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Orangeburg’s fortunes are turning around
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Orangeburg County economic development officials have long believed that the eastern part of their 1,100-square-mile county, with the crossroads of Interstate 26 and Interstate 95 within 70 miles of the Port of Charleston, is the ideal location for distribution companies looking to ship products throughout the southeastern United States.
Long before Jafza International came into the picture, the county had embarked on an aggressive plan to create several industrial commerce parks both on its own and in collaboration with other municipalities.
These include the Orangeburg County Industrial Park, Orangeburg County City Industrial Park, John W. Matthews Industrial Park, Shamrock and the Carolina Regional Business Park. Tenants in many of these facilities have undertaken significant expansions in recent years.
“We knew by virtue of our proximity to the Port of Charleston and to two interstates that (collectively accommodate) 135,000 vehicles a day—not to mention a host of other amenities—that we had something special,” said Gregg Robinson, executive director of the Orangeburg County Development Commission.
“If we can achieve this kind of success as public entities, imagine what private enterprise can do,” he added.
In addition to its prime location near two busy interstates, the area that Jafza International has chosen is also well served by rail, a detail that has already proven to be a magnet for the development of other industrial properties and industrial parks.
“Given that 75 percent of the U.S. population is located east of the Mississippi River, we provide excellent market access to companies trying to effectively and efficiently distribute their goods,” Robinson said.
The industrial base in Orangeburg County employs about 8,200 workers at roughly 100 business operations. The Jafza International project would at least double that base, Robinson said.
Currently, the county’s largest employer, Husqvarna, a manufacturer of riding lawn tractors, employs about 2,000.
Other large employers include Koyo Corp., which manufactures ball bearings and employs 530; Sara Lee Bakery, employing 536; North American Container Corp., which employs 400 people in the manufacture of bulk shipping containers; and Zeus Industrial Products,
makers of Teflon tubing and employing 450.
During the past five years, Orangeburg County has had more than 170 expansions or new industry locations. During that five-year period, those companies invested more than $625 million and created nearly 3,400 jobs.
Orangeburg County has used several economic development tools to foster the development of an industrial development in the area it’s dubbed the Global Logistics Triangle, a 5,000-acre area bordered by I-95, I-26 and S.C. Highway 301, Robinson said.
These include acting as a conduit for the state’s performance-based incentives, which range from job tax credits and job development credits to property tax exemptions and sales tax exemptions. Orangeburg County is able to maximize these incentives due to its designation as a “least-developed” county.
The county also offers a five-year abatement program through which it abates its portion of the millage rate for the first five years of an investment by a qualifying company and offers company fee-in-lieu of property tax agreements that further lower the cost of moving to
Orangeburg County.
Through participation in fee-in-lieu of taxes agreements, companies can lower their assessment rate and lock in the millage rate they’re subject to for as long as 20 years.
“It’s all about adding value to what we have to offer,” Robinson said. “Whether you’re talking about bringing something significant to the Santee location (being acquired by Jafza International) or one of the properties we’re developing either independently or with another party.
“And by clustering industrial zones, we can apply for free trade zone status and offer potential buyers or tenants in the area the advantage of deferral of duties and other tax savings.”
While the impetus behind all these efforts is to create jobs for a chronically underemployed local community, the impact of creating large-scale logistics parks in the triangle extends far beyond Orangeburg, Robinson said.
“The whole idea is to bring in companies that will hire locally, and most do, but given our size—we’re 130 miles wide—and location, we physically border nine other counties and have what we consider four different labor sheds,” he said.
“We have people, basically, traveling in four specific directions for employment. Now, imagine if we can create opportunity within our own borders, and imagine if our best skill sets don’t have to leave the county every day for employment. That’s a tremendous inducement to get something like these business parks done.
“At the same time, if you can provide a person with a job five miles from their home rather than 50 miles—even if their salary is the same—the savings you’re providing them gives them more discretionary funds to spend in the local economy,” he said.
In Robinson’s experience, every manufacturing job that’s created in South Carolina in turn generates four service-oriented jobs, he said.
In view of that equation, he believes the impacts of Jafza International and the other logistics parks in and around the Global Logistics Triangle will have nearly as profound an impact on upper Dorchester County as it will on Orangeburg County.
“Clearly, I think we are seeing an increase in building opportunities, especially coming out of North Charleston and upper Dorchester County,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a surge in housing starts, in commercial construction, hotels and the like, and I also think over time we’re going to see an increase in housing starts around Lake Marion.”
Orangeburg’s logistics parks would also bring with them the fulfillment of a long-sought-after goal of Orangeburg residents: More shopping opportunities closer to home, Robinson said.
“Whenever we announce that a new manufacturing company is coming to Orangeburg, somebody inevitably says, ‘What we really need now is a Target or something like that,’” he said. “What I tell them is those things are coming, that they’ll come in time as we continue to raise the bar of Orangeburg’s economy.
“As the incomes rise and, especially, the discretionary income scores for the community rise, they’ll be knocking at our doors,” Robinson added.
In mid-September, Orangeburg and Dorchester counties were finalizing the selection of an engineering firm to lay the groundwork for a joint commerce park.
The grant to pay for the study was secured in cooperation with the Lower Savannah Council
of Governments.
“Of course, this is all preliminary work, but long-term I think this study will lay the foundation for managing the growth around these logistic centers as they come online,” Robinson said.
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@setcommedia.com.
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