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Article published Apr 14, 2004
Fewer jobs created in 2003

Amanda Ridley
Business Writer

After a decade as one of the state's economic development leaders, Spartanburg County saw its capital investment and job creation tumble in 2003.According to figures from the S.C. Department of Commerce, Spartanburg County ranked 21st out of the state's 46 counties with 77 new jobs created last year and fifth with $80 million in capital investment.Cherokee County had 160 jobs created with $31.9 million in capital investment, while Union County had no jobs created and no capital investments in 2003.The commerce department attributes part of the state's overall drop to changes in accounting. This year, the department reported only new investment or job creation that commerce officials played a role in.But Spartanburg County, which has enjoyed announcements by BMW and many of its suppliers in the past decade, experienced a fall that was more devastating than that of neighboring Greenville County, which ranked third in job creation with 620 and first with $250 million in capital investment."Both counties are very focused and developed in their economic programs, and both have professional staffs who know how the process works and how to be successful in good and bad economic times," said David Swenson, executive director of the Greer Development Corp., who works with both Greenville and Spartanburg counties."But where you see the differences is that Spartanburg County has more textile-related and blue-collar type jobs that have been hit."Officials said Spartanburg County lacked the expansion announcements of other counties because ofits dependence on the struggling textile industry.And while Spartanburg County has been hurt by the loss of textiles, Swenson said Greenville County has had robust commercial and residential growth because of a more diversified economy, which included last year's $50 million expansion announcement at Ahold Information Services.Diversifying Spartanburg County's economy is a major component of the two-year old Spartanburg County Economic Development Corp.David Britt, chairman of Spartanburg County Councils' economic development committee, said the group was spun off of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce at a time when leads for new investment were falling."Spartanburg County has always been in the top three in the past -- and part of that success is attributed to BMW and the spin-off because of it -- but we knew that we couldn't rely on BMW or textiles," he said."We saw this coming and have been working to plant the seeds. We will benefit from that in the short-term and long-term."Britt said that Spartanburg and Greenville counties don't need to compete for investment, but work together as a region to attract interest.The Upstate Alliance, which markets 10 Upstate counties, is trying to do just that. That region accounted for 23 percent of the state's 8,795 jobs created and 52 percent of the $1.1 billion in capital investment.Sam Konduros, president and chief executive officer of the Upstate Alliance, said a combination of the International Center for Automotive Research, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, BMW and Spartanburg's downtown renaissance will help recruit new businesses to the Upstate and Spartanburg County."The stronger the county, the more Upstate Alliance can help," he said.Konduros said Spartanburg County, like many others, has had challenges."And collectively we realized challenges make you better than you were before," he said."Rather than sharpen old tools, we had to develop new tools and approaches to economic development."Konduros said better news was on the horizon.At the end of last month, the Upstate Alliance had 119 prospective leads – up from the 47 of February 2003, Konduros said."We will soon see an upsurge in announcements in Spartanburg County and in the Upstate," he said."Projects that were off on the sidelines or put on the shelves or delayed are now moving in a new direction."Amanda Ridley can be reached at 562-7270 or amanda.ridley@shj.com.