There’s no doubt South Carolina has become a leading state in the rise again of domestic U.S. manufacturing. The Port of Charleston has played a huge role in the growth of manufacturing, distribution and the overall supplychain. Their Inland Port of Greer essentially extendes the Port of Charleston all the way out to the Upstate. The location of the Upstate being 90 minutes to Charlotte and 2.5 hours to Atlanta makes it a terrific location for all kinds of manufacturers who need to ship product throughout the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. The Upstate Business Journal has an excellent update on the state of industrial real estate here in Greenville. Be sure to read it.
Greenville County boasts more than 600 manufactures have operations here. That’s impressive and it only continues to grow. Greenville County is the largest county in the state of South Carolina with a current population of 514,000. Greenville County is expected to grow by 222,000 people and 86,000 jobs by 2040 as the trend across the America is for people to leave blue states for red states. It’s no wonder companies continue to expand operations here in the Upstate and specifically Greenville County.
Recently I spoke with a business owner who had been operating out of Florida. He was looking for new space for a distribution center in the Southeast. Atlanta was too big, too crowded and very expensive. Charlotte was also very expensive. Someone had told him to check out Greenville, SC and he was pleasantly surprised. He had never heard of it before but it had the infrastructure, access, ease of distribution and transportation – trucking, rail and air cargo with GSP International – and the prices were much, much better here for buildings. So he built a $2.5 million office warehouse here in Greenville.
There are many knowledgeable industrial and commercial real estate brokers in Greenville that can help you with that decision. The Greenville Area Development Corp. is also a very helpful organization for companies evaluating the Upstate.
I think we can mark Greenville County as one of the beneficiaries of the changes sweeping across the country given the Covid-19 pandemic.
Greenville County saw a record capital investment commitment of $631 million in 2020 according to the Greenville Area Development Corporation (GADC). This blew away the previous record of $476 million in 2014. The investment is coming from a broad range of companies in various industries. The biggest investments are coming from manufacturing and distribution which remains huge here in the Upstate. But we are also seeing other investments starting to percolate from other industries such as information technology.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Greenville, SC is going to be hitting a lot of peoples’ radars over the next decade. It certainly has come a long way but it’s time to shine is here.
I know people get tired of growth of Greenville, but you are either growing or dying. You can’t have it both ways. Greenville stands to benefit both in terms of manufacturing growth but also in the transition to work from home (WFH). The area is beautiful. The weather is better than much of the rest of the U.S. Cost of living is still relatively low and there are lots of amenities…shopping, the arts, sports etc. I think the schools are still seen as a bit of a weakness but they are working on that. There are plenty of private school options in the area as well. Living here so close to the mountains and just 3.5 hours drive to the beach…it’s just a great place to be…and many others are coming to find that as well.
If you’re thinking of moving here, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be happy to talk. If you want to look for homes, please check out my site at GVLHomesandLand. — John Murphy, Broker Associate, eXp Realty 864-276-1448.
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