A contingent of Anderson County business leaders toured sites in Spartanburg Tuesday to gain some insight into what’s going right in the Hub City.
For about six hours, the group of nine compiled a mental list of initiatives, developments and events that have helped shape Anderson’s sister county in hopes they can apply some of that knowledge back home.
The tour included stops at the Chapman Cultural Center, Drayton Mills, the Healthy Food Hub on the city’s north side, the construction site of the new AC Hotel by Marriott in downtown and the RJ Rockers Brewery across from the hotel site.
“Anderson is at the forefront of workforce development and recruiting jobs,” said Grayson Kelly, executive director of Tri-County Technical College’s Foundation. “We have attracted some of the top companies across the world, particularly in advanced manufacturing. We still need to do a better job of transforming in terms of curbing poverty that still exists in pockets across the community.”
Anderson leaders received input and asked questions of their Spartanburg counterparts, including Jennifer Evins, president and CEO of the Chapman Cultural Center; John Montgomery, principal of Montgomery Development Group; Former Spartanburg Mayor Bill Barnet; Allen Smith, president and CEO of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce; Naomi Sargent, the Spartanburg Chamber’s director of college town and quality of place; and Tim Giles, assistant director of Hub-Bub.
The topics of discussion ranged from culture and arts to development, community vibrancy and the work being done to reduce poverty, particularly in Spartanburg’s urban areas.
“We’ve still got a lot of pockets of poverty and many of them are around the [shuttered] mills,” said Art Klugh, managing director of United Capital. “It has been nice to see the way Spartanburg has overcome some of those challenges and involved industrial partners… Twenty years ago, you wouldn’t have wanted to go to downtown Anderson. Things are a lot different now, but there’s still work to be done.”
Anderson leaders said they found the trip to be helpful. One of the main takeaways was the motivation to harness the energy and passion of people in Anderson to help it reach its full potential.
“I’ve noticed that we have a lot of people who are doing great things, but very little cohesion,” said Mark Madden, with Transworld Business Advisors. “We have a lot of people pulling in different directions. The key will be finding ways for all of those assets work together.”
Anderson businessman Craig Kinley, who owns the Growler Haus, said he has organized the trip to Spartanburg for leaders since 2014.
He said the first two trips included participants from Anderson County municipalities. This year’s group was comprised of more business and non-profit leaders.
“Our main takeaway was to list the resources we have within our community—arts and culture, economic development, events and education—and list the opportunities we have in front of us to bring these two elements together for a vision plan,” Kinley said.
