North Charleston manufacturer meets Hollywood By Sarah G. McC. Moise If you’ve been watching the popular television series CSI or taken your date to the theater to see The Stepford Wives, perhaps you’ve been struck by the gleam of high-tech surgical equipment or lured by the bleeps of futuristic medical devices, the sleek silhouettes of saucer-ish lights, sinuously armed plasma TVs and ergodynamic surgical tables.
Real estate ‘young guns’ blaze trail of success By Dennis Quick Two years ago, 27-year-old Stuart Coleman arrived at commercial real estate firm Clement, Crawford & Thornhill sensing he had hit the career jackpot. He wanted to work in a place that would nourish his professional growth and allow him to tackle ambitious plans.
Flex puts commercial space users in control By Martin Sinderman Thanks largely to growth in defense-related businesses, flex space developments in the tri-county region are enjoying a brisk pace of activity and absorption, with new construction set to add additional product to the market.
QUICK NOTES: Local lawyers help insurance victims get $1.35M By Dennis Quick Claims chaos. Charleston attorneys Christian Hartley and Justin Kahn recently reached a class action settlement against insurance agents who sold bogus Fidelity Group Inc. health insurance policies to local small businesses.
County agencies seek better jobs for rural residents By Holly Fisher Businesses, community organizations, churches and educational institutions have come together to solve employment issues in rural Dorchester and Orangeburg counties.
EDITORIAL: Publishing milestone yields thoughts on regional economic growth By Bill Settlemyer This month marks the beginning of our 10th year of publishing the Business Journal, so it strikes me as an appropriate time for reflection, both on the success of this particular business venture and the economic growth of the Charleston region.
S.C. MONTHLY OUTLOOK: Putting it together for Palmetto business Thanks to legislation passed by the House and Senate, film and TV producers will now have more incentive to choose South Carolina as a preferred shooting location. The South Carolina Motion Picture Incentive Act of 2004 provides tax credits and rebates for films using labor and suppliers in the Palmetto State.
College grads face dearth of entry-level jobs By Dennis Quick It happens year after year, says Brent Stewart, director of The Citadel Career Center. Students graduating from the Charleston area’s four-year colleges fall in love with the Lowcountry and want to remain here.
LISTMAKER, PRIVATE SCHOOLS Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. That’s why we at the Business Journal thought you might be interested in getting to know the top executives of some of the most successful local companies.
BLACKBOARD: Educators On Business By Dr. Linda Karges-Bone “Recent reviews of research on summer school have begun to cement the idea that high-quality summer programs can make a difference. According to University of Missouri psychologist Harris Cooper, a synthesis of research on summer-school programs over the past two decades shows that summer programs that focus on remedial or accelerated learning have had a positive effect on student learning. One caveat in Cooper’s study: Students from middle-class homes showed larger gains from summer school than disadvantaged students did. But, Cooper found, disadvantaged students were also more likely to lose skills over the summer if they did not attend school.” —American School Board Journal, March 2000
A student’s dilemma: Budding ranks of high school graduates face dwindling admissions at state schools By Sarah G. McC. Moise “Last year, out of our 586 seniors, 527 got their South Carolina diplomas. In 2002-2003, out of 529 seniors, 488 received diplomas,” says Stephanie Easterling, a guidance counselor with Stratford High School in Goose Creek, the largest of six high schools in the Berkeley County School District. “It’s a general trend; we’ve been going up each year, with more seniors and more graduates.”
Good times continue in local residential market By Martin Sinderman Armed with low interest rates and motivated by a mix of lifestyle and economic needs, buyers are busy snapping up homes in the Charleston metro area, leaving a lot of happy sellers, brokers and homebuilders in their wake.
LISTMAKER, COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. That’s why we at the Business Journal thought you might be interested in getting to know the top executives of some of the most successful local companies.
BEST PRACTICES IN CONSTRUCTION: Could silicosis be the next big wave in litigation? By Tom Frisby To find out what next season’s weather will be, go the Farmer’s Almanac. About half of the time, its predictions come true; the other half are dead wrong. But to find out the “next wave” of construction litigation, just scroll through construction attorneys’ newsletters across the country.
Second homes gain in popularity An independent study released last week by Centext Destination Properties conservatively estimates that 25% of affluent households expressed interest in second-home ownership over the next two to three years. Second-home attributes most sought by respondents are low upkeep/maintenance, proximity to shops and restaurants, walking paths, and outdoor activities such as hiking and bicycling.
Cohousing a growing trend About 5,000 people across the nation are now living in cohousing, a type of neighborhood that is planned by its residents, and about one-third of the residents in these developments are households with children, according to the Cohousing Association of the United States.
Got Dock? By Sarah G. McC. Moise One of the great things about living in Charleston is the accessibility to water. With hundreds of miles of coastline, lakes, canals and dozens of rivers, Lowcountry boaters have seemingly endless opportunities to enjoy fishing, skiing or just cruising. But if you’re not one of the fortunate boat owners with a private dock or a slip at a local marina, there can be quite a wait to get your boat into the water.
Smart software improves competitive edge for small, medium enterprises By Sarah G. McC. Moise Over the past few years, there has been increasing interest in the potential uses of information and communication technologies for Small and Medium Enterprises. This focus stems from the realization of the importance of SMEs in sustainable regional economic development.
REWRITE: Old News Made New By Dennis Quick FADE IN: The Melvin and Judith Solomon Conference Room at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Gazes Cardiac Research Institute, Feb. 5, 2003. A press conference is being held announcing the Charleston Media Technology Park, a $45 million, 70-acre digital movie studio coming soon to Johns Island.
Local winery touts health benefits of Muscadine grape By Dennis Quick In health circles it’s called the “French paradox.” While the French eat more high-fat foods—beef, cheese, butter—than do other nationalities, they enjoy lower cholesterol, heart disease and cancer rates.
TIME WELL SPENT: Coffee breaks may perk up your health By Honor Hawkins Blackbaud Inc. Vice President Anthony Powell can’t start his workday without a cup of coffee. Sometimes he brews it at home and drinks it black. Sometimes he stops at Starbucks on the way to the office for a three-shot, non-fat latte (last year he spent around $700 at the Seattle coffee chain).
Hammers, drills build marital bliss for newlyweds By Dennis Quick What launches today’s newlyweds into a round of high-fives are home improvement items. Hammers are hot, saws sensational and drills dynamite.
MARKETING COACH: In today’s noisy brand parade, who will win the prize? By Elizabeth Boineau In today’s chaotic world of over stimulation from every imaginable form of media—print, radio, TV, cable, Internet, satellite and so on—over 40,000 (so experts claim) bold, demanding messages bombard consumers every day. Which one of them rises to the top by projecting a clear signal and so claims the prize of claiming more business?
