Step closer on auto park

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums

of Greenville County auto park. Upstate

residents will benefit through

high-paying jobs and brighter future.

Some good news, finally, for Upstate residents eager to see high-paying jobs coming to this area instead of plants closing their doors and area residents joining the unemployment rolls. Gov. Mark Sanford, state Commerce Secretary Bob Faith and Clemson trustee Bill Smith announced Wednesday that the contracts had been signed for the land component of the automotive research park in Greenville County.

It is difficult to understate the potential for the automotive research park. If it comes close to its billing, it will add thousands of high-paying, knowledge-based jobs to this area. It will pump millions of dollars into the state's economy and a considerable amount into the coffers of the state and Upstate counties.

The research park will make this region — already home to BMW and Michelin — a recognized world leader in the automotive industry. Clemson's graduate school of automotive research — the foundation for this research park — will ensure that this area is what Smith called "the design and research capital of the Sunbelt." BMW is a major corporate backer of Clemson's graduate school.

Many details must be filled in. Sanford and Faith said other announcements could come by early November concerning the broader vision and anchor tenants for this research park that will, as Greenville Mayor Knox White told The Greenville News, "change the whole complexion of Greenville" in a "short order of time."

Greenville County, once recognized as the "Textile Capital of the World," has ensured its economic vitality by working mightily to adapt to a changing world. For generations, this community's business leadership has tried to anticipate what's around the next curve in the road.

That vigorous leadership, from both business and local government, helped keep plans for this research park front and center on the agenda of the state's new governor. Just days after moving into the governor's office, Sanford alerted local officials in January that he wanted time to review the project that had on it the fingerprints of Gov. Jim Hodges, who had lost his job to Sanford just two months earlier.

As Sanford said Wednesday, in acknowledging he had been hurt politically by holding up the project, "This isn't a community that rolls over."

The changes that Sanford, Faith and Smith were able to negotiate in the deal with Miami developer Cliff Rosen surely enhanced the benefits that the state, and that includes Clemson, will realize. It should not be forgotten, however, that local leaders willingly acknowledged as early as January that the deal needed to be restructured.

In concrete terms, the renegotiated deal gives the state about an $11 million benefit by changing the development fee and about a $12 million benefit by renegotiating the costs of the first 100 acres of property that Clemson will own. In addition, Clemson will have an option on another 150 acres, and that brings with it a potential $111 million in added value.

The renegotiated deal also gives Clemson, instead of the developer, control over the use of Clemson's name and other images, and it adds architectural guidelines that restrict how the buildings and grounds must look throughout the development.

The automotive research park will go on a 407-acre site at Interstate 85 and Laurens Road that has been annexed into the City of Greenville. The property belonged to the late textile giant John D. Hollingsworth, who left his estate in a trust to be used for the benefit of Furman University, the Greenville YMCA and other local charities.

More good news is promised next month about the automotive research park. What took place this week is of consequence, however. The contracts have been signed for the land component, and that is necessary for anything else to happen.

South Carolina is a relatively poor state that has suffered disproportionately in recent months as manufacturing and textile jobs have disappeared. As Sanford has said before, our state must "grow" its way out of its poor economic standing. The Upstate automotive research park illustrates, once again, the importance of public-private partnerships in creating local jobs and helping area residents improve their lives.