Bigger than Disney: Union welcomes a giant

It was the best economic development news Union County has had in nearly 50 years, and Dr. Skipper Fowler and his wife, Julie, came to hear it for themselves.

The young couple, lifelong residents of Union, were among about 200 people who crowded into the main dining room of Bogey's restaurant for an announcement that turned into a full-throated celebration.

"Dollar General's new state-of-the-art distribution center will be built in Union County, South Carolina!" company Distribution Vice President Jeff Sims thundered to a sustained standing ovation.

The Fowlers marveled over the numbers: Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General Corp., Sims said, will invest more than $70 million in a 1.1 million square-foot facility on a 177-acre site near Jonesville. The company intends to hire more than 600 people at full capacity, while a third-party trucking company expects to employ about 125 more.

Union County beat out 54 other localities across four states to land Dollar General.

"With the loss of a lot of textile jobs here over the years, this will be a great boost to Union County," Skipper Fowler said. "It's just tremendous."

Julie Fowler, grinning broadly, said her home county was long overdue for some good news.

"I'm so glad to see something positive happening for Union," she said.

Stanley Vanderford, director of the Union County Development Board, said Dollar General's arrival is "the biggest economic development news in Union County since Cone Mills' Carlisle plant opened and provided 700 jobs in 1956."

"(Dollar General) will get up to about 850 jobs in five or six years, too," Vanderford said.

When Walt Disney Co. built a 500,000-square-foot worldwide distribution center on Highway 176 just over the Spartanburg County line in 1997, it announced plans to create 300 jobs. The company now maintains about 175 full-time employees and hires nearly 400 part-time workers annually for seasonal employment.

Sims said Dollar General plans to begin construction in May or June. He said the new facility should be fully operational in mid-2005.

The property is about 15 miles south of Spartanburg on Highway 9, just off 176. Although the fine points of the transaction are not complete, Dollar General will buy the property from Union County residents Anna Brown, her sister Helen Jolly and their mother Ruth Free for $10,000 an acre, or about $1.7 million.

It will not do so without some hefty incentives.

Vanderford said the county and the state, Jonesville and Union have agreed to provide a package of special source revenue credit, state and county tax credit and water and sewer and gas rate incentives valued collectively at more than $10 million over 15 years.

Speaking briefly at Thursday morning's announcement, Gov. Mark Sanford praised local and Dollar General officials for their creative and determined efforts to bring the deal to fruition.

"This is a chance to raise people's incomes in South Carolina, and particularly this part of South Carolina," the governor said.

Afterward, Sanford told the Herald-Journal that Union County's "extraordinary" workforce was a key factor persuading Dollar General to locate here.

"Because of the way the textile world has changed, the work force here obviously was underutilized," he said. "I feel that, and the small-town roots of Dollar General itself, were very important."

Vanderford cautioned that those charged with bringing economic development to Union County must not become complacent now that the county has made a giant business acquisition.

"Nothing else has changed," he said.

At Thursday morning's announcement, Union County Supervisor Donnie Betenbaugh told Dollar General's Sims that the company had made a wise decision.

"We promise we won't let you down," he said.

Tom Langhorne can be reached at 562-7221 or at tom.langhorne@shj.com.

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