MAY 29, 2015 | VOL. 4 ISSUE 22

HARVESTINGPROFITS

In the Upstate and statewide, agribusiness has been on the upswing –

but there’s still room to grow

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NEWS | WORKFORCE | 3upstatebusinessjournal.com

As demand for the Upstate’s workforce increases, advocates for Greenville County residents with a criminal background are optimistic that more employers will consider hiring people with imperfect records.

Discussions at a recent Greenville Chamber breakfast involving leaders with state and local government, busi-nesses and nonprofit organizations could have more local companies evaluating policies that exclude hiring anyone with a criminal background.

“From a lot of the follow-up infor-mation and questions that ensued after the event, we really think we planted many fruitful seeds,” said Nika White, vice president of diver-sity and inclusion at the Greenville Chamber of Commerce. “Ultimately, we hope we’re going to find a growing pool of orgs willing to hire ex-offenders.”

As the county with highest popu-lation in South Carolina, Greenville County also has more inmates relocated to the area. Proportional to the overall population, one in 10 state inmates, or 4,646, was released to Greenville County in fiscal years 2010-2014, state Department of Corrections data shows.

The U.S. Census estimated 482,752 Greenville County residents in 2014.

EDUCATION TO COUNTER MYTHS

The Greenville Re-entry Coalition and the Chamber plan to encourage more discussions between employers and nonprofit organizations that assist people with criminal back-grounds, said White, also a member of the coalition.

Research shows ability to get a job as a key indicator of whether some-one released from prison will turn into a repeat offender.

“There’s a lot of myths out there

like ‘once a criminal, always a crim-inal,’” White said. “For us, it was the starting process of education.”

The Greenville-Mauldin-Easley metropolitan statistical area ranked 21st in the country in 2013 among MSAs with fastest job growth in advanced industry jobs, according to a Brookings Institution study.

Growing demand for high-tech, high-skilled jobs continues to create a challenge for the region’s business and government leaders, leading some companies to identify new sources of workers. A Greenville County Devel-opment Corporation target industry analysis released in May 2013 showed concern related to the labor force.

“While labor availability is not a huge concern for most of the employ-ers we spoke to, it can be difficult to find employees with certain skill sets,” the report states. “Those skill sets mentioned include technical engineer-ing, certain electronics positions, CNC operators, skilled maintenance and strong business development skills.”

Steve Hand, director of the Quick Jobs with a Future program at Green-ville Technical College, also works with inmates at five different prisons in the state related to a state-funded program called Self-Paced In-Class Education (SPICE). The job-training program for inmates helps prepare

them for employment after leaving prison, including high-skilled jobs.

Hand said the gathering of many employers for the Chamber event will help encourage human resource directors and other corporate hiring leaders to review hiring practices related to criminal backgrounds.

“Our goal was to explain to these folks why they should consider hiring people who have blemishes on their records,” said Hand, a panelist at the

breakfast. “If a person doesn’t have a job and has no money coming in, then hope for the future is not good.”

Freedom to workGreenville Chamber joins with coalition to help former prisoners re-enter the workforce

ROBBIE WARD | STAFFrward@communityjournals.com

CongratulationsUBS salutes the Parham, Arrowood, Bragdon Institutional Consulting Group for their 2015 accomplishments.

Accolades are independently determined and awarded by their respective publications. Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. nor its employees pay a fee in exchange for these ratings. Accolades can be based on a variety of criteria, including length of service, compliance records, client satisfaction, assets under management, revenue, type of clientele and more. For more information on a particular rating, please visit ubs.com/us/en/designation-disclosures. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® and Certified finanCial PlannertM in the U.S. CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Inc. in the United States of America and worldwide. ©UBS 2015. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. 1.00_Ad_9.25x6_BL0506_ParK

Kenneth Parham and Bert Arrowood have been recognized by Barron’s as Top 1,200 Financial Advisors, Kenneth Parham has been recognized by the Financial Times as a Top 400 Financial Advisor, and William Bragdon has been named as a UBS Top 35 Under 35 Advisor. In addition, Rhonda Barth has been promoted to Wealth Management Associate, one of only 38 in the nation. The superior service the entire team delivers on behalf of their clients sets a high standard for their peers throughout the industry.

Kenneth Parham, CIMA® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

Bert R. Arrowood, CFP® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

William G. Bragdon Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

Melissa M. Huff Client Service Associate

Rhonda L. Barth Wealth Management Associate

UBS Financial Services Inc.Poinsett Plaza, 17 West Mcbee Avenue Greenville, SC 29601 864-241-6332 800-726-5222

ubs.com/team/pabicg

CongratulationsUBS salutes the Parham, Arrowood, Bragdon Institutional Consulting Group for their 2015 accomplishments.Kenneth Parham and Bert Arrowood have been recognized by Barron’s as Top 1,200 Financial Advisors, Kenneth Parham has been recognized by the Financial Times as a Top 400 Financial Advisor, and William Bragdon has been named as a UBS Top 35 Under 35 Advisor. In addition, Rhonda Barth has been promoted to Wealth Management Associate, one of only 38 in the nation. The superior service the entire team delivers on behalf of their clients sets a high standard for their peers throughout the industry.

Accolades are independently determined and awarded by their respective publications. Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. nor its employees pay a fee in exchange for these ratings. Accolades can be based on a variety of criteria, including length of service, compliance records, client satisfaction, assets under management, revenue, type of clientele and more. For more information on a particular rating, please visit ubs.com/us/en/designation-disclosures. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® and Certified finanCial PlannerTM in the U.S. CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Inc. in the United States of America and worldwide. ©UBS 2015. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. 1.00_Ad_9.25x6_BL0506

Kenneth Parham, CIMA® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

Bert R. Arrowood, CFP® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

William G. BragdonSenior Vice President–Wealth Management

Melissa M. Huff Client Service Associate

Rhonda L. Barth Wealth Management Associate

UBS Financial Services Inc.Poinsett Plaza, 17 West Mcbee Avenue Greenville, SC 29601 864-241-6332 800-726-5222

ubs.com/team/pabicg

CongratulationsUBS salutes the Parham, Arrowood, Bragdon Institutional Consulting Group for their 2015 accomplishments.

Accolades are independently determined and awarded by their respective publications. Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. nor its employees pay a fee in exchange for these ratings. Accolades can be based on a variety of criteria, including length of service, compliance records, client satisfaction, assets under management, revenue, type of clientele and more. For more information on a particular rating, please visit ubs.com/us/en/designation-disclosures. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® and Certified finanCial PlannertM in the U.S. CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Inc. in the United States of America and worldwide. ©UBS 2015. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. 1.00_Ad_9.25x6_BL0506_ParK

Kenneth Parham and Bert Arrowood have been recognized by Barron’s as Top 1,200 Financial Advisors, Kenneth Parham has been recognized by the Financial Times as a Top 400 Financial Advisor, and William Bragdon has been named as a UBS Top 35 Under 35 Advisor. In addition, Rhonda Barth has been promoted to Wealth Management Associate, one of only 38 in the nation. The superior service the entire team delivers on behalf of their clients sets a high standard for their peers throughout the industry.

Kenneth Parham, CIMA® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

Bert R. Arrowood, CFP® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

William G. Bragdon Senior Vice President–Wealth Management

Melissa M. Huff Client Service Associate

Rhonda L. Barth Wealth Management Associate

UBS Financial Services Inc.Poinsett Plaza, 17 West Mcbee Avenue Greenville, SC 29601 864-241-6332 800-726-5222

ubs.com/team/pabicg

“Ultimately, we hope we’re going to find a growing pool of orgs willing to hire ex-offenders.”

Nika White, vice president of diversity and inclusion at the Greenville Chamber

of Commerce and a member of the Greenville Re-entry Coalition

ENGAGEJune 16 at 10 a.m.

Meeting of the Greenville Re-entry Coalition

United Way of Greenville County

4,646inmates released to Greenville County in fiscal years 2010-2014

SMIT’N PHOTOGRAPHY

4 | THE RUNDOWN | TOP-OF-MIND AND IN THE MIX THIS WEEK UBJ | 05.29.2015

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 22

Featured this issue:Coalition looks at ex-prisoners’ re-entry struggles 3Blue Ridge Electric looks back on 75 years 10Antrim Drive shops to get facelift 17

Crews are clearing land for a reportedly 64,500-square-foot NewSpring Church facility at the corner

of Anderson Road and Highway 153 in the Powdersville area.

TBA VERBATIMWORTH REPEATING

“Our goal was to explain to these folks why they should consider hiring people who have blemishes

on their records. If a person doesn’t have a job and has no money coming in, then hope for the future is

not good.” Page 3

“Every major hack and breach has had one thing in common: They started with someone innocently

or carelessly letting them in.” Page 8

“People tell me it’s so expensive, and I ask, ‘Do you know how much cancer costs?’” Page 12

MONEY SHOT: A hog at Greenbrier Farms in Easley. Like many local agricultural producers, Greenbrier Farms also derives revenue from farm tours and educational visits as well as special events. Read more about local agribusiness on page 12.

On the Swamp Rabbit Trail

“Luckily for travelers, these urban trails double as roadmaps to the very best of art, dining and adventure in each destination, no matter what time of year.”

Fodor’s Travel Guide, naming the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail No. 1 on its list of “America’s Best Urban Bike Paths.” See more at bit.ly/fodors-bike-paths.

Photo by Greg Beckner

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW | ENERGY | 5upstatebusinessjournal.com

Oconee to get $1M natural gas test plant

$2.5M ITT expansion will occur over next five years

White Plains, N.Y.-based ITT Corp. plans to build a $1 million test facility in Oconee as a part of tits $2.5 million investment to expand its existing operations in the next five years. The company operates in 35 countries and sells to customers in the energy, transportation and in-dustrial markets across 125.

The facility will test natural gas vehicle components used in ITT’s Conoflow brand of products, which ITT consolidated to their Westmin-ster location in Oconee in 2011. The existing facility has been in Oconee since 1979 when the former Com-pact Air Products relocated to the area.

“We have been a member of the Oconee County community for more than 25 years and are pleased to be able to grow our presence here,” said ITT Corp. Westminster Plant Manager Rob Hartman in a news release. “This facility expan-

sion will give us enhanced capabil-ities to test natural gas vehicle com-ponents, which are an integral part of the strategic plan for the control technologies business.”

Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., ITT employs 9,400 people globally and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ITT.

“Existing industry growth is a huge commitment in our commu-nity,” said Oconee County Council Chairman Wayne McCall. “We focus on ways to improve competitiveness by producing the best environment for business and assisting our exist-ing businesses with their needs. ITT Corporation is just one example of these relationships.”

ASHLEY BONCIMINO | STAFFaboncimino@communityjournals.com

“OPENING DOORS

LETS THE FUTURE IN.

BOLDLY AND

INTENTIONALLY, WE MOVE FORWARD

WITH OUR COMMUNITY

AND CLIENTS TO

EMBRACE WHAT IS

YET TO BE

- SYDNEY COOKE & TIM PECORARO -

theideagroupGREENVILLE CHAMBER

SMALL BUSINESS OF THE MONTH

MAY 2015

www.greenvillechamber.org

DISCOVERED.”

The Greenville Chamber salutes ourSmall Business of the Month. We honor all the

things that small businesses bring to our community and are proud to move forward boldly

and intentionally into the future with them. If you’re in business, you have a partner in us.

Kemet annual net sales down 1.3%

Simpsonville-based Kemet Corp. reported net sales of $823.3 million for fiscal 2015 ended March 31, 2015, down 1.3 percent from fiscal 2014. Cost of sales decreased by 6.9 percent to $663.7 million during that same period, however, bringing operating income into the black by increasing from losses of $18.2 million to gains of $22.4 million.

Net income for fiscal 2015 improved from losses of $68.5 million to losses of $14.1 million, while total comprehensive income fell by just over 5 percent to $61.1

million in losses. Founded in 1990, Kemet

manufactures passive electronic capacitors for use in the computer, communications, automotive, military, consumer, industrial and aerospace industries. The 9,225-employee company’s commodity manufacturing has been relocated from the U.S. to lower-cost facilities in Mexico, China and Europe, but maintains an Innovation Center for Solid Capacitors in Greenville.

ASHLEY BONCIMINO | STAFFaboncimino@communityjournals.com

6 | INNOVATE | MOVERS, SHAKERS AND DISRUPTORS SHAPING OUR FUTURE UBJ | 05.29.2015

Going to college is all about ex-panding one’s knowledge. You select a major, and you take courses aimed at growing some kind of expertise. But there’s more to the college expe-rience than learning specific subjects and acquiring technical mastery – at least, there should be. These days, more than ever, the objective of higher education is to produce well-rounded, informed, aware and engaged local and global citizens.

Moving beyond an ethnocentric point of view puts students on the path of being better employees, bet-ter community members and better people in general.

A group formed at Greenville Technical College, NAS, is aimed at doing just that – broadening per-spectives. NAS (Not a Statistic) grew out of the college’s initiative aimed at removing barriers and helping students succeed. One group with specific barriers is female students of color. Not a Statistic, it is hoped, will keep this population in college together, where they can avoid

alarming dropout rates often experienced by minority women.

At this point, Not a Statistic is a committed group of seven, with

each member having input into the group’s growth and direction. In the fall, they will implement strategies to increase membership.

The group’s purpose is to pro-vide a comprehensive network of resources so that participants can succeed academically, take on lead-ership roles and build professional connections. Ultimately, NAS seeks to ensure the success of each of its

members inside and beyond aca-demic halls by creating a sisterhood of support in which each member is held accountable by the others, learns how to effectively commu-nicate, and benefits from a unique focus on soft skills – a proficiency crucial for career success.

These skills will be taught by way of ongoing business etiquette workshops that will ensure that when these young women are ready to enter the job market they know how to dress for success, have the appropriate table manners during a business lunch, and take a pro-

fessional approach to handling cell phone calls during work hours.

Additionally, we’re fortunate at Greenville Technical College to have women of distinction on staff with a variety of educational paths, back-grounds and hobbies who are willing to give of their time and share their experiences with the ladies of NAS.

For the 2015-2016 academic year, through a workshop series called The Women of Tech, NAS will invite these women to their bimonthly meetings to pick their brains and mine their experiences – learning how they decided on a career path, where it’s taken them, and how their healthy hobbies relate to work and to life.

Members will also be invited to join female faculty and staff mem-bers as a new group, the Women’s Alliance, is launched. This group will be aimed at creating a forum for sharing information, resources,

networking opportunities and best practices among women through workshops, panel discussions and guest speakers.

NAS also includes a community service component. Members have made no-sew blankets for a local homeless shelter and recently took part in the Greenville Poverty Tour, an eye-opening two-hour guided tour that informs about the history and current condition of local blight-ed neighborhoods. Such awareness will undoubtedly encourage these students to assist in doing their part to build these neighborhoods through various volunteer efforts.

In addition to local activism, members will also learn about opportunities for creating positive change globally through study abroad programs and international travel opportunities – something most of them never even considered a possibility.

Not a Statistic has the potential to help our female students of color successfully complete college while learning much more than what’s covered in course syllabi. Between the degrees they will earn and the exposure they gain to different points of view, these women will be more than ready for careers or further study. They will leave with hard skills, soft skills and self-as-surance. My hope is that they will leave us prepared to tackle any and all new experiences with a sense of openness, intellectual curiosity, confidence and a spirit of adventure – ready to engage competently in any setting as team members as well as individuals.

Margaret Taylor is a behavioral sciences professor at Greenville

Technical College and faculty advisor for the NAS student

organization.

Not a statisticStudent group aims to remove barriers for minority women

By MARGARET TAYLORNot a Statistic has the potential to help our female students of color successfully complete college while learning much more than what’s covered in course syllabi. Between the degrees they will earn and the exposure they gain to different points of view, these women will be more than ready for careers or further study.

529 Facts You May Have Missed5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT 529 COLLEGE SAVINGS PLANSBy The Faust-Boyer Group of Raymond James

< TAX ADVANTAGES. You can make a lump sum contribution equal to five times the federal gift tax exclusion – up to $70,000 for an individual or $140,000 for a married couple – per beneficiary in a single year without gift tax consequences (provided that donor does not gift any more to that beneficiary over the next 5 years). Assets are removed from the account owner’s estate. Additionally, not all states allow you to fully deduct 529 contributions – many have a limit – but South Carolina does. Check with your tax advisor for details.

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Specializing in high net worth financial planning, executive financial planning, generational planning, and investing for women. The Faust-Boyer Group utilizes a team approach to effectively research, plan, monitor, and service their clients’ accounts.Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC

Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses associated with 529 plans before investing. This and other information about 529 plans is available in the issuer’s official statement and should be read carefully before investing.

Investors should consult a tax advisor about any state tax consequences of an investment in a 529 plan. Plans offered outside your resident state may not provide the same tax benefits as those offered within your state.

Changes in tax laws may occur at any time and could have a substantial impact upon each person’s situation. While we are familiar withthe tax provisions of the issues presented herein, as Financial Advisors of Raymond James & Associates we are not qualified to renderadvice on tax or legal matters.

Alex McGrath Financial Advisor

Lynn C. Faust Senior Vice President, Investments

Michael A. Faust Vice President, Investments

12. NON-QUALIFIED WITHDRAWALS. If you make a non-qualified withdrawal (that is, one not used for qualified education expenses), the earnings are taxable and you’ll owe the IRS a 10 percent penalty. However, there are a couple of exceptions. The penalty is usually not charged if you terminate the 529 account because the beneficiary has died or become disabled, or if you withdraw funds not needed for college because the beneficiary has received a scholarship.

3. UNUSED OR EXCESS FUNDS. You can change the beneficiary to another qualifying family member at any time in order to keep the account going and avoid (or at least delay) taking non-qualified withdrawals when the original beneficiary doesn’t need those funds. The definition of “family member” is fairly broad: parents, siblings, first cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Check with your state’s plan for details.

4. OUT OF STATE OPTIONS. You are not limited to investing in your own state’s plan. Another state may offer a plan that performs better and has lower fees. Also, the plan chosen does not affect which state the student enrolls in. An investor can live in SC, invest in a plan from NV and send a student to college in GA.

5. USE IT FOR YOURSELF. You’re already a college graduate – why would you possibly need a 529? You – or your spouse – can use it to go back to school. Maybe you are ready to try for an MBA or other graduate degree. Maybe you want to try nursing. A 529 plan can help you achieve your dreams.

HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT 529 PLANS? GIVE US A CALL TODAY.

In the last month, two major cybersecurity re-ports have been released — one from Verizon (goo.gl/ek0opY) and one from Symantec (goo.gl/a6SI5) — that are both scary and really scary.

If you have a large IT department, they may be reading and analyzing these reports. But if you are like the vast majority of small businesses, you have a small or nonexistent IT department, a part-timer or outsourced service. Do they fill the role of strate-gic IT advisor? Most likely not.

So here are some takeaways you should be think-ing — and talking — about.

Updates and virus protection are very important and they must be done. But they are not the guard-ian at the gate that we used to think they were. As hacking has become more profitable and more prolific, there are a lot more people figuring out how to get into our systems than there are experts stopping them. As Doug Hewes, chief information security officer for the state’s Health and Human Services department, noted at a GSATC Lunch in January, we are outgunned and outmanned.

The data bear that out. Symantec reported that in “2014, it took 204 days, 22 days, and 53 days, for vendors to provide a patch for the top three most exploited ... vulnerabilities.” Once a patch is provided, it can still be years before company sys-tems and websites are patched and updated. The Verizon report found that 99.9 percent of exploit-ed vulnerabilities were compromised more than a year after they became known. Some hacks in 2014 exploited known vulnerabilities from as far back as

1999. (Are you still running Windows XP?)The broadest software vulnerability of 2014 was

Heartbleed — an exploitation of a software hole that hackers use to distribute malicious code. Zero Day attacks are a growing strategy by cybercrim-inals in part, it seems, because we are so slow to patch systems once vulnerabilities become known.

In fact, in early April — one year after Heart-bleed — Bloomberg Business reported that 74 per-cent of the companies comprising the Forbes 2000 (goo.gl/uJhYgq) — that’s 1600+ major companies — had not thoroughly fixed the Open SSL hole on their servers and networks.

While we are talking about guardians at the gate, who are yours? Is it your firewall, your intrusion detection system, spam filtering? Nope. All of those things are important, critical even. But the single biggest vulnerability for every business, nonprofit or governmental agency is authenticated users. Ev-ery major hack and breach has had one thing in common: They started with someone innocently or carelessly letting them in.

So there you are with your major IT investment in hardware and software, but your staff are still opening email they shouldn’t, following links they shouldn’t and downloading photos, videos and ap-plications that they shouldn’t. Coming along hap-pily on this ride: the malware that took down Sony, hacked Anthem, and exposed 56 million records at Home Depot.

That’s especially disturbing since Verizon re-ports the percentage of recipients who open phish-ing emails and click on attachments is actually going up — 23 percent in 2014 compared with 10-20 percent in recent years. A security test using 150,000 emails found it took less than an hour for 50 percent of users to open the emails and click on the links. The good news? Fewer people seem to

be giving up passwords on faked websites.

These are just two of dozens of aspects you might need to know about. But in knowing these two, what can you do now?

First, be aware. Do the cloud

services you use and other companies you do business with protect your data? There are many exploits, and it’s impossible to know them all. But you can check any site for the Heartbleed vul-nerability at this site maintained by the security company LastPass: goo.gl/xy2g4I. When it comes to your own servers, systems and procedures, you may have exposures you don’t even know about. Get the advice and support you need to best pro-tect yourself.

Second, work with your staff constantly so that they understand that they are the critical piece in protecting their clients and customers. They — and not some expensive piece of hardware — are the guardians at the gate.

FBI Director James Cormey has said there are two kinds of businesses: “those that have been hacked and those that don’t know they’ve been hacked.” You will be hacked, he has said; “get a plan.”

What’s your plan?

Get a plan. Connect with Laura Haight, the pres-ident of Portfolio, on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/laurahaight). Portfolio is a communications com-pany that helps small business make the most of the fusion of emerging technology and communication.

Hackers party like it’s 1999

8 | DIGITAL MAVEN | THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF BUSINESS UBJ | 05.29.2015

By LAURA HAIGHT, president, portfoliosc.com

The single biggest vulnerability for every business, nonprofit or governmental agency is authenticated users. Every major hack and breach has had one thing in common: They started with someone innocently or carelessly letting them in.

BY THE NUMBERS:

204 days time it took for vendors to provide a patch for a top vulnerability in 2014

99.9% percentage of exploited vulnerabilities compromised more than a year after they became known

74% percentage of Forbes 2000 companies who have not yet fixed a key vulnerability one year after the Heartbleed virus

23% percentage of employees who open phishing emails and click on attachments

Sources: Verizon, Symantec, Bloomberg Business

Securities are offered through SANDLAPPER Securities, LLC (“SLS”), a registered broker-dealer with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Investing in securities whether public or private involve risks including but not limited to the potential loss of some or all of your investment dollars. You should review any planned financial transactions that may have tax or legal implications with your personal tax or legal advisor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and investments are not FDIC insured.

WHAT’S YOUR BACKUP PLAN?How much would eight hours of downtime cost your business?

Losing power for even a few hours can mean thousands of dollars lost in revenue. Generac revolutionized the commercial generator market with the first standby generators

powerful enough to back your entire business without the cost of expensive configured systems.

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Typically achieved with a generator that provides power to a limited number of circuits.• Save data, shutdown

computers safely

• No revenue

• Checkout remaining customers

Using a generator that provides power to essential circuits so your business can stay open.• Business can stay open

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www.Carol inaCommercialGenerators.com

STAY OPEN FOR BUSINESS. HAVE A BACKUP PLAN FOR POWER!

Contact us today to schedule our Power Pro Professional

for your FREE onsite assessment.

Greenville: 864-232-5684 Seneca: 864-638-6635 Anderson: 864-281-1977 www.CarolinaCommercialGenerators.com

The Upstate of South Carolina is a beautiful area home to many businesses. It is also home to severe thunderstorms in the summer and ice storms in the winter. As the weather warms up, as memories of recent winter storms melt away, it’s tempting to forget the cold, hard dread that the lights might go out. Most of the Upstate felt the effects of no power due to ice and wind. But the potential for storm related power outages is a year-round sleeping trigger. While you cannot prevent power outages, you can prepare for them. As a business owner I know just how important having power is to stay profitable and keep that competitive edge, so do the folks at Rocky Creek Vet here in the Upstate. After losing power for nearly 18 hours caused by a car that had crashed into a utility pole several blocks away, they quickly learned they needed backup power ASAP. Virtually every function of their business is dependent in some way on a power source. From the call takers to the employee access to web tools, from the kennel housing that needs lighting and Air Conditioning and the power to sustain surgical procedures, everything needs power. In a competitive world, assuring their clients continued convenient service provides Rocky Creek Vet an advantage over many of their competitors who would be at the mercy of their local power grid. Any loss of power takes them out of communication with their clients and their employees. And power is needed to keep computer servers up and running. As peace of mind Carolina Generators installed an 80KW Generac Generator on location. And Rocky Creek Vet plans to install generators at any future locations.

Power your peace of mind by installing an emergency generator. Contact Carolina Generators today.

POWER SOLUTIONS CASE STUDY of Rocky Creek Vet

Scott KellyPresident Carolina Heating Service

Serving Greenville since 1981

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

In 1935, cities across the country had been enjoying the revolutionary conveniences of elec-tricity for more than 50 years, yet rural America was still being powered by the hard work of farmers and their wives. While their urban counterparts were feeling the freedom of the spin cycle and storing food in refrigerators, farm wives were canning the harvest and building fires to heat the water that would be used to scrub clothes by hand.

It was around this time that Franklin Roosevelt recog-nized the need to bring rural America into the modern age in order to spur the economy forward. An executive order establishing the Rural Elec-trification Administration, and the subsequent legisla-tion establishing the SC Ru-ral Electrification Authority, paved the way for farmers to come together and apply for loans to fund the infrastruc-ture needed to bring power to the pastures.

Extension agents began canvassing the countryside in search of people willing to pay the $5 membership fee – no small sum in Depression-era dollars – and the electrical co-operative was born. By 1940 the membership across South Carolina had grown too vast to be managed from Colum-bia and the state was divided into districts, prompting the formation of Blue Ridge Elec-tric Cooperative in August of that year.

10 | MILESTONE | A TRIBUTE TO OUR LONG-LASTING ENTERPRISES UBJ | 05.29.2015

>>

ALLISON WALSH | CONTRIBUTOR75YEARS

1

Wiring communities togetherBlue Ridge Electric celebrates

75 years of partnering to power the Upstate

3

2

1. Blue Ridge Co-op workers clear brush. 2. Construction of a Blue Ridge Co-op electrical substation. 3. Rural customers look at their new electrical meter in 1955. 4. A Blue Ridge Co-op representative visits a rural customer. 5. Blue Ridge Electric Co-op President and CEO Charles Dalton

4

5

Today Blue Ridge Electric Coopera-tive is the fourth largest of the 20 co-ops in South Carolina, serving close to 64,000 members across five counties. The compa-ny headquarters in the heart of downtown Pickens serves Pickens, Greenville and Spartanburg counties, while a companion facility located between Seneca and West-minster distributes power to Oconee and Anderson counties.

GIVING BACKBlue Ridge is a member-owned utility that

operates as a not-for-profit. President and CEO Charles Dalton is quick to point out, however, that the cooperative does business and pays taxes just as any for-profit company would, with the exception of income taxes; income is assigned to be paid back to mem-bers in the form of capital credits, which are typically paid out on a 20-year cycle.

“We refer to our customers as members,” Dalton says. “It’s a term that reminds us how important each of our members are, and drives us to provide a high level of service.”

The Blue Ridge philosophy of service extends beyond powering the homes and businesses of its members.

“We have a strong sense that we need to support the communities we serve in,” Dal-ton says, explaining the motivation behind Blue Ridge Fest, an annual festival centered on classic cars and classic beach music that over the last 18 years has distributed more than $2 million to charities within the five counties that make up the cooperative’s service area. “Our employees see so many hard situations in doing their jobs day to

day, so we pick charities we know are doing a good job helping people who really need help.”

This sense of community is not surpris-ing, considering Blue Ridge Electric Coop-erative was built by communities for the purpose of building up those communities. Many current employees have direct con-nections to the cooperative’s founders.

“We have employees who will retire with 30 or 40 years of experience, and with par-ents, aunts and uncles who worked here,” Dalton says. “These family connections and traditions are probably true in co-ops, not just in South Carolina, but throughout the country.”

Dalton himself is carrying on a family legacy; his great-uncle was one of the co-op’s founding members. After graduating from Clemson University in 1964, Dalton and his brother owned a furniture store that drew its power from Blue Ridge Elec-tric, and when his great-uncle died, Dal-ton assumed his seat on the cooperative’s board. He held this position for 10 years until he was appointed to replace the orig-inal general manager, A.J. Hurt, upon his retirement in 1982.

“Blue Ridge Electric is something I was always interested in and something that was important to my family,” Dalton says.

LOOKING AHEADThe cooperative was granted a fairly large

geographic area when legislation was passed in the late 1960s seeking to avoid duplication of service by divvying up territories between co-ops and investor-owned utilities. Where

the larger utilities (such as Duke Energy) may average 25-30 customers per mile, Blue Ridge averages 10. This translates to lots of room to fill in with residential and commercial development.

“We are well positioned to grow,” Dal-ton affirms. “We have the infrastructure to serve any additional load we could get.”

Blue Ridge is a player in helping to attract that additional load, thanks to the Rural Development Act, a 1996

A TRIBUTE TO OUR LONG-LASTING ENTERPRISES | MILESTONE | 11upstatebusinessjournal.com

>>TIMELINE OF BLUE RIDGE ELECTRIC CO-OP

1882First central power station in the United States built in New York City.

1935Franklin Roosevelt issued

executive order establishing Rural Electrification

Administration, paving the way for farmers to organize electric

cooperatives.

1940A.J. Hurt, an employee of the state REA who helped start the co-op, hired as the first general manager.

1960sIndustry begins to locate outside of cities, a move made possible by electricity provided through

rural co-ops.1970sBlue Ridge Electric Cooperative appoints first female board member.

1982A.J. Hurt retires. Current

CEO Charles Dalton appointed to replace him. 1995

Launch of Blue Ridge Security Solutions, a standalone for-profit company.

1996S.C. General Assembly

approves the Rural Development Act.1998

Dalton launches Blue Ridge Fest, which has contributed more than $2 million to local charities.

2015To mark its 75th anniversary,

Blue Ridge will honor 75 members in local communities

who display a cooperative spirit of selfless giving by making a

donation to the charity of their choice.

statute approved by the S.C. General Assembly allowing taxpaying utilities to defer up to $300,000 in annual license-tax obligations for investment in local job-creating projects. In 2012 that annual sum was increased to $400,000. Blue Ridge has directed a sub-stantial portion of these dollars to support land purchases, water, sewer and roadwork, and construction of shell buildings to aid in the development of commerce and industrial parks in Pickens, Oconee and Anderson counties.

The next push for the “buy local” movement in South Carolina should be to actually keep every-thing local, according to dairy farmer Tom Tran-tham of Happy Cow Creamery in Pelzer.

“Right now the problem is these eggs and chicken and beef, we don’t have the processors,” said Tran-tham, a dairy farmer since 1968 who said the de-mand for locally sourced dairy products has maxed out the creamery’s capacity for the last few years. As it is, “You have to drive a couple of hundred miles to get all of your stuff processed, and that’s a huge expense.”

Not only does that mean extra expense for farmers, it can mean lost economic activity dollars – in jobs, in-vestment, taxes and development – for the state, said S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers.

“About 90 percent of the value of this indus-try happens after something leaves the farm,” said Weathers, who said most of the 22,000 jobs added to the $41.7 billion impact agribusiness cluster since 2006 were non-farm positions.

“When you go and spend a dollar at a grocery store, about 17 cents gets back to the farmer,” he said. “The jobs are in processing.”

RECRUITING PROCESSORS AND CONSUMERS

In the past several years, South Carolina’s agri-business cluster – which includes agricultural prod-ucts as well as forestry – has been on the upswing, said Weathers, but the state still wants to see 20 per-cent growth in economic impact by 2020.

Part of that, he said, will be leveraging the state’s economic development experience in recruiting processing companies to the state by offering incen-tives, tax credits and even making sure the state has a speculative food processing building available.

“We’re trying to learn from our commerce de-partment and our local economic developers,” said Weathers, who said he observed the way economic

development works for a decade on the S.C. Coordi-nating Council for Economic Development. “How do they find out who is looking to move? How do they find out what factors are going into the decision? We need to be ready for them to come and kick the tires.”

The other part, he said, is getting consumers them-selves to prefer locally grown food. Several years ago, the department launched its “Certified S.C. Grown” campaign, which Weathers said makes consumers aware of the option to support local growers.

“The dollars are going to leave those pockets and go to somebody; we just want those pockets here in South Carolina,” he said. “If we bought from our farms at the same rate that Georgia and North Carolina did [in 2006], we would demand over $330 million more «

12 | COVER UBJ | 05.29.2015

PLANTING PRODUCE, REAPING REWARDS

From production to processing to plate, Upstate agribusiness wants to keep it local ASHLEY BONCIMINO | STAFFaboncimino@communityjournals.com

“We know about the droughts in California and the other parts of the country. … We also represent an access to the East Coast population for a lot of these people who are shipping products east.”

Hugh Weathers, S.C. commissioner of agriculture

From left: Sisters Lee Kathryn and Julia Thompson pick strawberries at Beechwood Farms. Billy Ledford with Beechwood Farms.

dollars of agricultural food products, and to grow it, process it, deliver it, it would take 10,000 more jobs for that extra economic activity in our state.”

UPSTATE MOMENTUMAnd the momentum is building, according to Bil-

ly Ledford, owner of Beechwood Farms in Travelers Rest, who grows strawberries, cabbages, sweet corn, zucchini, half runners, eggplants and tomatoes throughout the year.

“A major change in the last 10 years is chain stores being willing to work with local farmers,” said Led-ford, who employs 20 people per day in the spring and as many as 60 people a day at the height of pro-duction in early summer. Ledford said Beechwood products can be found in Ingles, BI-LO and Wal-Mart, and said others such as Whole Foods had ex-pressed interest. Ledford – who owns and operates Beechwood with his wife Elizabeth Ledford and sis-ter Judy Best – said kale might be an option consid-ering its recent rise to popularity.

“We want to continually change and adjust pro-duction in response to demand,” he said.

While Ledford’s operation spans around 300

acres, producers as small as Tyger River Smart Farm’s 1,300-square-foot hydroponic farm in Dun-can are contributing to the move to local. Own-er Ryan Oates’s nursery in Spartanburg produces 1,000 heads or bunches of lettuce a week, alongside various herbs and greens that he sells at farmers markets and to a handful of Upstate restaurants. The result is a win-win for everyone, he says.

“Just about all lettuce comes from California or Mexi-co,” said Oates. “That’s a long way for lettuce to go.”

Next year he plans to expand using 30 acres he pur-chased last year. The first phase – a 13,000-square-foot greenhouse and nursery on 10 acres – will multi-ply his production capacity tenfold, he said.

LOCAL FOOD FOR LOCAL PEOPLEAnother path to $50 billion for agribusiness is

tourism, or revenue derived from farm tours and educational visits as well as special events. Just out-side of Greenville, for example, 300-acre Greenbrier Farms leverages its quarter-century-old rustic barn as event space for weddings, corporate events and farm-to-table dinners that can cost from $30 to $300 a plate, said Roddy Pick of Greenbrier.

Greenbrier – like many producers close to metropoli-tan areas – also offers direct-to-consumer options called community supported agriculture (CSA). Consumers “subscribe” by paying in advance for produce and meats, which helps producers secure a stream of guaranteed buyers. The 150 families fed through Greenbrier’s CSA indicate strong community support and further in-crease the farm’s visibility in the area, said Pick.

Demand for high-quality, locally grown food pushed Greenbrier into the wholesale market sev-eral years ago, and the company sells to high-end restaurants all over the region, including Nose Dive and Roost in downtown Greenville, he said.

“People tell me it’s so expensive, and I ask, ‘Do you know how much cancer costs?’” said Pick, who op-erates Greenbrier with business partners Amy and Chad Bishop. “We’re trying to put local food in peo-ple’s mouths locally.”

«

«

COVER | 13upstatebusinessjournal.com

“You have to drive a couple of hundred miles to get all of your stuff processed, and that’s a huge expense.”

Dairy farmer Tom Trantham of Happy Cow Creamery in Pelzer

Plants growing at Tyger River Smart Farm. Cucumber plants at Beechwood Farms. Grapevines and a pond behind Greenbrier Farms’ event space.

Roddy Pick with Greenbrier Farms.Ryan Oates with Tyger River Smart Farm. A tractor makes its way along a road at Beechwood Farms.

14 | NEWS | INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW UBJ | 05.29.2015

The Mad Vaper recently opened at 105 E. Butler Road, Suite A, Mauldin. The store sells hardware and juices for vaping needs. For more information, visit bit.ly/madvaper or call 864-520-1553.

ForeFront Customs recently opened at 450 S. Main St., Mauldin. The business offers vehicle customization. For more information, visit forefrontcustoms.com or call 864-350-8796.

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Photos provided

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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS IN THE UPSTATE | DEALMAKERS | 15upstatebusinessjournal.com

FLAGSHIP PROPERTIES ANNOUNCED:

Benji Smith and Josh Tew represented the seller in selling a 4,000 SF multi-unit medical office building at 2078 Woodruff Road, Greenville.

Benji Smith and Josh Tew represented the landlord in leasing 1,815 SF of space at 3519 Pelham Road, Greenville, to Benefit Resource Center.

Josh Tew represented the landlord in the lease renewal of a 2,500 SF flex space at 4009 Pelham Court, Greenville, to Precision Door.

Josh Tew represented the tenant, Benchmark Mortgage, in leasing 5,684 SF of office space at 400 Executive Center Drive, Greenville.

Benji Smith represented the landlord in the lease renewal of 2,044 SF of office space at 111 Pelham Commons Blvd., Greenville, to Omnisource Staffing.

Benji Smith represented the landlord in the lease renewal of 2,250 SF of office space at 420 The Parkway, Suite O, Greer, to Energy Hardware.

Benji Smith represented the landlord in the lease renewal of 3,000 SF of office space at 490 Garlington Road, Greenville, to Spectrum Engineering Services.

Benji Smith represented the landlord in the lease renewal of 3,000 SF of office space at 492 Garlington Road, Greenville, to Spirit Communications.

Benji Smith and Josh Tew represented the tenant, Dry Clean USA Carolina, in leasing retail space at 3008 August St., Greenville.

Josh Tew represented the buyer, Kairos Holdings, III, in purchasing a 6,500 SF building on 0.33 AC for office/retail redevelopment at 14-22 W. Antrim Drive, Greenville.

Josh Tew represented the landlord in the prelease of retail space at 18 W. Antrim Drive, Greenville, to Elegante Salon.

Josh Tew represented the landlord in leasing 1,900 SF of office space at 103 Commons Way, Greenville, to Changing Phases, LLC.

Josh Tew represented the buyer, McTron Technologies, in purchasing a 2,500 SF office building at 23 Exchange St., Donaldson Center, Greenville.

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD | THALHIMER ANNOUNCED:

Charlie Whitmire represented the seller in selling 16.43 AC of multi-family land along Montebello Road, Greenville, for $350,000 to Paul Burket.

NAI EARLE FURMAN ANNOUNCED:

Keith Jones represented the tenant, Hire Dynamics, in leasing a 2,520 SF office space at 430 Roper Mountain Road, Suite F, Greenville.

Ted Lyerly, Jimmy Wright, and Brendan Gower represented the landlord, Windward Partners, in leasing a 3,000 SF retail space at 5010 and 5012 Old Spartanburg Road, Taylors, to El Patrón Mexican Restaurant.

John Staunton and Hunter Garrett represented the landlord, First Citizens Bank & Trust, in leasing a 16,411 SF third floor office space at 325 W. McBee Ave., Greenville.

Ted Lyerly, Jimmy Wright, and Brendan Gower represented the landlord, Dialysis Venture Partners, LLC, in leasing a 4,500 SF retail space at 36 S. Main St., Travelers Rest, to YoKreme, LC.

Alex Campbell represented the tenant, Glasspro, Inc., in leasing a 4,000 SF industrial space at 1040 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite C, Greenville, from R&J

Investments, LLC.

Gaston Albergotti, Bill Sims, and Jake Van Gieson represented the landlord, Shelmore Property Company, LLC, in leasing a 2,600 SF retail space at 150 Tanner Road, Suites E and F, Greenville, to Gardner Learning Services, LLC.

Tyson Smoak and Ross Kester represented the tenant, a South Carolina-based dental practice, in leasing a 2,600 SF retail space at 1641 E. Greenville St., Anderson, from SC Anderson Hwy 81, LLC.

Alex Campbell represented the seller, Crete Carrier Corporation, in selling a 5,800 SF industrial space and 2.52 AC of land at 7050 White Ave., Spartanburg, to Revelation Towing.

Ted Lyerly, Jimmy Wright, and Brendan Gower represented the buyer in purchasing a 4,900 SF retail property at 1020 Woodruff Road, Greenville.

Ken Anderson represented the seller, Stein Real Estate Company, LLC, in selling a 60,000 SF industrial property at 1245 Woods Chapel Road, Duncan, to MSI Investors of Wisconsin, LLC.

Towers Rice represented the seller, Baldree Holdings, LLC, in selling a 3,240 SF industrial property at Industrial Park Drive, Seneca, to S and S Leasing, LLC.

Earle Furman and Alexi Papapieris represented the seller, Via, LLC, in selling a 6,250 SF industrial property at 100 Dixie Circle, Greenville.

John Staunton and Hunter Garrett represented the buyer, G & N Holdings, LLC, in purchasing a 7,000 SF retail investment property at 5322 Wade Hampton Blvd., Taylors, in the Wade Hampton Commons, from CAP Greer II, LLC.

Gaston Albergotti, Bill Sims and Jake Van Gieson represented the buyer, HAM Properties, LLC in purchasing a 4,800 SF retail property at 214 E. Butler Road, Mauldin.

John Powell represented the seller in selling a 2,400 SF industrial property at 106 Welpine Ridge Road, Anderson.

Kevin Pogue represented Pacolet Milliken Enterprises in the sale of a 675.97 AC property on Highway 9, Campobello.

Earle Furman represented seller, Locke Land Company, LLC, in selling a 134,934 SF industrial property at 206 Enterprise Drive, Rockingham, N.C., to Warehouse Solutions of Richmond County, LLC.

John Baldwin represented the seller, Gopher REO, LLC, in selling a 116,280 SF industrial property at 211 Joe Bernat Drive, Greenwood, to Beattie Development, LLC.

Peter Couchell and Robert Schmidt represented the seller in selling a 9,014 SF retail investment property at 4561 Parris Bridge Road, Boiling Springs.

Towers Rice represented the seller, SCH290, Inc., in selling a 10,200 SF industrial property at 331 Spiro Drive, Duncan, to Morris Business Holdings, LLC.

Tony Bonitati, Kay Hill and Bern DuPree represented the seller, Upstate Property Rentals, LLC, in selling a 92-unit apartment complex at 104 Springbrook Court, Anderson, to Richmond Manor Apartments, Inc.

KDS COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES, LLC ANNOUNCED:

Mark Masaschi represented the investment purchaser in the acquisition of a 52-unit student housing facility on Pine Street, Clemson.

Bobby Miller represented the buyer, Enchanted Construction, LLC, in purchasing 104 developed

lots at 10420 Asheville Hwy., Inman.

Sam Ligon represented the seller in selling 82,000 SF of industrial space at 1108 NE Main St., Simpsonville, for $1,025,000 to Heard and Heard IV, LLC.

Bobby Miller represented the seller, Pickens County School District, in selling 4.11 AC in Easley. Brad Doyle represented the buyer, Prestwick Development.

Bobby Miller represented the seller, Georgia Road Commons, LLC, in selling 22,160 SF of office/retail space at 100 Allawood Court, Simpsonville, to the buyer, Allawood Properties, LLC.

LEE & ASSOCIATES ANNOUNCED:

Randall Bentley represented the landlord in the 20,000 SF industrial lease of 310 Interstate Blvd., Greenville.

Kevin Bentley represented the tenant in the 10,000 SF industrial lease at 282 Rocky Creek Road, Greenville.

Kevin Bentley represented the landlord in the 2,500 SF flex space lease at 450 S. Main St., Mauldin.

Bryon Culbertson facilitated the 7,070 SF lease at 997 Bypass Lane, Seneca.

Randall Bentley represented the landlord in the 36,176 SF lease at 6000 Pelham Road, Suites A & A-1, Greenville.

Randall Bentley represented the landlord in the 5,200 SF lease of 535 Brookshire Road, Suites C & D, Greer.

Willz Tolbert represented the tenant in the 3,045 SF office lease at 10 Patewood Drive, Suite 250, Greenville.

Willz Tolbert represented the landlord in the 1,034 SF office lease at 522 S. Main St., Simpsonville.

Kevin Bentley represented the landlord in the

3,000 SF lease at 1310 Garlington Road, Suite K, Greenville.

COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCED:

Richard Jackson represented the tenant, Fusion Surplus Solutions, Inc., in leasing 60,000 SF of industrial space at 132 White Horse Road, Greenville, from the landlord, GLP: US Management, LLC.

Brantley Anderson represented the tenant, Strategic Power Systems, in leasing 1,317 SF of office space at Park East, 750 Executive Center Drive, Greenville, from the landlord, Terra ParkGreen, LLC.

Frank Hammond and Nick Reinhardt represented the buyer, MP VP Rolling Hills Easley SC, in purchasing 0.9 AC at Easley Town Center in Easley, from the seller, Easley FD Associates, LLC.

Frank Hammond and Nick Reinhardt represented the buyer, Greenville Federal Credit Union, in purchasing 0.5 AC at 1513 Wade Hampton Blvd., Greenville, from the seller, MGM Financial Corp.

Givens Stewart, Garrett Scott and Richard Barrett represented the landlord, 220 Commerce LLC, in leasing 158,879 SF of industrial space at 220 Commerce Drive, Greenville, to the tenant, Saddle Creek Corporation.

Bob Shaw and Jake Jackson represented the landlord, Century at Keith, LLC, in leasing 6,000 SF of office space at Century at Keith, 5 Century Drive, Greenville, to the tenant, SAFY of Greenville.

Givens Stewart and Garrett Scott represented the buyer, Techtronic Industries NA, Inc., in purchasing 429 AC of land at I-85 and Highway 81 in Anderson, from the seller, Threatt Enterprises.

DEALMAKERSCommercial real estate transactions in the Upstate

Proffitt Dixon Partners, a Charlotte-based multifamily investment and development firm, will break ground soon on the company’s first South Carolina venture, a new luxury apartment com-munity at Church and Broad streets in downtown Greenville.

Fountains Greenville will be built on 2.45 acres and rise five stories with 201 units at 201 E. Broad St. Its proximity to the central business district, Publix, Falls Park, Centre Stage and the Peace Cen-ter is what attracted the company to the location.

“The area has exactly what we look for, which is a walkable area near jobs, restaurants, entertain-ment and greenspaces,” said Stuart Proffitt, man-aging principal. “As with our other communities, we will follow green building practices, and choose energy-saving appliances and features.”

The community will feature a resort-style

16 | SQUARE FEET | REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION UBJ | 05.29.2015

Luxury apartments at Church and Broad to break ground

PROJECT PARTNERS

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Creative Builders Group

ARCHITECT: The Housing Studio

pool, courtyard, outdoor grills and TV, commer-cial-quality fitness center, upscale club areas and rooftop deck. It will also have convenient access to the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail.

“Greenville is the economic engine of South Carolina,” said Wyatt Dixon, managing principal. “This is a great opportunity to bring the luxury

apartment lifestyle to one of the country’s fast-est-growing cities.”

The last remaining site at the Hillside Indus-trial Park in Duncan has been sold to Indianapo-lis-based Scannell Properties, which will develop 84 acres and will include at least one initial specu-lative industrial building.

Scannell Properties purchased the property earlier this year. It’s the company’s first foray into the Upstate market. “We were impressed by the location’s hub for major manufacturing and distribution logistics as well as its central Southeast location between major Southeastern markets like Atlanta, Nashville, Char-lotte and Florida, with easy access to major highways, airports and railways,” said Bill Linville, managing director and partner at Scannell Properties.

Hillside Industrial Park is located off of Interstate 85 and Highway 20 in Spartanburg County. Linville said they look for “midlevel markets that are good, solid markets,” noting that they see “all of the funda-mentals here like population growth, job growth, em-ployers, and distribution trends for the market and a limited supply for modern warehouse space,” he said.

The new development is master-planned for

up to 900,000 square feet of industrial space across four to six buildings, de-pending on need.

Construction has already begun on a 155,032-square-foot speculative building that can be used for warehouse, distri-bution, light manufacturing or assem-bly, said Linville. That building should be completed in five or six months and interest in the property has been good. Grading is also being done on the other sites to provide opportunities for build-to-suit for either lease or sale. He expects completion by the end of the year.

Scannell likes to use local resources when possible for its projects, Linville said. Along with the engineering and general contract-ing teams, it has hired the local Colliers International team of Givens Stewart, Gar-rett Scott and Brockton Hall to market the project.

“Located in a growing industrial corridor, Hillside offers unique flexibility that differentiates itself from

neighboring parks,” said Stewart. “When combined with the record growth we are seeing in the Upstate, Hillside has the potential to be very successful.”

It’s probably not the only project that Scannell will be doing in the Upstate. Linville said he is “looking at what is a good next move” and will be making a commitment soon on its next venture.

Scannell developing 84 acres at Duncan industrial park

SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF sjackson@communityjournals.com @SJackson_CJ

PROJECT PARTNERS

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Yeargin Potter Shackelford Construction

CIVIL ENGINEERING: Site Design

MARKETING: Colliers International; Givens Stewart, Garrett Scott and Brockton HallRenderings provided

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REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION | SQUARE FEET | 17upstatebusinessjournal.com

In a small vacant lot at the corner of Falls Park Drive and Main Street, directly across from Falls Park, Greenville developer Hughes Invest-ments is proposing to build a six-story, mixed-use project called Falls Park Place.

The proposed project would include a rooftop terrace with a pool along with retail, restaurant, office and residential space.

The development would be great for downtown Greenville, said Ryan Peiffer, vice president at Hughes In-

vestments. “This is a prominent corner that

already has the attention of a national retail an-chor and a number of different restaurants.”

Since the initial filing with the city of Greenville’s Design Review Board, Hughes Investments has revised the project at the DRB’s request to include another story and a 20-foot setback beginning at the fifth floor. Hughes is still studying the feasibility of the project and details may change, depending on input from city staff and the DRB.

The plans will be reviewed at the June 4 DRB meeting.

Hughes makes plans for Falls Park Place

Two local businessmen have purchased a Greenville shopping center on Antrim Drive and are giving it a much-needed makeover.

Joshua Tew and a silent business partner pur-chased the 6,500-square-foot retail center under Kairos Holdings III. It is the partners’ first foray into owning commercial real estate, but hopefully not the last, said Tew, who is also a vice president at Flagship Properties and has a background in con-struction and real estate.

Tew had been involved in another shopping center redevelopment on Laurens Road that led to this oppor-tunity. The property had been distressed with two for-mer owners who hadn’t made any improvements to the property in years. A façade improvement grant from the city is assisting in the revitalization.

“It’s a nice benefit to the community from multi-ple angles,” said Tew. “It’s great to be able to turn an eyesore in the area into an asset.”

Construction is currently underway and is expect-ed to be completed by the fall. Exterior improvements include removing the existing awnings, converting all storefronts to glass, putting in new landscaping and making improvements to the parking lot. Interiors will “be made like new again,” said Tew.

One tenant, Carolina Financial Resources, will be remaining in the center, which has been renamed W. Antrim Plaza. Another business, Elegante Hair Studio, will be relocating from its current location on Orchard Park Drive to 850 square feet in the revitalized space. Three additional spaces are still available, ranging from 850 to 2,400 square feet.

Facelift planned for Antrim Drive shops

BEFORE

AFTER

SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF sjackson@communityjournals.com @SJackson_CJ

PROJECT PARTNERS

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Widewater Construction

ARCHITECT: Charles Lachanos

Laurens Road

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18 | ON THE MOVE | PLAY-BY-PLAY OF UPSTATE CAREERS UBJ | 05.29.2015

PROMOTED APPOINTED AWARDED HIRED APPOINTED

James Prow Named graphic designer and project manager at Coldwell Banker Caine. Prow was previously the marketing specialist for the Ashley Lewis Team of Coldwell Banker Caine, where he gained the real estate knowledge needed to successfully market a top real estate team in the Upstate.

Anja SmithNamed managing partner of All Clear Plumbing. Smith will serve as the business development, community relations and office operations staff. She is actively pursuing projects to improve workforce development and economic growth in the region.

Lynn ColeNamed the 2015 Oncology Certified Nurse of the Year by the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation (ONCC). The ONCC recognizes one oncology nurse nationally each year. Cole serves lung cancer patients as a thoracic clinical navigator at Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute.

Matthew NewtonNamed vice president, branch manager at the McBee Avenue branch of BNC Bank. Newton is responsible for branch operations and business development, with a focus on enhancing customer experiences and building new relationships. He has more than 11 years of banking experience.

Lamont Sullivan Named CEO by the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Upstate. Sullivan has worked for BBBS Upstate for 11 years in different leadership roles and has served as interim CEO of BBBS since January. He will oversee operations in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Pickens, Oconee and Laurens counties.

DEVELOPMENT

O’Neal Inc. hired Jeff Moreland as senior process engineer and Harold Culbreath as senior structural engi-neer. Moreland has more than 25 years of process engineering experience,

working with Sony, Milliken, Day & Zimmerman, and CH2MHill. Cul-breath has more than 30 years of structural engineering experience, working with Fluor and Jacobs Engi-neering.

EDUCATIONBill Ferrell of Clemson Universi-

ty was named the Fluor-Clemson International Capital Supply Chain Partnership Professor in Industrial Engineering. The program prepares

engineers for leadership roles in improving the flow of goods and materials, including for capital projects. Ferrell has been instrumen-tal in an online master’s program that has graduated about 100 >>

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INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW | NEWS | 19upstatebusinessjournal.com

students in four years and is ex-pected to pay for a $10 million addi-tion to Freeman Hall.

Tami Blumenfield, an assistant professor of Asian studies at Furman University, was selected for a Fulbright Scholar Grant to conduct research in China during the 2015-16 academic year. Blumenfield will work with the Na communities of the Yunnan Province, where she’ll create a multimedia exhibit and digital archive to help preserve the cultural heritage of the Na people. She will also collaborate with the Yunnan University Institute for Ethnic Studies.

FINANCE

Bethany M. Griffith of Abacus Planning Group met all requirements to become an enrolled agent. Griffith began her Abacus career in 2007

while a student at University of South Carolina and joined the team full-time following graduation. Bethany received the CFP designation in 2012 and recently completed her Certificate in Family Business Advising with the Family Firm Institute.

IT

Zack Moody of Palmetto Technology Group (PTG) achieved CISSP certification, which is a comprehensive certification to ensure that security leaders understand new threats, technologies, regulations, standards and practices.

STAFFING

Phillips Staffing hired Nivia Booker as a human resources specialist and Lori Morgan as an account executive. Booker has 12 years of experience in the areas of human resources, accounts payable

and front desk administration. She previously held human resource, accounting and administrative positions with Contec, The Blood Connection and the former Carolina First Bank (now TD Bank). Morgan has 15 years of experience in supply chain and operations management. She most recently served as production control and logistics manager for Faurecia Emission Control Technologies.

Ashley JailletteNamed executive director of the South Carolina Association of Technical College Commissioners (SCATCC). Jaillette will serve the trustees and expand awareness of colleges in the South Carolina Technical College System. She has 10 years of experience in marketing and client development roles at South Carolina law firms.

VIP – HIRED>>

CONTRIBUTE: New hires, promotions & award winners

may be featured in On the Move. Send information and photos to onthemove@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

Fountain Inn takes aim at workforce development

Fountain Inn leaders took aim at its workforce development chal-lenges during a town hall meeting at ZF Transmissions, promoting early childhood education and appren-ticeship programs while encouraging closer collaborative partnerships.

“We have been hearing at the tech-nical college level and the secondary level that you are critically concerned about having a workforce,” said pan-elist and Greenville Technical Col-lege Vice President of Corporate and Economic Development Cynthia Ea-son to a room of 50 human resources professionals and business leaders.

A quickly aging and retiring work-force has manufacturing employers focusing increasingly on apprentice-ships and internships, while students have more and more opportunities with dual college credits that can ac-celerate degree programs, she said. “We’re seeing employers wanting to get involved earlier down the line.”

Dual enrollment and certificate opportunities include everything from AP classes to certifications for

things like welding, said Greenville County School Board Chairman and District 28 representative Lisa Wells, also a panelist. The Golden Strip Career Technology Center recently added machine tooling and molding options, she said, and the planned Fountain Inn elementary school will even have a manufacturing focus.

State Rep. Mark N. Willis (R) of District 16 said schools and employers can’t forget to include parents in work-force development, noting parents are one of the most influential forces in a young person’s future career.

“Factories today aren’t the hard, sweaty things they once were,” he said. “Until we can get families in there, we’re going to have problems … we have to figure out how to get into homes.”

Other panelists included Piedmont Technical College Vice President for Continuing Ed and Economic De-velopment Rusty Denning, S.C. Sen. Ross Turner of District 8, Rep. Garry R. Smith of District 27 and S.C. Path-ways to Personal Success Greenville Coordinator Jay Blankenship. The panel was organized by the Fountain Inn Chamber of Commerce.

STAFF REPORT

Southern First report Q1 results

Greenville-based Southern First Bancshares reported $2 million in net income available to common shareholders for the first quarter of 2015, a 92 percent increase year over year from $1.1 million. Core deposits increased 21 percent to $627.1 million at the end of the quarter compared to $519.9 million, while total reve-nue increased 30 percent to $11.2 million year over year. Earnings per diluted share increased 40.9 percent to 31 cents compared

with 22 cents per diluted share the previous year.

Southern First ended 2014 with $5.7 million in net income available to common sharehold-ers, or 30.7 percent higher than the end of 2013.

“Our team generated strong performance in the first quarter with record earnings of $2 mil-lion,” said Southern First CEO Art Seaver in a news release. “Our focus on core deposits continues to generate impressive results with $42 million in growth in the first quarter of 2015.”

Southern First op-erates four branches in Greenville, three in Columbia and two in Charleston. Two new offices in Charleston and Columbia drove occupancy expens-es up 23.8 percent or $588,000.

STAFF REPORTS

20 | THE FINE PRINT | BUSINESS BRIEFS YOU CAN’T MISS UBJ | 05.29.2015

Clemson team wins mobile app competition

A Clemson University student team won the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society’s Mobile Health Applications for Consumers design competition.

Cheng Guo, a Ph.D. student in human-cen-tered computing, and Spencer Kohn, a Clemson graduate who now is pursuing a master’s degree at George Mason University, designed a mobile application aimed to help enhance patient privacy when sharing health records.

Their application, “Hermes,” offers patients the ability to share their electronic health records with health care pro-viders of their choosing while enabling them to keep portions of their health records private.

“Spencer and Cheng were able to apply research we con-ducted to understand patients’ privacy needs directly. The design has the potential to have a huge impact on the way patients manage the privacy of their electronic health records in the future,” said Kelly Caine, an assistant professor in Clemson’s Human-Centered Computing Division and the faculty supervisor for the student team.

Kohn and Guo were among 11 student teams that partic-ipated in the Mobile Health Applications for Consumers category and one of three that were selected as finalists.

The focus of the competition was cen-tered on designing a mobile application that would support patients and caregivers with health management. Participating teams were given the task of creating a useful and

usable application that would both satisfy patients and improve patient outcomes.

The winning designers received a cash prize of $1,000.The competition was held in conjunction with the 2015

International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonom-ics in Health Care: Improving the Outcomes.

SCRA accepts new companies in launch program

SCRA Technology Ventures accepted Upstate-based compa-nies into its SC Launch Program and Resource Partner Network.

Precision Genetics and Boyd Cycling are startups that were accepted as client companies to receive investment and support services. Performance Resource Partners has joined the Re-source Partner

Network to provide support services to startups in the SCRA program.

Precision Genetics enables health care organizations to implement genetic testing capabilities as they evolve toward precision and personalized medicine. They provide a turnkey solution, allowing for replication of their model across many health care organizations and settings.

Boyd Cycling is a high-performance, high-tech bicycle wheel manufacturer that designs and engineers products in the United States and is beginning to bring all manufactur-ing to the Upstate of South Carolina.

Performance Resource Partners specializes in manufac-turing strategy, new product development, technology commercialization and business assessment for small to midsize manufacturing organizations. They are experts in the design and implementation of continuous improvement strategies, coaching and mentoring of business teams and project management.

Other companies accepted into the launch program are Charleston financial technology company Questis and Midlands-area company Clean Water Solutions.

Columbia company Mad Monkey Inc. joined the Resource Partner Network.

“We are delighted to welcome these new companies to the SC Launch program and our Resource Partner Network,” SCRA CEO Bill Mahoney said in a release. “We look forward to working with these innovative businesses and their technologies and helping them as they make important contributions to South Carolina’s high-tech economy.”

Horse facility breaks ground in Anderson

Palmetto Equine held recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the com-pany’s new facility.

The new facility will be located at 451 Jenkins Circle, Townville, and will have over 6,000 square feet. The facility will offer surgical services, sports medicine, rehabilitation, hospitalization and general >>

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wellness care for horses. The prop-erty has over 40 acres with plans to provide full service for boarding, reha-bilitation and training.

J. Davis Construction Inc., a full-ser-vice general contractor with offices in Westminster and Anderson, will con-struct the project once permits are fi-nalized. Dave Gasar of BDA Architec-ture, whose firm has designed over 700 animal care projects in 46 states, was the designer of the facility.

The company will be owned and operated by Dr. Alexandra Tracey, one of only two practicing board-certified large animal surgeons (DACVS-LA) in South Carolina.

Anderson County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Pam Christopher said, “Having an experi-enced equine veterinarian would definitely help to further stake Ander-son County’s future in the equestrian arena.”

Sealed Air increases price for European products

Sealed Air Corporation is imple-menting price increases of up to 5 percent for the majority of its Euro-pean Product Care and Food Care division packaging products, effective July 1, 2015.

“Our European price increases are in response to the continued escalation of our key raw materials and other i n p u t costs – in par-ticular polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene – as all major petrochem-ical suppliers increased prices over the last five months,” Gerd Wichmann, vice president, Product Care Europe, and Jonathon Durnford, vice presi-dent, Food Care Europe, said in a release. “Cumulatively, since January 2015, our petrochemical suppliers have increased their prices between 15 to 27 percent. We are committed to delivering the broadest and most innovative product portfolio to our customers and with that objective, we need to recover raw material cost in-creases.”

>>

Why pay extra for the inconvenience of out-of-state attorneys, when we have brought so much large

market experience home to the Upstate?

www.NelsonMullins.com

JOHN CAMPBELL(864) 250-2234

john.campbell@nelsonmullins.com

JOHN JENNINGS(864) 250-2207john.jennings@

nelsonmullins.com

NEIL GRAYSON(864) 250-2235neil.grayson@

nelsonmullins.com

M&A and Accessing Capital Markets

4,500

The number of Nelson Mullins attorneys with a focus on M&A, public company or corporate fi nance.

75+

The number of reporting companies whose fi lings are reviewed by the

SEC in a typical year.

93%Percentage of M&A deals

valued at over $100 million announced in 2014 in

which shareholder lawsuits were fi led, according to Cornerstone Research.

With a total value of $4.3 billion – number of M&A

transactions handled by Nelson Mullins in 2014.

The number of Nelson Mullins attorneys who previously worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission5

80+

The number of states with exceptions to broker/dealer registration for M&A broker transactions.

11

The number of public company mergers in 2013 that included a “go-shop” provision.

11%The percentage of CFOs who reported that the cost of taking their company public exceeded their expectations.

The backbone of our securities laws is disclosure. The SEC requires public companies and key participants in the securities world to disclose meaningful, accurate, and timely information to the public. SEC Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar in a speech given on February 20, 2015.

Over the past 18 months, M&A activity has accelerated meaningfully in the U.S., and that trend is poised to continue

according to the 2014 Deloitte M&A trends report

23%

22 | PLANNER & SOCIAL SNAPSHOT | INSIDE THE UPSTATE’S NETWORKING AND SOCIAL SCENE UBJ | 05.29.2015

CONTRIBUTE: Got a hot date? Submit event information for consideration to events@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

Photos provided.

DATE EVENT INFO WHERE DO I GO? HOW DO I GO?

Tuesday

6/2

Our Upstate Vision Forum Topic: Innovation and the Changing Landscape of Healthcare Speaker: Kirby Thornton, South Carolina Hospital Association CEO

The Crowne Plaza, 851 Congaree Rd., Greenville, 3-5 p.m.

Cost: $10Register: bit.ly/regional-forum-june2015

GSHRM Economic Development Hardball for the Heavy Hitters How economic development affects human resource issues

Marriott Greenville, 1 Parkway East, Greenville, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m

Cost: $25Register: greenvillehr.org/june

Wednesday

6/3Chamber Night at Fluor Field Pregame reception for Greenville Chamber investors

Flour Field, 945 S. Main St., Greenville, 6-7:30 p.m.

More info: bit.ly/chamber-night2015

Friday

6/5Greer Chamber First Friday Luncheon Speaker: U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy

Cannon Centre, 208 Cannon St., Greer, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

Cost: Chamber members $10, nonmembers $15 Register: bit.ly/firstfriday-june2015

Thursday-Saturday

6/4-6/6Talented Tenth Conference Young minority professionals from the Upstate connect with business and civic leaders across the Southeast

Hyatt Regency, 220 N. Main St., Greenville

Cost: $50 Register and more info: bit.ly/talented-tenth2015

Monday

6/8Upstate Chamber Coalition Presidential Series Speaker: U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham

Marriott Greenville, 1 Parkway East, Greenville, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

Cost: Chamber member $30, nonmembers $40 Register: bit.ly/prez-series-june2015

Saturday

6/13 Comprehensive Small Business Start-Up WorkshopHughes Main Library, 25 Heritage Green Place, Greenville, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

Cost: $69, $25 for each additional participant from same companyRegister: piedmontscore.org/workshops/- register/162

Tuesday

6/16 iMAGINE Upstate 2016 Festival RevealThe Old Cigar Warehouse, 912 B South Main St., Greenville, 6-9 p.m.

Cost: $12 Register: bit.ly/imaginereveal-june2015

CONTRIBUTE: Got high-resolution photos of your networking or social events? Send photos and information for consideration to events@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

LEADERSHIP SPARTANBURGThe Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce honored the 37 graduates of the 2014-2015 Leadership Spartanburg class earlier this month at the Piedmont Club.

upstatebusinessjournal.com

Today the land is home to the Salvation Army Waldo Leslie Service Center, right, and the Salvation Army Church on the left. Other buildings on the property behind these two are used for social services, emergency shelters and administrative offices.

The Bruner Home for Children on Rutherford Street was operated under the auspices of the Salvation Army’s Women’s Social Service Department but as a separate program from 1917 to 1949. The children’s home concentrated on the care and nurturing of children who were orphaned, discarded or otherwise without adult support.

Historic photograph available from the Greenville Historical Society. From “Remembering

Greenville: Photographs from the Coxe Collection” by Jeffrey R. Willis

Greg Beckner/Staff

His

toric

phot

o pr

ovid

ed

PRESIDENT/CEO Mark B. Johnston mjohnston@communityjournals.com

UBJ PUBLISHER Ryan L. Johnston rjohnston@communityjournals.com

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Susan Clary Simmons ssimmons@communityjournals.com

MANAGING EDITOR Jerry Salley jsalley@communityjournals.com

STAFF WRITERS Ashley Boncimino, Sherry Jackson, Benjamin Jeffers, Cindy Landrum, April A. Morris, Robbie Ward

PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Beckner

MARKETING & ADVERTISING

SALES REPRESENTATIVES Nicole Greer, Kristi Jennings, Donna Johnston, Annie Langston, Lindsay Oehman, Emily Yepes

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS & ACCOUNT STRATEGY Kate Madden

DIGITAL TEAM Emily Price, Danielle Carr

ART & PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR Kristy Adair

OPERATIONS Holly Hardin

ADVERTISING DESIGN Michael Allen

LAYOUT & DESIGN Kristy Adair, Tammy Smith

CLIENT SERVICES Anita Harley, Jane Rogers

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Kristi Fortner

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UBJ welcomes expert commentary from business leaders on timely news topics related to their specialties. Guest columns run 700-800 words. Contact Executive Editor Susan Clary Simmons at ssimmons@community-journals.com to submit an article for consideration.

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Copyright ©2015 BY COMMUNITY JOURNALS LLC. All rights reserved. Upstate Business Journal is published weekly by Community Journals LLC. P.O. Box 2266, Greenville, South Carolina, 29602. Upstate Business Journal is a free publication. Annual subscriptions (52 issues) can be purchased for $50. Postmaster: Send address changes to Upstate Business, P.O. Box 2266, Greenville, SC 29602. Printed in the USA.

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20 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal November 1, 2013

UBJ milestone

Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and ac-cording to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.

Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during

Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood.

He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Mar-keting Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto indus-try in 1980.

In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he

learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage.

In fact, when he started the Green-ville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar.

“Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back up-stairs to the meeting,” Jackson said.

Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders

Jackson Marketing Group celebrates 25 yearsBy sherry Jackson | staff | sjackson@communityjournals.com

>>

Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff

November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21

UBJ milestone

with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a

“corporate gateway to the city.”In 1997, Jackson and his son,

Darrell, launched Jackson Motor-sports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.”

Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate plan-ning.

The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an audi-torium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motor-sports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet.

Jackson said JMG has expand-ed into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufac-turing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s

also one of the few marketing com-panies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design.

Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile appli-cation for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series.

“In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.”

Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept

him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-prof-its. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award.

The company reaffirmed its com-mitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th an-niversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family.

As Jackson inches towards retire-ment, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business.

“From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son,

Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.”

Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”

jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years1988 Jackson Dawson opens in Greenville at Downtown Airport

2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court

1997 Jackson Dawson launches

motorsports Division

2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by

BtoB magazine 4 years running

2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation

with Creative spirit Award

2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson

marketing Group when larry sells his partnership

in Detroit and lA

1988 19981993 2003 2008

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

1990 Jackson Dawson acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont

office Center on Villa.

2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports

Group employee base reaches 100 people

pro-bono/non-proFit Clients

American Red Cross of Western Carolinas

Metropolitan Arts CouncilArtisphere

Big League World SeriesThe Wilds

Advance SCSouth Carolina Charities, Inc.

Aloft

Hidden Treasure Christian School

CoMMUnitY inVolVeMent & boarD positions

lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn): Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member, Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member

David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman

mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board, Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board

eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist): Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board

>>

AS SEEN IN NOVEMBER 1, 2013

JUNE 19: ENTERTAINMENT, TRAVEL AND LEAISURE A look at the business of leisure.

JULY 17: TRAVELERS REST The small town making big waves.

JULY 31: QUARTERLY CRE ISSUE The state of commercial real estate in the Upstate.

Got any thoughts? Care to contribute? Let us know at ideas@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

UP NEXT

A QUICK LOOK INTO THE UPSTATE’S PAST | SNAPSHOT | 23

www.clemson.edu/mba · 864-656-3975

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