May 13 - 26, 2019
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LOCK HEED MARTIN CHARGES AHE AD WITH
Volume 22, No. 9 • $2.25
Grand Bohemian joins hotel surge By Ross Norton
Developing skills Students learn soft art of doing business. Page 8
I
Deep harbor
High bids delay dredging project at Port of Charleston. Page 10
Vanpooling
Program saves money, preserves clean air. Page 7
Rapid growth
Adapting to change takes varied strategy. Page 23
INSIDE
Leading Off........................... 2 SC Biz News Briefs................. 3 C-Suite................................. 4 In Focus: Health Care.......... 17 LIST: Hospitals................... 20 At Work............................... 21 Viewpoint............................23
Greenville becomes the only place in the world to produce the F-16 as local, state and federal officials dedicate the production line at SCTAC. PAGE 6 Lockheed Martin customers have nicknamed the latest version of the F-16: the Viper (Photo Provided)
DNA expression
Greenwood Genetic Center launches new test. Page 17
rnorton@scbiznews.com
t wasn’t inspiration that brought hotelier Richard Kessler to Greenville; it was the persistence of Mayor Knox White. The inspiration came later, when he first set eyes on the “unused” side of Liberty Bridge at Falls Park. The place was special, Kessler said. He knew it right away. “We walked up to this site and I saw it and I said, ‘Oh my gosh. The hunt is over,’” Kessler said to a crowd gathered for an official groundbreaking ceremony for the Grand Bohemian Hotel Greenville. After many suggestions by multiple people over several years, it was the mayor who convinced Kessler over a glass of wine to give Greenville a try. The location sold itself in a moment. The pedestrian bridge that arcs out and over the park delivers people from the eastern side of the river to the west, where there has been little to explore except more views of the waterfall that gives the park its name. White said Miguel Gonzalez, the artist who designed the bridge, told him recently that he felt like the bridge went “from where to nowhere.” The other side of the bridge wasn’t exactly nowhere, though; it led to the offices of the Wyche law firm, headed for years by the late Tommy Wyche, an attorney and pioneering conservationist, who also was an early player in the redevelopment of downtown Greenville. Wyche’s office overlooked what was once a beautiful secret. Kessler couldn’t stop thinking about it. On his flight out of Greenville, he asked a flight attendant for a napkin and started drawing plans for the site. He didn’t want See BOHEMIAN, Page 11