Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday signed into law an economic development bill that provides incentives for the South Financial Group's planned corporate headquarters expansion in Greenville.

Sanford appeared with Mack Whittle, South Financial's president and chief executive officer, in a signing ceremony on the 10th floor of the Greenville-based company's Main Street tower and praised its plan to create 600 new jobs and invest $100 million as part of the project.

"The reason we're signing it here is because this is very significant news -- not just for the Upstate, but, frankly, all of South Carolina," Sanford told a group of business, community and political officials.

Such projects, he said, are "incredibly important to raising people's, ultimately, their standard of living, their chance at creating wealth and, frankly, a whole array of other virtuous things that happen as a result of headquarters being based in South Carolina."

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With the stroke of a pen, Sanford signed legislation passed by the House and Senate that would grant banks the same tax incentives as other businesses that increase jobs or move their corporate headquarters to South Carolina.

"This is obviously an exciting day for the South Financial Group," said Whittle, whose company is the largest publicly traded bank holding company headquartered in the state.

South Financial's plans, dubbed Project Pogo by economic development officials, call for a 68-acre campuslike setting just off Interstate 85 near Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research.

The new jobs, to be added over five to 10 years, will pay an average salary of about $54,000 a year and include audit, accounting, finance, loan operations, loan review and legal positions.

South Financial operates two subsidiary banks: Carolina First, which operates in North Carolina, South Carolina and on the Internet under the name Bank CaroLine; and Mercantile, which operates in Florida.

The company has 2,600 employees. In Greenville County, it has 439 employees with an annual payroll of $30.2 million.

Whittle said in an interview Tuesday that South Financial likely will hire 300 people this year, and about 100 will join the company with a focus on the new campus.

In addition, South Financial will move its small-business lending operations from Tampa to Greenville.

The move will affect just 10 people, "but small business is an area that will grow," Whittle said.

Whittle told the business and community officials that the first two of a planned eight to 10 buildings in the new campus setting should be ready to occupy early in 2008.