Municipalities often differ in terms of how economic development efforts are structured within, or outside of, their organizations, but one common theme is that for a state growing as fast as South Carolina has grown, economic development is not simply an afterthought. It is a critical arm and function of growth to strategic planning for long-term sustainability.
Two cities revolutionizing how they prioritize economic development are the City of Greenville, with its own nonprofit organization, the Greenville City Economic Development Corporation, and the nearby City of Mauldin, which handles its economic development projects internally through its Business and Services Development Department.
“I’ve been with the City of Mauldin over nine years now and [the department] has been here for at least that long,” said David Dyrhaug, Director of Business & Development, who has served in the Business and Services Development Department for the last seven. “Economic development in the city has been handled in various ways over the years. When I first came to the city, I was part of a two-man team housed under Administration,” he said.
The city later restructured how it handled economic activities.
“Today, the city administrator [Seth Duncan] and I work together on leading the city’s economic development efforts and initiatives.”
Although economic development has always been a function of the local government, as Mauldin continues to experience unprecedented growth, major projects like BridgeWay Station and GE Vernova Park soccer stadium, as well as smaller-scale commercial projects, continue to support that growth, keeping economic development at the forefront.
“One of our top priorities continues to be redevelopment in the center of town. We have identified an area known as City Center. It’s been moving forward a piece at a time,” Dyrhaug said. “We still have large pieces that we are focused on moving forward in the City Center.”
He highlighted some recent projects, including the Bohemian Bull restaurant, The Pickle Yard, Maverick Yard townhomes and Summer Moon Coffee.
“There are still other properties in and around that area that we’re trying to help move forward towards redevelopment. This has been one of our top focuses recently,” he said.
In other developments, Dyrhaug explained that residential endeavors gave way to more commercial projects.
“That’s the one thing that we’ve been open to over the last decade — helping to bring more residential communities to the city. We’ve had a lot of success with that, and in turn, been seeing some of the commercial opportunities follow, which we are grateful for,” he said. “Our shift has certainly focused on more lately the commercial opportunities and development over the residential. The commercial has certainly come as a result of the residential growth we’ve experienced.”
As for large-scale commercial and mixed-use development, Mauldin’s large-scale BridgeWay Station project is the pièce de résistance.
“I have been fortunate to be here for the life of [BridgeWay Station],” Dyrhaug said. “The vision for this land evolved over decades. Around the time I came to the city, the owner of this land had a new vision for his property and how to develop it. I got to come on board and be part of the team to offer solutions to help the owner’s vision become a reality; we have put in place particular economic development tools, including establishing a multi-county industrial park development.”
Some of the assistance has involved regulatory changes to make the project possible.
“I think one of the things we’ve done here, largely over the last 10 years, is move our culture to be more solution oriented, get to ‘yes,’ and help development projects succeed. That certainly has played a role in helping BridgeWay Station come about,” he said. “All that to say that I can’t minimize the great vision and capacity that the owner of that property has had to make that project come to be and come alive – Hughes Investments, led by Mr. Phil Hughes, has certainly been one of the most instrumental figures in moving that project forward.”
In terms of economic development on a day-to-day basis, Dyrhaug explained that his role functions more as an orchestrator of projects.
“I see everything that I do as an important piece that contributes to economic development largely as it is about the culture that we have established in our department, as well as the relationships that we formed with different people inside — and outside — of our community,” he said. “Whether it is direct or indirect, everything I do has some impact and plays a role in the economic development that we experience in the City.”
Also in the Upstate, the City of Greenville formed its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, the Greenville City Economic Development Corporation, to support its economic development initiatives.
“About three years ago, our city council got really serious — along with the mayor and the city manager’s support — in saying that Greenville is going through unprecedented growth and we want to approach economic development differently and more innovatively, in a less traditional way,” said Sam Konduros, President & CEO of the Greenville City EDC.
With more than 30 years of experience in the private sector, and with a background in real estate development, project management and international business consulting, Konduros, who also holds a law degree, has a more corporation-minded approach to spearheading the nonprofit he leads along with nine directors. He recently marked his two-year anniversary with the EDC.
“We don’t consider ourselves a traditional city; we try to be very leading edge and I think they wanted an economic development machine, you could call it, that could reflect the growing sophistication of the city, and the different needs that we have,” he said.
Konduros added that the city is pursuing more tech-driven entities which will further fuel its economic development.
“I think it’s fair to say, a city like Greenville is now really pursuing what we would call more ‘next-generation, tech-based’ economic development — it is more urban, it is denser, it is more complex. It is literally more vertical in a smaller but denser core footprint, and it means that we work a wide variety of projects,” he said,
The various business segments could range from the likes of corporate headquarters on a global, national or regional, to financial services, technology and research and development. Life sciences and healthcare innovation have also become major areas of emphasis, Konduros said.
In addition to tech and advanced manufacturing, he said that the city is simultaneously emphasizing intentional placemaking.
“So that’s one side of it, but then there’s this other half for us, which is all tied to intentional placemaking in a city like Greenville that has a mayor, [Knox White,] who is iconic — 30-plus years in — who’s been the visionary behind a lot of major projects, supported by an equally ambitious city council. We have a city manager, [Shannon Lavrin,] who is an urban planner, which is really unique and cool. She has a lot of expertise and really cares about the aesthetics of the city, and that translates to our approach to economic development,” he said.
Greenville places a deliberate focus on how people experience it, Konduros said.
“We think that the experiential side of Greenville — whether you’re a visitor, a resident, there on business, or whatever — has a lot to do with the allure of our city; how people feel when they’re walking up and down the streets of the city and the cityscape — all those things matter a lot,” he said.
Intentional placemaking coupled with more tech-based recruitment is ushering in a new wave of development for this city.
“From one end of the spectrum, it could be large corporate headquarters, to the other end of the spectrum, a major mixed-use real estate development, but this goes all the way granular, to a retailer on Main Street. We even engaged a professional retail consultant to work with our team because we are always cognizant about the importance of curating high-quality retail in our central business district as well as on our corridors, that give the city the kind of vibrancy that you want,” he said.
From plans for a Falls Park Conference District to upgrades of the Bon Secours Wellness Arena to a major renovation of its City Hall, Greenville has not shied away from development, large or small. All of the efforts, however, stem from the visionary GVL2040 strategic plan and its seven core pillars, which Konduros says acts like a guiding ‘North Star’ for the city.
“This plays back directly into why the Greenville City EDC was formed,” he said. “It was recognized [by council] that business, industry, and economic development have always been Greenville’s ‘special sauce,’ our DNA, the way public-private partnerships work, so before I was hired and before I was recruited, the city wanted to make sure that the strategic plan for economic development was created.”
South Carolina is growing, and the new opportunities rising up have many municipalities thinking creatively of how to reposition their economic development functions in order to maximize opportunities, both large and small.