magic happen.

25

Generations Group

UBJ

|

11.4.2016

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11.4.2016

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upstatebusinessjournal.com

MOVERS, SHAKERS AND DISRUP TORS SHAPING OUR FUTURE

| INNOVATE | 21

What Are Words Worth?

How the word ‘passion’ may be holding back the cause of innovation

By BRENT WARWICK CEO, ipsoCreative

We are collectively complacent about the words that we choose, which is part of why it is vitally important for us to pause and take stock of how we employ words in the service of what we hope to achieve. This could be a very broad topic, but since I serve as a contributor to the Innovate section of the Upstate Business Journal, I’m going to limit these observations to the realm of innovation – and one word in particular that needs replacing.

For anyone in business, nonprofits or education; anyone who reads; anyone starting their career; anyone in midlife – really, anyone who is alive today – the word “passion” has become clichéd. To say that it is overused is an understatement. In one sense, that is a shame. Any time a word loses its value to convey meaning, we collectively lose a little bit of the rich color of our language. In another sense, it offers us an opportunity to reflect and potentially find new ways of expressing our thoughts.

The Big Picture If you take a step back and look at the big picture of innovation, there’s an important perspective to be considered. Words are the primary functional conduits of innovation. Of course, numbers, images and sounds are all forms of communication necessary for certain types of innovation.

By and large, words are the everyday method through which our ideas are communicated to one another. We may marvel at the latest technological device, the latest medical miracle, the latest socially conscious enterprise, but in all cases those innovations were wholly dependent on the received communication (words, most often) of what preceded its development.

When we fall back on overused words and phrases, we betray the very intent of innovation. Original ideas benefit from original wording. Of course, there are limitations to the

catalog of words we can choose from. Our language is not infinite, but it is also not exhausted. There are still ways that we can repurpose words, rearrange words, revive old words and in some cases intentionally restore the meaning of words.

Generally, it doesn’t seem like we give much consideration to this very simple idea that words affect innovation. But take a moment to think about it. Words affect our communication, which affects our relationships, which affect culture. And culture affects the climate of innovation more than most anything else. So our words must be chosen with intention if they are to serve the purpose of cultivating innovation.

The Paradox of Clichés Bringing the view down a little closer, we need to consider the effect of clichés among the words that we choose. There’s an interesting paradox involving clichés. Most people will tell you that they don’t like clichés, those tired words and phrases that betray a lack of original thought. And yet we employ clichés so frequently in everyday speech, especially business jargon, that you might naturally draw the conclusion that a schizophrenia exists between what folks say about clichés and what they do in using them.

At root, clichés are lazy. We use them as communication shortcuts. We use them because they are often the quickest communication option. We use them because everyone else uses them. The unintentional side effect is their loss of meaning as the volume of their usage saturates our culture. It’s in this way that clichés negatively impact a culture of innovation.

Passion Is Cliché, but Delight Has Meaning So, what’s the practical outworking of this observation? Take the now clichéd word “passion.” We hyperbolically use it in so many ways. When folks are vocationally uncertain, we suggest, “Find what you are passionate about.” When people express the slightest feeling of toil in their work,

When we fall back on overused words and phrases,

WE BETRAY THE VERY INTENT OF INNOVATION. Original ideas benefit from original wording. we say, “They’ve lost their passion.”

Those who seek to motivate others will tell them, “The passionate are the ones who can change the world.”

And here’s where the importance of words and their meanings comes into detailed focus. “Passion,” by strict definition, means “strong and barely controllable emotion.” Is that really the concept that propels those who innovate? Perhaps in some moments, that may describe how they feel. But more likely than not, that sort of heightened feeling is not sustainable.

None of us are passionate about what we do all of the time, and that’s what makes disillusionment set in when we feel that we don’t measure up to what we believe everyone else is living up to.

Perhaps if we lowered the hyperbole from “passion” to “delight,” we could recover some of the intended meaning behind the idea of taking great pleasure in something, which is a key ingredient to innovation.

When we delight in curiosity, we are free to pursue new ideas. When we delight in work, we are free to put in the time necessary to achieve something of value. And when we delight in a culture that chooses words in an intentional manner, we are free to express original thoughts … that aren’t full of clichés.

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22 | DIGITAL MAVEN |

UBJ

THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF BUSINESS

|

11.4.2016

The Zombie Army Is your fridge a hacker’s pawn? And what can you do about it?

By LAURA HAIGHT president, portfoliosc.com

The cyberattack that took down Netflix, Twitter, PayPal and dozens of other major websites two weeks ago was a vanguard, not a fluke. Attacks carried out by “botnets,” an army of unwitting devices that have been hacked and utilized as pawns to take down a high-value target, are one of the most common forms of cyberattack.

Until this year, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks used infected computers. The targets are often large businesses or agencies. But the explosion of internet-connected devices has fueled both a significant increase in attacks and the strength of the attacks.

Their goal is disruption: Sometimes they want to take down the cyber defenses of a large organization — often to knock out a competitor — and

sometimes it’s just because they can or they want to learn if they can. Sometimes, as in last month’s very attack affecting services in two-thirds of the U.S., they’re just irritating. The world won’t come to an end because Twitter is down. At least, I don’t think so. But they could be crippling. What would happen if all internet communications were down for a day?

Thinking bigger is possible today thanks to the internet of things (IoT), a potential zombie army of 10 to 12 million devices that analysts suggest could grow to between 24 and 50 million as early as 2020.

How do cyberterrorists conscript these zombies? By feeding malware into your internet-connected fridge, home security system, light switch, DVR and webcam. Sure, they look harmless, but in fact more than 185 million devices may be vulnerable or already compromised. Hackers are taking full advantage of the conver-

gence of our desire to have new, cool “stuff” and our aversion to actually understanding how that stuff works.

Manufacturers know that we aren’t going to want a lot of work to set up and manage our new tech. So they hard-code logins and passwords, use easy setups via vulnerable functions like plug-and-play and don’t update their software much. In some cases, researchers believe, manufacturers are inexperienced with security and unaware of the risks their products may be prone to.

The problems are complicated by the fact that most of us at home — and even in small businesses — have little knowledge about how each piece of our tech connects to the others, or how they communicate internally and with the rest of the world, via Wi-Fi. The risks of such vulnerable devices can hit much closer to home as well.

Once a hacker can control a device, there’s no telling what they will choose to do with it. Ethical hackers have demonstrated they can hack door locks, take control of a Jeep Grand Cherokee and even change the settings on medical devices that deliver medication and are controlled by centralized web interfaces.

HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOURSELF AT HOME OR AT YOUR BUSINESS?

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• Check to see how exposed your network and your devices are. BullGuard, a security company based in the UK, has developed an IoT scanner that checks to see if your network or devices are publicly available on Shodan. (Shodan is to IoT devices as Google is to websites.) (goo.gl/dcFsvQ) • If a scan doesn’t find anything, that’s good, but not a guarantee. For most of us, the biggest vulnerability is the Wi-Fi router, the command-and-control of the network. The router’s role as gatekeeper is a bit disturbing since many of the top brands in the industry have serious vulnerabilities right out of the box. At the end of 2015, a security research firm hired by the Wall Street Journal tested 20 of the most popular routers on the market and found vulnerabilities in the majority, including outdat-

ed security software and unpatched vulnerabilities, some of which were as much as 10 years old. (Check yours: goo.gl/fQRfGs) • Small businesses operating on tight budgets often use residential routers rather than commercial models. The latter are more expensive, yes, but they also have much better security and management features that a business — especially one that takes credit cards or has sensitive information about clients or customers — should deploy.

• Another serious risk is the use of default passwords. The vast majority of users never change the default login info on their routers, making it easy for any hacker to gain access to and control of your network and all connected devices. Do two things right now that will vastly improve your security. First, change the password on your router to a passphrase or strong 10-character password (you can write it down and stick it on the device, if you want, unless it’s a business). While you’re there, uncheck the box that says “Broadcast SSID.” The SSID is the network-friendly name. If you don’t broadcast it, hackers can’t see you. And for the most part, hackers can’t hack what they can’t see. For you, it’s a modest inconvenience requiring you to enter the network name to connect new devices. No biggie.

These are definitely important steps you can take for your overall security, but control is not completely in our hands. We are at the mercy of manufacturers as well. One security researcher strongly suggests not purchasing any IoT device that will not allow you to change the login and password. That’s probably a good idea, but also unrealistic. I say this: Weigh the advantage of the device against the risk of exposing your personal security or becoming a pawn in a cyberattack.

Is your life made exponentially better by having a refrigerator that can tweet you when you’re running out of milk or an app that will check to see if the dryer load is finished?

The internet of things has vast potential. The internet of stupid things, however, is just another fridge ruining it for the rest of us.

Greenville Chamber

SMALL BUSINESS SUMMIT EQUIPPING SMALL BUSINESSES WITH THE RESOURCES NEEDED TO SUCCEED FEATURING BREAKFAST WITH MUSICIAN & ENTREPRENEUR

EDWIN MCCAIN November 18 8 am-1pm Embassy Suites

TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Doris Haley

Collin Mackie

Hear from some of our community’s top business minds and network with like-minded entrepreneurs. Learn from breakout sessions, an expert hall, and a special lunch panel featuring past Greenville Chamber Small Business of the Year award winners.

John Bickley

Kostas Loannidis

John Warner

Carlos Phillips

LEARN MORE & REGISTER AT GREENVILLECHAMBER.ORG Herb Dew

Dan Rundle

Tim Justice

24 | SQUARE FEET |

UBJ

REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION

DAVID DYKES | STAFF

ddykes@communityjournals.com |

Monument Capital Management acquires SC multifamily properties Real estate firm Monument Capital

11.4.2016

@daviddykes

Lowe's Park West Apartments

Park West Apartments and Magnolia Townhomes add 457 units to portfolio Management has acquired the Park West Apartments in Greenville and Magnolia Townhomes in Spartanburg. The multifamily properties are the fifth and sixth acquisitions for the firm’s Monument Opportunity Fund III, which launched last year and will be managed by Monument Capital Management’s sister company, Miami-based Monument Real Estate Services.

Located on more than 20 acres in north Greenville, Park West Apartments has 359 units with 305 one- and two-bedroom garden-style residences and 54 two-bedroom townhomes.

Located at , the property is near the Cherrydale Point shopping district, as well as major employers including General Electric, Michelin and BMW Manufacturing. Park West also is near Furman and Bob Jones universities. Amenities include a clubhouse, two swimming pools with sundeck, laundry rooms, fitness center, business

|

center and a playground and picnic with a grilling area.

Located at 201 E. Blackstock Road on more Poinsett Highway than eight acres in southwest Spartanburg, Magnolia Townhomes offers 98 units consisting of 18 one-bedroom garden-style apartments and Park West Apartments located at 357 Hillandale Road, off Poinsett Highway 80 two- and three-bedroom townhomes. Amenities include a clubhouse, swimming pool and Home Depot laundry room. The community is near the E. Blackstock Road Westgate Mall area, as well as major employers including Spartanburg Memorial Hospital and Spartanburg Regional Hospital.

Walmart Both multifamily properties were identified by firm officials as strategic investment opporLowe's tunities aligning with Monument Capital Management’s plan to acquire workforce housing properties in markets in the Southwest, SouthMagnolia Townhomes east, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. Monument Capital Management plans to implement upgrades throughout each property to improve the curb appeal and unit interiors. Magnolia Townhomes located at 201 E. Blackstock Road in Spartanburg

BANKING

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Clemson Lending Office 133 Thomas Green Blvd., Suite 204 Clemson, South Carolina 29631 (864) 877-2000

11.4.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

STRATEGIES FOR HONING YOUR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Consider the Fifth Option South Carolina needs to boost its workforce with skilled trade apprenticeships

By ANJA SMITH Managing Partner, All Clear Plumbing

Most students are given four options to consider when graduating from high school: four-year college, two-year college, a military career or a non-skilled job.

Living in a culture that teaches that success comes in the form of a college degree, we often forget that there are other pathways to a fulfilling career. The phrase “college isn’t for everyone” shouldn’t be said as an apology, but rather as an opportunity. Some people prefer variety in their days, being physically active and outside and the satisfaction of completing a project. For those people, a college degree may not be necessary to have an exciting job opportunity.

So your niche isn’t in the standard four options? Try exploring the mysterious, often not-talked-about, fifth option: skilled trade apprenticeships.

We hear talk in the Upstate about welding as the major skilled trade, but there are many more skills that fall into the category of trades, such as electrical, HVAC repair, carpentry and my personal favorite, plumbing.

With the plumbing workforce slowly dwindling, the industry has begun to face a skilled worker shortage. As one generation retires, the next generation of young adults needs to fill its place.

Almost 158,000 plumbers will be eligible for retirement in 2022. In a field that is also growing in demand, this is creating a huge vacuum. Plumbing and pipefitting jobs nationally are expected to grow at nearly double the rate of the rest of the workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The push for vocational training in schools and community colleges is stronger than ever. However, the perception of trade skills, such as plumbing, has not changed enough to fill the gap left from retirees. South Carolina, just like the

rest of the nation, needs to power up its skilled trade workforce in order to meet demand.

At All Clear Plumbing, we are working to do just that. We want to change the conversation and encourage the next generation to discover the opportunity in our growing industry.

All Clear Plumbing, an independent and homegrown brand, is one of the founding members of South Carolina’s first chapter of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association, a leading voice in the rising tide of plumbing and HVAC contractors who share these concerns about the industry's future.

The All Clear Plumbing apprenticeship program offers comprehensive, union-quality training. The program is certified by the Department of Labor, ensuring that the resulting skill level is up to a national standard. Throughout the four-year program, participants take online classes through the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association, while simultaneously working full-time in the field learning a variety of skills. These skills are then measured at the end of each apprenticeship year to ensure the student is ready to progress to the next level. Upon completion of the program, apprentices are prepared to take the Journeyman’s Test, the first level of plumbing licensure in South Carolina.

Competition for these coveted apprenticeship spots is beginning to grow, as more students discover the not-sosecret fifth option. Once they learn about the competitive wages from day one, the engaged learning opportunities and the exciting day-to-day nature of the business, they are hooked. All Clear Plumbing is one of just a few plumbers in the Upstate to provide such a program, but are vocal advocates for more plumbing companies to join the model. It’s the only way to fill the need of a fast-growing industry and a shrinking workforce.

Some people prefer variety in their days, being physically active and outside and the satisfaction of completing a project.

For those people, a college degree may not be necessary to have an exciting job opportunity.

| PROFESSIONAL | 25

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26 | THE FINE PRINT |

UBJ

BUSINESS BRIEFS YOU CAN’ T MISS

Community Journals is hiring!

SALES EXECUTIVE FULL TIME

PRINT / DIGITAL / SOCIAL / EVENTS Email MJOHNSTON@COMMUNITYJOURNALS.COM with cover letter and resumé.

|

11.4.2016

Greenville Chamber holds Small Business Summit to support local owners The Greenville Chamber’s Small Business Summit held Nov. 18 at Embassy Suites Golf Resort & Conference Center, 670 Verdae Blvd., is designed to celebrate hardworking small-business owners as well as equip them with the resources and training needed to build a thriving business. Cost is $50. Contact Tripp James at 239-3728 or tjames@greenvillechamber.org, or register at bit.ly/2dZzFCh. The agenda: • 8–9:30 a.m. – Friday Forum Breakfast with Edwin McCain • 9:45–10:30 a.m. — “Raising Capital” Panel Discussion • 10:45–11:30 a.m. — Q&A with Chamber President/CEO Carlos Phillips • 9:45–11:30 a.m. — Ask an Expert Hall • 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. — Lunch Panel with Small Business of the Year Award Winners

GreenWood Inc. celebrates 4 million safe hours

COMMUNITY JOURNALS IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

Greenville-based GreenWood Inc., an integrated maintenance, operations and construction solutions provider, recently celebrated 4 million safe hours at their West Virginia Operations (WVO) project based in South Charleston, W.V. This accomplishment was achieved after 14 years of continuous operations without a lost time event while supporting multiple clients in the chemical, petro-chemical and automotive markets.

As a company, GreenWood emphasizes the importance of safety as a top priority. The company’s “Always Aware” safety slogan serves as the overarching focal point for all project work. Preparation for daily work always begins to ensure employees think, act and perform safely. This commitment and mindset allowed GreenWood to record their lowest experience modification rating in the company’s history, while the West Virginia Operations project reached this significant safety milestone.

Stratos Aviation recognized as outstanding flight school Stratos Aviation is one of nine flight schools in the country recognized by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) as Outstanding Flight School.

Stratos’ founder and owner, Dimitri Partafyllas, was also listed with just one other South Carolinian on the AOPA Flight InLIGHT GREEN structor Honor R=147 G=204 B=66 Roll, which consisted of 50 recipients. The other South Carolina instructor to win was John Selby based out of the Mt. Pleasant Regional-Faison Field DARK GREEN R=11 G=125 B=24 Airport.

Partafyllas was recognized in San Marcos, Texas, on Oct. 25 at the Redbird Migration CHARCOAL Flight Training Conference.

R=102 G=102 B=102 Winners were chosen based on a poll that gave aviators the opportunity to provide feedback about their recent flight training experience. The flight training poll measured the performance of flight training providers based on educational quality, customer focus, community and information sharing.

11.4.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

THE FRESHEST FACES ON THE BUSINESS LANDSCAPE

| NEW TO THE STREET | 27

Open for business 1

PRESENTS — COURT ORDERED AUCTION: BOAT STORAGE FACILITY —

15071 N. Hwy. 11 Salem, SC AUCTION DATE

Wednesday, November 9, 2016 • 12:30 pm

1. Escape Room Greenville opened at 319 Garlington Road, Suite A-5, in Greenville. Learn more at greenvilleescaperoom.com.

Photo provided

Come and bid YOUR price on this Boat Storage Facility. The facility shows 90% occupancy over the past five years – located just miles from Lake Keowee and the exclusive Cliffs communities. This is an excellent money making operation and the perfect time to buy this property.

Darron Meares, SCAL 3737 • Larry Meares, SCAL 109, BIC

864-444-5361 WWW.MEARESAUCTIONS.COM

2

2. Embassy Suites Greenville Downtown Riverplace by Hilton recently opened at 250 Riverplace. Visit embassysuites3.hilton.com for more information.

Photo provided

CONTRIBUTE: Know of a business opening soon?

Email information to aturner@communityjournals.com.

28 | ON THE MOVE |

UBJ

PLAY-BY-PLAY OF UPSTATE CAREERS

HIRED

HIRED

HIRED

HIRED

|

11.4.2016

HIRED

WILL COLE

DUSTIN MORRIS

JIM MAZANY

TYLER A. TUCKER

MICAH PEEK

Joined EDTS, a regional technology consulting firm that specializes in providing managed information technologies services, network security and advanced infrastructure solutions to organizations across the Southeast, as a network administrator.

Joined Ameris Bank Greenville as a commercial lender. In this role, Morris will be responsible for new commercial business development and maintenance of commercial banking relationships.

Named CEO of Fatz Café and Cafe Enterprises Inc. Mazany has more than 30 years of restaurant operations and leadership experience, including senior leadership roles with brands including TGI Friday’s, Applebee’s and Joe’s Crab Shack.

Named director of electrical engineering in GMK Associates Inc.’s engineering division. In this role, Tucker will oversee the electrical engineering technical staff and project assignments as the firm’s former director, Brell Foster, transitions into the role of director emeritus.

Named graphic designer with Jackson Marketing, Motorsports & Events. A graduate of The South Carolina School of the Arts at Anderson University with a degree in graphic design, Peek received Gold ADDY Awards in 2014 and 2015 from the Greenville chapter of the American Advertising Federation, along with a Special Judges Award and Southeast Region Gold ADDY in 2014.

CONTRIBUTE: New hires, promotions & award winners may be featured in On the Move. Send information and photos to onthemove@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

REAL ESTATE Coldwell Banker Caine recently welcomed Rebecca Shove and Zach Pancoast as residential sales agents to its Greenville office. Shove joins Coldwell Banker Caine with sales and marketing experience through her most recent role as a national account executive with Unified Investigations and Sciences, a forensic engineering firm. Pancoast joins Coldwell Banker Caine with experience managing numerous investment properties through the Rutledge Investment Group.

Originally a native of California, Zach fell in love with the Upstate while attending Furman University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in business administration.

VIP

ave

the

ate

mber 3rd at 6:00 pm e c De

Downtown Greenville

Main St. from Augusta St. to North St.

Inez Tenenbaum has joined Wyche, P.A., working in both Columbia and Greenville offices. Tenenbaum will focus her practice at Wyche on consumer product safety and risk management. She also will counsel clients through public policy issues regarding education on a state, regional and national level. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Tenenbaum to chair the CPSC, where she served until her term expired in November 2013. Tenenbaum was elected South Carolina’s State Superintendent of Education in 1998 and again in 2002. Tenenbaum serves on the board of directors for Safe Kids Worldwide, the advisory board for South Carolina’s Coalition for Mathematics and Science, the national advisory board for the International African-American Museum and is a member of the Southern Regional Education Board’s early childhood commission.

11.4.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

INSIDE THE UPSTATE’S NETWORKING AND SOCIAL SCENE

| SOCIAL SNAPSHOT | 29

PARK PLACE ON HUDSON CELEBRATION The Marchant Company and Asterisk Development hosted a celebration for Park Place on Hudson. Construction for the Greenville townhome development is underway and Phase I should be complete by February.

CREW CONVENTION CREW Upstate recently sent seven members to New York City to participate in the National CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) Network Convention, held Oct 19-21. The CREW Network Convention attracted more than 1,500 participants, and the event was highlighted in a double-spread in the New York Times.

CONTRIBUTE: Got high-resolution photos of your networking or social events?

Send photos and information for consideration to events@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

30 | #TRENDING |

UBJ

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

OVERHEARD @ THE WATERCOOLER RE: LOWES FOODS ANNOUNCES THIRD STORE LOCATION IN GREENVILLE MARKET

> John Warner “This is uncontrolled sprawl that will lead to Pelham Road rapidly becoming the next Woodruff Road. With the disaster of Woodruff Road, it’s amazing that Greenville County Council has learned nothing. This is just wanton recklessness.”

OCTOBER 28, 2016

> Ed Wilmot “John Warner, my thoughts exactly. During rush hour, this intersection is horrible. The planners and local community know the problem very well.” > Lisa Marie McDonald “For the love of God, can we get something over here on the Augusta Road area? Harris Teeter was announced two years ago, and they haven’t started construction yet.” > Mary Bchakjian “This is going to be horrendous for Pelham Road. When is enough going to be ENOUGH? The sprawl occurring is ridiculous” > Matt Holiday “We need one in Spartanburg.” > Kenny Nicholson “How about one on the Cherrydale/Furman side of town?”

| VOL. 5 ISSUE 44

1 MUAILRELIFEOETN YOU MUST GIVE

TH

EC

RE

ISS

UE

11.4.2016

BIZ BUZZ

Distilled commentary from UBJ readers

> @alisonrauch “I knew Pelham Road was a great place to move :) #yeahthatgreenville”

|

SQ

ME

spaces. need even bigger them?

Big businesses accommodate properties can Which Upstate

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UPSTATEBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM

11.4.2016

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DATE Monday

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IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE OF UBJ? WANT A COPY FOR YOUR LOBBY?

UBJ milestone jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years 1988 Jackson Dawson opens in Greenville at Downtown Airport

1988

Holly Hardin

ADVERTISING DESIGN

1997 Jackson Dawson launches motorsports Division 1993

1990 Jackson Dawson

acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont office Center on Villa.

LAYOUT OPERATIONS

NOVEMBER 18 LEADERSHIP ISSUE How continuing education and local networking groups make us better leaders.

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

UBJ milestone

>>

with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a “corporate gateway to the city.”

In 1997, Jackson and his son, Darrell, launched Jackson Motorsports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.”

Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate planning.

The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an auditorium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motorsports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet.

Jackson said JMG has expanded into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s

Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff

Jackson Marketing Group celebrates 25 years By sherry Jackson | staff | sjackson@communityjournals.com

Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and according to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.

Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during

Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood.

He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit.

After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Marketing Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto industry in 1980.

In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he

learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage.

In fact, when he started the Greenville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar.

“Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back upstairs to the meeting,” Jackson said.

Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders

>>

2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

1998 1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court

also one of the few marketing companies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design.

Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile application for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series.

“In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.”

Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept

2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson marketing Group when larry sells his partnership in Detroit and lA 2003

2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by BtoB magazine 4 years running

him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-prof non-profits. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award.

The company reaffirmed its commitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th anniversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family.

As Jackson inches towards retirement, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business.

“From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son, Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.”

Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”

2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports Group employee base reaches 100 people

2008 2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation with Creative spirit Award

pro-bono/non-proFit / Clients lients American Red Cross of Western Carolinas Metropolitan Arts Council Artisphere Big League World Series The Wilds Advance SC South Carolina Charities, Inc. Aloft Hidden Treasure Christian School

CoMMUnitY nit inVolVeMent nitY in ol inV olV V Ve eMent & boarD positions lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn): Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member, Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member

DECEMBER 16 DIVERSITY ISSUE Bringing all backgrounds, voices and perspectives together.

David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board, Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist): Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board

November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21

20 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal November 1, 2013

AS SEEN IN

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Kristy Adair | Michael Allen

CLIENT SERVICES Anita Harley | Jane Rogers

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Kristi Fortner

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