Fall 2006

QUIZ

Who said this? "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a progress. Working together is success."

(a) Sir Richard Branson (b) Warren Buffett (c) Henry Ford (d) Walt Disney (e) Andrew Carnegie (f) Winston Churchill (g) Jimmy Carter (h) Azim Premji (i) Fidel Castro (j) Vince Lombardi (k) John Rockefeller (l) Rosa Parks (m) Rupert Murdoch (n) Ted Turner (o) Mohamed Al-Fayed (p) Li Ka Shing (q) Mary Kay Ash (r) Steve Jobs (s) Ray Kroc (t) Ralph Waldo Emerson (u) Malcolm Forbes (v) Hugh Hefner (w) Oprah Winfrey (x) Muhammad Yunas (y) Muhammad Ali (z) Zig Ziglar

(Scroll down for answer)

Atlanta Leading Nation in Attracting Young Professionals?

According to a study done by Oregon-based economist Joe Cortright, Atlanta led the nation in the attraction of highly educated, 25 to 34-year olds between 1990 and 2000. The study, released by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce late in the fall 2006 quarter, showed that from 1990 to 2000, metro Atlanta's young adult population increased 46 percent, faster than any other major market in the U.S. More young professionals who relocated to Atlanta between 1990 and 2000 came from New York City, with Chicago, Los Angeles, the D.C. region and Miami contributing significantly as well. Our question about the report is why are we studying numbers from 1990 to 2000 and releasing them in late 2006? The year 2000 was the final year of an economy that had expanded for seven straight years. The economy hasn't been the same since and that particularly is true with Atlanta's economy. Note to Metro Atlanta Chamber officials: The next time you tout any part of your economic success, please use data that is even somewhat current. Economic conditions today have absolutely no relationship with economic conditions during the last decade.

We Were Wrong -- Dell Ahead of Schedule in Winston-Salem

Much was written about Dell's incentive package provided by North Carolina and locals in the Piedmont Triad region of the Tar Heel State two years ago. If you "Google" us, you'll find a story where we wrote "North Carolina Paid Too Much for Dell." Rarely, if ever (I think the Dell deal was the first and only) have we written that any state has paid "too much" for a big deal in the South. In fact, we've been accused of being "fiscal liberals" by conservative economic think tanks more times than we can remember because of our staunch support of financial incentives to locate industry to the South. Our opinion on that practice hasn't changed. It was refreshing to learn in the fall quarter that Dell's employment at its plant in Winston-Salem is ahead of schedule. Dell promised the state and locals in Winston-Salem it would employ 750 workers by the end of 2006. As of this writing, (12/13/06), Dell now has 1,178 workers on its payroll at its new plant in Winston-Salem. Good for them, and in the future we will try to make sure we don't forget and continue to practice what we preach.

Four of Five Southern States Make Top Five List for Best Locations

Site Selection magazine has once again named North Carolina the No. 1 state in the U.S. as the best state for operating a business. The ranking came out in the fall quarter. Following the Tar Heel State was Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee.

Florida Only Southern State to Break Top Five in Tax Environment Ranking

Only one state in the South made it onto the annual top five ranking done by Washington-D.C.-based non-profit, The Tax Foundation. The list is headed by Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, Nevada and Florida.

Samsung Breaks Ground in Austin

One of the most impressive deals turned this year was Samsung's new, $200 million, 300mm chip plant in Austin, Tex. That facility, being built next to an existing Samsung facility, broke ground in the fall quarter. The project, once completed, is expected to have an economic effect on the Austin region of over $3 billion a year.

Big Deal in Tampa Bay

Jabil Circuit is building a new 2 million-square-foot corporate headquarters campus in St. Petersburg on Interstate 275 near Gandy Boulevard. The project will includes both manufacturing and office uses. Also in the fall quarter, Jabil announced an $881 million acquisition, purchasing Taiwan Green Point Enterprises, which, naturally is based in Taiwan.

Labor Loosening Up in the South. South Carolina, Mississippi Continue Higher than Normal Unemployment Rates

One of the South's most notable business recruitment issues over the last two years has been its lack of labor availability. Recent figures show that labor availability in the region is loosening up as the region for the first time in a while has a higher unemployment rate than the U.S. as a whole. At the beginning of the fall quarter, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.48 percent and the South's unemployment rate was 4.65 percent.

South Carolina and Mississippi continue to have higher than normal unemployment rates, while seven states in the South were below the nation's rate and 10 states have unemployment rates higher than the nation's average in the period examined here. Mississippi's unemployment rates have been affected, as they have been for decades, by the poverty that exists in the Mississippi Delta (see item about the Delta in this section) and in part still by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. We have been perplexed for some time now as to why South Carolina's unemployment rate remains so high.

Unemployment Rates in the South

* October 2006

Water Shortages Spilling Out

Officials in Atlanta, several markets in Texas, and especially South Florida, are realizing that the availability of fresh water to sustain future growth is not only a problem, it is getting to be a dire situation. In South Florida, a $1.8 billion dollar effort to restore the Florida Everglades in underway. The plan includes restoring the underground Biscayne Aquifer, which has reached its capacity and constructing large reservoirs in an effort to retain fresh water. The aquifer has been the primary source of fresh water in South Florida, including Palm Beach, Dade and Broward counties, for decades. 

New Megasite Available in South Carolina

In the fall quarter, officials representing Clarendon, Lee and Sumter counties, gathered in a soybean field adjacent to S.C. Highway 527 nearby busy Interstate 95, to celebrate the groundbreaking of the "I-95 Megasite," a 1,263-acre joint industrial park shared by the three rural South Carolina counties. The new I-95 Megasite is the third supersite identified and certified in the Palmetto State.

Editorial

"Smokestacks" is a Word Consultants Need to Remove from Their Vocabulary

I read recently where a report, prepared by a Texas-based economic development consulting firm, paid for by economic development officials in the Jacksonville, Fla., region, revealed that the Northeast Florida market cannot maintain its focus on "smokestack chasing." I guess "smokestack," means manufacturing-based industries.

Let's get real here folks. Jacksonville is not a "manufacturing" market and never has been. Why then would a consultant advise that the market should quit trying to recruit "smokestack" industries? Sure, Jacksonville has flirted with the automotive industry as well as aerospace and aviation by trying to land a big manufacturing deal at the former Naval base that is Cecil Field.

Yet, Jacksonville has been incredibly successful in the last 15 years at growing and recruiting its financial services base, its distribution sector and has landed some impressive corporate headquarter relocations of late. The services sector has always been at the center of Jacksonville's economy. Why then, would a consultant recommend to officials in Northeast Florida to eliminate "smokestacks" from its recruitment list? I could tell officials in JAX that's not an industry they should focus on and I'd do it free of charge.

While the consultant may not know what a "smokestack" is, nor those officials in Jacksonville, I know smokestacks. When I was 17 years old (1973), I was a senior on the Mountain Brook High School baseball team, a school here in the Birmingham area. We were playing a game in the Ensley area of the city and the game began at 3:30 PM.

In about the fifth inning, I was standing there on the field at the shortstop position and I was looking towards the batter and the plate, which was directly to the west and the setting sun. Over the trees, I noticed a huge black and orange-colored cloud slowly emerging above the trees.

The cloud was not weather related. U.S. Steel's Ensley Works, which was located about two-miles west of the baseball field, had just opened up their numerous "smokestacks."  The massive cloud of soot, debris and whatever, enveloped the entire field and miles beyond not 2,000 feet above it. While the sun had not yet set, the lights at the field were turned on so we could see to continue to play the game. I noticed, because of the cloud, the sun had disappeared from view.

Birmingham is no longer a "smokestack" town, unless you include the automotive industry in that category. I must say, when I drive by the Mercedes facility located nearby, the Honda facility or any new manufacturing facility here in my town, there is no "smoke" coming from their "stacks." Birmingham was a "smokestack" city when I was growing up. It no longer is and Jacksonville has never been one and never will be.

That being the case, if you are a manufacturer, be aware of markets that have been advised to eliminate "smokestacks" from their recruitment list. 'Cause true smokestacks don't really exist here like they did when I was growing up, unless you count barbeque joints. The Environmental Protection Agency has taken care of that. The term "smokestack" has become a stereotype with consultants and is used to profit from not only the economic development groups themselves, but from their board of directors. That stereotype must be eliminated and exposed as such. That being the case, it's my opinion that the term "smokestacks" should be eliminated from the vocabulary of anyone who is advising the very people who are trying to recruit your industry to the South. 

Mike Randle
mike@sb-d.com

Help Coming to Mississippi's Delta Region

The South is a dynamic place. It is responsible for 40 percent of the nation's GDP and it's population is equal to that of the Midwest and Northeast combined. The American South drives this country economically and it will remain that way for decades to come.

Yet, all economic problems are not solved here. There's much more work to be done to lift up areas of many of the South's rural regions. One of those places is the Mississippi Delta. The Delta is not just located in Mississippi. The Delta includes parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi.

In an unprecedented move, the federal Department of Health and Human Services has awarded the Delta Council, an 18-county economic development agency based in Northwest Mississippi, $25 million a year for five years. The money will be used for a variety of purposes, including healthcare, economic development and education in Northwest Mississippi. The Delta Council was organized in 1935.

Incredible Supersite Still Available Near Charlotte in Chester County, S.C.

Here at SB&D, we love to walk the land that may end up being a place where tens of millions of dollars will eventually be paid out in salaries and hourly wages to Southerners in need of jobs. That's particularly true in the rural South. I remember a local economic developer who showed me his primary site and it was 80 acres adjacent to this little county airport and he told me, "We'll run sewer over there and water if we can get a prospect to look at it." I told him, "Good luck," and walked back to the car.

There remains an incredible megasite in Chester County, not 30 minutes from uptown Charlotte, that is one of the best large sites I've seen of late. Is it the best site I've seen? No, but it is very impressive. It was impressive enough for Carlos Ghosn, chairman of Nissan and Renault to visit it himself personally in the late 1990s before Nissan chose a site north of Jackson, Miss., for its latest Southern Automotive Corridor plant. The site is owned by L&C Railway, encompasses 1,500 acres and is located in Chester County, S.C. Check it out for yourself by going to the Charlotte Regional Partnership's Web site.

mike@sb-d.com

New Florida Panhandle Airport Gets FAA Approval

After years of planning, the relocation of the Panama City/Bay County International Airport was approved by the FAA on September 15. The new airport will be built in West Bay and represents one of the most significant economic development projects in the history of northwest Florida. 

QUIZ ANSWER

Henry Ford (c).