Nestled in the Upstate region of South Carolina, site selection as a profession can trace part of its roots back to two legacy companies – Fluor and McCallum Sweeney. Though neither company is still in existence, the Upstate area still benefits from their presence, visible today with a strong network of site consultants who call the Greenville area home.
In October, Eduardo Venegas and Gretchen Carson, both members of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance’s Select CLT team, led a delegation of 11 local economic developers to Greenville to meet with 10 site consultants and two community partners. Over the course of 24 hours, the group had the opportunity to connect with a handful of site consultants from Parker Poe Consulting, Global Location Strategies, Quest Site Solutions, Site Selection Group, and Strategic Development Group during several events. Conversations on the redevelopment and revitalization of Greenville by Mike Panasko from the City of Greenville; and a unique community strategy for addressing child care needs by Haley Grau from Middle Tyger Community Center, supplemented the jam-packed agenda.
These types of targeted marketing trips provide site selectors with the opportunity to understand the assets and strengths of the Charlotte Region and its communities better while also giving practitioners awareness on current trends consultants are seeing from their clients. Common points of discussion included industrial activity remaining stronger than office, speculation for industrial development considering the current state of the economy, the importance of utilities’ place in the site selection process, and more. With the ever-growing reach of technology, visits to build relationships with the consultants is paramount as this is one of the best avenues to provide organic information on the Charlotte Region – stories, knowledge and strategies that cannot be pulled from a database. Summed up by one of the attendees: “We really had the opportunity to share info on our area and to be able to hear what site selectors are looking for.”
A special thanks to our partners for making this a successful trip – Catawba EDC, Chester County Economic Development, Chesterfield County Economic Development, City of Charlotte Economic Development, Gaston County EDC, Iredell County EDC, Lancaster County Department of Economic Development, Lincoln Economic Development Association, Mecklenburg County Office of Economic Development, and Rowan County EDC.
