Charleston County Special Section from the 2017 Fall issue of SCBIZ

Fall 2017

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CHARLESTON

A view of Broad Street in downtown Charleston, the county seat of Charleston County and one of the top tourist destinations in the world. (Photo/File)

MANUFACTURING, HEALTH CARE, CONSTRUCTION POWER JOB GROWTH

By Steve McDaniel, Associate Editor

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harleston County is at the heart of an economic boom that has encompassed coastal South Carolina. The Great Recession is quickly receding in the rearview mirror as a powerful engine of capital investment, tourism, population surge and industrial expansion pushes the area forward.

Recent announcements of new manufacturing facilities for automakers Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, expansion plans at aerospace giant Boeing and improvements to the S.C. Ports Authority facilities highlight the Lowcountry’s emergence as a major player in the regional and global economy.

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Charleston Cou by the numbers nty

Population............ ................... 396,48 4 Median Household Income.......$53,43 7 Largest Private Sector Employer s Boein

g South Carolina........ .....................7,400 Roper St. Francis He althcare.................. 5,5 00 Trident Health Syste m............................2 ,500 Walmart Inc................ ............................ 2,3 00 Kiawah Island Golf Re sort/ The Sanctuary at Kia wah.........................1 ,500 Sources: U.S. Cens us Center for Busines and s Research

Mercedes-Benz’s expansion is helping drive demand for industrial space. (Photo/Charleston County Economic Development)

COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: CHARLESTON

Comcast recently opened a customer care and technical support center in North Charleston. The facility will employ up to 550 people when it is fully staffed. (Photo/ Charleston County Economic Development)

An influx of new residents, manufacturers and development spurred by a consistent stream of high rankings in major tourism and business publications has turned the Lowcountry into a destination of choice for tourists and industry. U.S. Census estimates put Charleston County’s growth rate at just over 13% from 2010-16, with a total estimated 2016 population of almost 400,000.

Unemployment numbers have steadily declined from nearly 10% at the height of the recession to the current rate of 3.6%.

Projected job growth from 2014-24 is almost 13%, led by construction, health care and manufacturing.

Real estate values have continued to surge every year since 2013 as net in-migration to the area creates a strong demand for residential housing. The average cost of

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Charleston County’s natural beauty makes it a top tourist destinations in the world. (Photo/File)

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COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: CHARLESTON The first flight of the new 787-10 commercial jet (above) took off from the Boeing plant in North Charleston in March. (Photo/Kim McManus) At right, Boeing opens its new paint facility in North Charleston in late 2016. (Photo/Charleston County Economic Development)

a new home in Charleston County is nearly $250,000, well above the state average and among the highest in the Southeast.

Commercial real estate demand is also on the rise. A recent report from commercial real estate broker CBRE showed 300,000 square feet of speculative industrial space under construction in the areas around North Charleston, Ladson and along

Interstate 26. Much of the expansion is related to growth in port traffic and in the petroleum, automotive and aerospace sectors, the report said.

Keith Lambert, director of business recruitment for Charleston County Economic Development, said the county is seeing an unprecedented level of activity in the speculative industrial

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Volvo is building a new automotive manufacturing facility in Berkeley County. Speculative industrial site development in Charleston County has surged in anticipation of demand from Volvo suppliers. (Photo/Volvo)

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COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: CHARLESTON Students and staff at Palmetto Scholars Academy, a charter school in North Charleston, attend a recent defense contractor convention in Charleston County. (Photo/Charleston County Economic Development)

undergraduate and postgraduate institutions. MUSC offers medical degrees and residencies in many health care disciplines; College of Charleston, in the heart of downtown, is among the oldest higher-learning institutions in the nation. The Citadel, also on the peninsula, is a public, militaryoriented school, and Charleston Southern University is a Baptist-supported private

school in North Charleston. The Charleston School of Law is a privately funded institution offering postgraduate law degrees.

The county is also home to Trident Technical College, part of the S.C. Technical College System. It offers two-year associate degrees and specialty training for manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, health care and other industries.

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market.

“The investments of large manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and Volvo and the expansion of the S.C. Ports facilities have really impacted the spec market,” Lambert said. “We have seven spec buildings either finished or near completion in the county right now. In the past decade, we might see one or two per year. The level of activity is really impressive.”

Lambert cited the fact that 1.4 million square feet of industrial space is currently under construction or in the preconstruction phase as evidence of the strength of the market.

“Nothing in the pipeline suggests a weakening or slowdown in the near future,” he said. “Global policies might change that at some point, but right now we see strong growth across the Charleston economy.”

The county is home to three of the state’s largest cities. The county seat of Charleston recently passed Columbia as the largest city in the state. North Charleston, third behind Columbia, is home to Boeing and MercedesBenz facilities and a thriving retail market, and Mount Pleasant, fourth in population, is one of the fastest-growing cities east of the Mississippi River.

Most of the new construction activity is outside the Charleston Peninsula, which is mostly built out with a few remaining, prohibitively expensive available properties. Redevelopment is more common on the peninsula, with several large mixed-use projects under construction and a major expansion of the Medical University of South Carolina facilities underway near the Ashley River.

The peninsula is the main tourist drawing card in the Lowcountry. It is home to the iconic Rainbow Row of stately antebellum mansions, the Charleston Market where the slave trade was centered until the Civil War and several churches whose origins date as far back as the late 1600s.

Major public-sector employers in the county include MUSC, Joint Base Charleston and the Charleston County Public School District. Boeing, Roper St. Francis Healthcare and Trident Health System are among the county’s largest private-sector employers.

Charleston County is home to five

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