DNR technology helps shrimp growers compete By Sarah G. McC. Moise In November, biologists with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources harvested about 4,000 pounds of shrimp from a greenhouse at their Waddell Mariculture Center in Bluffton.
Trucking industry faces driver shortage By Matthew French The trucking industry is facing a nationwide driver shortage, as the appeal of the open road no longer seems to hold as much sway as it once did. Truck driving has long held a unique place in Americana, as lone drivers crisscross the nation delivering everything from cabbage to plywood to bars of soap.
Charleston’s ability to create, retain jobs slips By Matthew French Charleston may repeatedly appear near the top of the list of best places to live in the United States, but according to a recent survey, the Holy City is slipping in terms of its ability to create and retain jobs, a problem that could have far-reaching consequences.
QUICK NOTES: Businesses need to address Charleston’s housing crisis By Dennis Quick Affordability anguish. The latest figures from the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors tell us that the average sales price of a Charleston-area house is $258,879. Meanwhile, the average annual Charleston County salary is $31,429, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2003 statistics.
Local businesses ‘send Charleston’ for the holidays By Sarah G. McC. Moise It’s no secret that Charleston is a popular place to live and visit. Now it seems that the city has become a unique commodity in itself as more and more people are hungry for the foods and products that symbolize a little piece of the Lowcountry. And as the holidays roll around, some local businesses are taking advantage of their customers’ desire to “send Charleston.”
CAREER COACH: Keep up with your job search during the holidays By Barbara Poole You’ve been humming along in your job search, diligently networking, sending out resumes and responding to online ads. At the same time, you’re getting serious about your holiday shopping and planning the menu for family get-togethers. You’re trying your best to stay on track and keep up your activity levels, but something inside you is telling you to give it a rest until after the first of the year.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act: A pound of prevention? By Sarah G. McC. Moise In response to recent United States corporate scandals, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was created to better inform stockholders about the financial condition and transactions of publicly traded companies. The law imposes stringent new compliance and disclosure rules upon companies, but in many ways the regulations overcompensate for more notorious ethical breaches and can have detrimental effects on smaller businesses, whose compliance deadlines are looming.
Agriculture grant aids Lowcountry manufacturers By Matthew French Some small and minority-owned manufacturing businesses in the Lowcountry will soon benefit from a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, awarded to the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The USDA recently announced $185,000 in grants to the SCMEP as part of its Rural Business Enterprise Grant program to assist small and minority manufacturers in various areas of South Carolina.
Landscape architects design with nature in mind By Dennis Quick The Villages in St. John’s Woods is a subdivision nestled in 130 wooded acres on Johns Island. Begun only about two years ago, with its third and final phase of home site development ready to get underway, the neighborhood looks as though it has always been there. The houses seem as natural as the trees shading them.
Drayton, McLeod shown as models of restoration By Matthew French With historic preservation being an important, if often unsung, industry in the Lowcountry, two of the area’s best preserved historic structures this month received accolades that may help propel the art of restoration into the limelight.
Airplane parts center tops local real estate deals By Dennis Quick With the Dec. 1 announcement that Texas-based Vought Aircraft Industries and Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica will choose North Charleston as the site for a reported $560 million airplane parts manufacturing center, state and local government officials booked one of the area’s largest commercial real estate deals in years.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2004 PACE AWARDS
Several years ago, I received an e-mail from local attorney and construction industry consultant Tom Frisby giving me some feedback and suggestions on a construction article we had written. What Tom didn’t know then, and I’m sure has learned by now, is that I have a little habit of accepting feedback from readers and then talking them into doing stuff with the Business Journal. The “stuff” I talked Tom into back then was a wonderful…
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE NEWS
Carolina First to relocate south coast area offices
Carolina First announced today that it will relocate the bank’s south coast area office to the Charleston Gateway Center, located at 40 Calhoun St. The south coast area office serves the Charleston and Hilton Head areas. The new facility will be named the Carolina First Center. …
REAL ESTATE CONVENTION AND SEMINAR CALENDAR
Jan. 11: Pricing for Profits
Learn how to become a financially savvy builder. Seminar participants will learn to use a cost-based financial tool created for builders, which comprehensively costs each home; allows builders to create a realistic and appropriate budget for each home; and quantifies how much profit each home should make. …
Johns Island facing development build-up By Dennis Quick Maybank Highway on rural Johns Island has less traffic congestion than other thoroughfares. It’s a stretch of two-lane road lined with small shops, a scattering of professional offices housed in modest clapboard homes and a few larger businesses, plus a library, a post office and a fire station.
Building materials cost soared throughout 2004 By Sarah G. McC. Moise Led by scrap steel costs, which soared 80% since last year, several key building materials have posted double-digit increases over the past 12 months. Steel mill products jumped 43%, lumber prices are up 27%, gypsum 20% and cement 6%, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Residential Real Estate News
Be Jane aims to tap consumers of home improvement market
A new web site has been launched for the women’s home improvement and do-it-yourself industry, which is reportedly valued at about $50 billion.
Be Jane Inc., which has relationships with Kmart, Sherwin-Williams, Zircon and the Great Indoors, has created www.be-jane.com, which features articles, information, tips, glossaries and message boards designed for women do-it-yourselfers who are seeking a collaborative peer environment. …
New hospital ER blends design with efficiency By Dennis Quick The waiting area in Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital’s new 11,000-square-foot emergency room expansion looks more like a hotel lobby. The floor is carpeted, the chairs upholstered, the color scheme a mix of light tans and salmons. Sunlight streams through the windows. A 100-gallon aquarium will soon be installed, as will a courtyard with tables and a garden.
Health & Wellness News
More companies offer wellness programs for employees
Corporations in the United States are doing more to promote wellness among employees, according to American Management Association’s 2004 Survey on Corporate Health and Wellness Programs. The number of companies offering educational self-care topics is up in all seven categories surveyed, including smoking cessation, exercise and fitness and cholesterol management. …
TIME WELL SPENT: Healthy gifts for everyone on your list By Honor Hawkins The clock is ticking, and it’s time to wrap up the holiday shopping. (Or, in my case, begin). To speed things along and save you from re-gifting that penholder, I’ve put together a list of gift ideas to cover everyone on your list, from colleague to client to spouse to secret snowperson. Even better, they’re all geared to make the recipient healthier—and make you look good.
MUSC doctors see benefits to new cataract surgery By Dennis Quick It used to be that patients undergoing cataract surgery had to get wheeled into an operating room, get anesthetized, get the cataract cut out from the eye and then spend about six weeks recovering while putting up with patches and stitches.
‘Talking’ houses attract drive-by buyers By Sarah G. McC. Moise According to a study by Real Estate Business magazine, more than 65% of home shoppers begin the home buying process by taking a drive through the neighborhoods they like. One local real estate agent, Bretta Grant with the Neland Co., has made sure that house hunters have extra cause to stop at her “for sale” signs.
TECH BRIEFS
Bellsouth celebrates 2,000,000 DSL customers
BellSouth has announced it passed two million DSL customers in November.
“In the past year, we’ve continued to expand DSL service availability, introduced our fastest retail DSL Internet service to date, and unveiled very competitive promotions that have propelled our growth,” says Ted Creech, regional director of BellSouth in the Lowcountry. “Also, because of the positive regulatory environment, BellSouth expedited its broadband investment in South Carolina. Since the broadband bill…
PEOPLE
HEALTH CARE
Trio Solutions Inc., a health care planning, marketing and web development firm, has hired Jennifer Cherock as vice president of planning and marketing. Cherock previously was with Pepco Energy Services in Arlington, Va.
Summerville Medical Center has named Court M. LeMaistre vice president of operations. He previously was with Lakeview Regional Medical Center in Covington, La. In addition to overseeing a variety of departments at Summerville, LeMaistre will work with Archdale Medical Center…
CALENDAR
DEC. 14: Developers Council. 8:30 a.m. at Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, 2750 Speissegger Drive, Suite 100. Information: Honey Hopkins, 805-3089 or hhopkins@charlestonchamber.org.
DEC. 16: Charleston Business Network. 11:30 a.m. at the China Gourmet on Sam Rittenberg Blvd. This group meets the first and third Thursday of each month. Information: Doug Holladay, 571- 5044, ext. 18. …
ACCOLADES
CE News, a national civil engineering publication, has recognized Thomas & Hutton Engineering Co. as among the Top 50 Best Civil Engineering Firms to Work For. Thomas & Hutton ranked No. 30 in this national contest, which focuses on employee satisfaction with regard to company programs, policies, benefits and other workplace topics. …
GIVING BACK
Presentation celebrates decline in teen pregnancy
The South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy celebrated its 10th anniversary on Oct. 19 with a presentation by Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in Washington, D.C., at Ashley Hall.
TTC students raise domestic violence awareness
Students in Trident Technical College’s Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society spent October focusing on domestic violence. PTK and TTC’s Victory Over Violence committee hosted a series of…
