In an office festooned with pictures chronicling more than 30 years of public life, Spartanburg’s David Britt points to two in explaining how he views economic development.
The first shows a 30-something Britt standing in front of the weathered, modest farmhouse he grew up in on a tobacco farm in Dillon County. It reminds him of his modest beginnings and the rural county where job options were limited.
The second picture is of Britt as a child standing beside his grandfather, Stonewall David Wise. He was the man who taught Britt how to treat people and how to look at opportunities: “Twenty-five percent of something is better than 100% of nothing.”
Those pictures and the history they represent are at the heart of Britt’s approach to economic development and his success in this area during the 30 years he’s been a member of Spartanburg County Council.
As a high school student who decided to come “north” as the first member of his family to attend college, Britt fell in love with the Upstate while attending Wofford College and decided to make Spartanburg his home.
He says that decision brought many opportunities, chief among them meeting his wife, Susan, and inspired a desire to help others find opportunity for themselves.
The Golden Goose
Just three years after joining Tindall Corporation in 1988 — a company where he serves as vice president and general manager of the South Carolina division — Britt was elected to Spartanburg County Council. As one of the few elected officials with a background in manufacturing, he was tapped to take part in efforts to secure a new home for BMW Manufacturing in Spartanburg County.
With BMW’s economic impact on the state glaringly obvious now, many people forget that not everyone approved of state and local efforts to bring the automotive giant to South Carolina.
“I had a businessman in Spartanburg grab me by my tie and pull me face-to-face and say, ‘Don’t do this,’” Britt recalls.
But under the leadership of late Governor Carroll Campbell, South Carolina beat out Nebraska and landed what has become one of the state’s most powerful economic engines.
“When BMW dropped on Spartanburg County, it was like dropping a meteor in a swimming pool,” Britt says.
Recruiting companies like BMW to the area has never been about generating more tax revenue. It’s been about creating jobs.
“What those jobs have done is offer hope and opportunity to our citizens,” he says.
From the start, those who lobbied hard for BMW understood how big and how lasting the company’s impact would be, says Britt. He estimates BMW, alone, represents $11 billion in economic investment and more than 30,000 jobs.
Demonstrating the steps he has to take to be interviewed on the public radio program “Marketplace,” Britt has become a go-to source for the program in assessing the health of the Upstate’s economy.
Not a one-hit wonder
Britt says the 30 years since efforts began to bring BMW to the Upstate, he and other economic development leaders have worked hard to prove Spartanburg County and South Carolina are not a “one-hit wonder.”
He estimates during his tenure on county council close to $20 billion in investments and nearly 85,000 jobs have come to Spartanburg County.
“We’ve proved that Spartanburg means business,” Britt says.
Building that reputation has been a team effort, he adds.
One of those team members involved through much of that period has been Carter Smith, who retired from the Economic Futures Group and now serves as an economic development advisor to OneSpartanburg Inc., which was previously known as the Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce.
Smith says the success with BMW helped provide a template for how to approach other businesses, and each new success builds momentum.
“They all breed on each other,” he says. “It’s like an economic snowball.”
Former Spartanburg County Council Chairman Jeff Horton served alongside Britt for much of the past three decades. He says not all efforts at economic development involve recruiting companies.
Horton says one of his focuses was building the infrastructure that would support and sustain growth — from improving parks and recreation facilities to strengthening partnerships with school districts and colleges like Spartanburg Community College.
“All of that was to move forward and create an environment where people want to move here and stay here,” Horton says.
Sharing the blessings
“We are tremendously blessed to live where we do,” Britt says.
His efforts to bring economic prosperity to the region and share the blessings were recently recognized when Governor Henry McMaster awarded Britt the Order of the Palmetto during the August Spartanburg County Council meeting.
Britt says that success is in part reflected by the 211 international companies in Spartanburg County and the 27 national flags that fly over those companies.
“We’ve done that over the past 31 years,” he says. “It all worked out — God had his hand on my shoulder all along the way.”
