Greenville, South Carolina: Business Climate Strong, Job Market Growing

GREENVILLE, S.C., April 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greenville Area Development Corporation  announced today that 2010 had been another exceptionally strong year for job growth, capital investment, tax revenue generation and private sector support, with hundreds of  millions of dollars invested, thousands of new jobs created, and a 7-to-1 return on investment during the economic development organization's inaugural decade.

In reporting to a record-setting attendance of private and public sector leaders, Board Chair Jo Watson Hackl noted that in 2010 the GADC worked with nearly two dozen relocating and existing companies to create 2,083 new jobs and attract new capital investment of $251.9 million. Since inception in mid-2001, the GADC has announced in excess of 12,000 new jobs and $2.3 billion in capital investment in the county for projects they have managed.

Greenville County revenues from fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreements generated by GADC-assisted companies continued to grow, with GADC President & CEO Jerry Howard noting that such revenues were cumulatively producing a 7:1 return on investment for public dollars invested in the organization since the GADC's inception.

Robert M. (Bobby) Hitt III, the recently appointed Secretary of the South Carolina Department of Commerce, saluted the historical job- and investment-producing accomplishments of the GADC and its partners in economic development, and promised a "vigorous effort at the state level to help create even more good jobs and a brighter future for South Carolina."

CEO Howard and Board Chair Hackl also honored Nancy Whitworth, economic development director for the City of Greenville, SC with the organization's annual William D. Workman III Award, presented since 2004 to an individual or organization who is a champion of economic development, and a standard bearer for public/private collaboration in marketing the community.

Ms. Whitworth currently oversees, promotes and supports business recruitment and retention initiatives, downtown development and revitalization of commercial areas and neighborhoods for The City of Greenville, and has assisted the GADC in dozens of significant economic development projects including the recruitment of Southwest Airlines, Lab21, Proterra, Sage Automotive Interiors and more.

"Ms. Whitworth has gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping ensure that positive economic growth – and the good jobs and millions of dollars in economic contribution and taxes that go with them – are situated in Greenville," said Howard.

For more information, visit www.GoGADC.com.

CONTACT: Sam Patrick, +1-864-787-0820, [email protected]

SOURCE Greenville Area Development Corporation