The Greenville Chamber has set a $3 million goal and identified four major strategies that form the foundation of a private-sector initiative to build the region to the year 2020.
Those strategies, part of the Accelerate initiative, include growing new company headquarters, positioning the local workforce for the 21st century, increasing the number of minority-owned businesses and leading new transformative projects.
Chamber officials hope for 1,000 new full-time jobs, $200 million in new capital investment, support for 250 high-growth companies and exploration of a new life-science facility.
“When we say ‘grow new company headquarters,’ we don’t mean ‘attract new company headquarters,’” said Toby Stansell, president of Acumen IT and Accelerate’s co-chair. “We’re really giving a home for these bright, creative technology-centric entrepreneurs to initiate new businesses here that hopefully will evolve and grow into new company headquarters.”
Craig Brown, owner of the Greenville Drive baseball organization, also co-chairs the Chamber effort.
Chamber officials said Greenville has a tightening labor market and employers are finding it difficult to fill many critical positions. The unemployment rate has been at its lowest point since 2001 and more than 20,000 jobs are being advertised in the Upstate, Chamber officials said.
To meet that need, the region must expand, train and place a highly skilled workforce, the officials said.
In addition, diversity is essential to a well-rounded and resilient economy, and the Chamber intends to continue funding efforts to accelerate the growth of minority businesses and foster inclusiveness.
The 2020 goal is to serve 60 minority-owned businesses, increase the number of jobs announced by minority business executives and enhance capital and financing.
Chamber officials point to the success of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville as an example of a transformative project that is yielding results.
Of 49 graduates in the inaugural class of 2016, all were placed, 25 percent matched for residents’ work with the Greenville Health System, and half are pursuing primary care, which is the region’s critical need, Chamber officials said.
The 2020 goal is to support IMED, the overarching brand for a chain of life sciences/biomedical/health care innovation campuses along the Interstate 185 and I-85 corridors.
“We believe having a transformative (project) come out of the ground, a tangible project like that, really helps turbocharge the economic development piece of what we’re doing,” Stansell said.
