Report says young workers flocking to Spartanburg

By Adam Orr
Staff Writer

Two years into a five-year mission and Spartanburg leaders are already touting the payoffs of the OneSpartanburg plan and promising plenty more to come.

Chief among them? Millennials — which includes workers between 25-34-years-old — are flocking to Spartanburg, according to the group, surging by nearly 18 percent over the past five years.

That’s good enough to rank 8th nationally among small metro areas, according to OneSpartanburg.

It’s a data point Allen Smith was keen to highlight Tuesday, as the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce president and CEO detailed OneSpartanburg’s second year scorecard at the University of South Carolina Upstate’s Sansbury Campus Life Center.

“In just two short years we’ve made tremendous progress on all fronts,” Smith said Tuesday. “The issues identified in this plan, if addressed, will position Spartanburg for economic prosperity and I think you’re already seeing that.”

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Bristol Virginia Council Receives Update on Visioning Process

By David McGee, Bristol Herald Courier

BRISTOL, Va. - City leaders received an update on the new Bristol 2040 visioning process unveiled last month by the Bristol Chamber of Commerce.

Alex Pearlstein, vice president of projects for Market Street Services, the Atlanta-based consulting firm managing the project, described the group’s initial steps in developing a long-term vision for both the Twin City and its adjoining counties of Sullivan in Tennessee and Washington in Virginia.

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Bristol-focused economic initiative launches

By Leif Greiss | Bristol Herald Courier

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The Bristol Chamber of Commerce announced an initiative Monday to create a 25-year vision and action plan for the economic and community development of the Twin City.

The Bristol Chamber of Commerce and the Bristol2040 Steering Committee will embark on an eight-month process to create a long-term blueprint for what Bristol and surrounding Sullivan County, Tennessee, and Washington County, Virginia, can and should look a quarter of a century from now. The effort will be in consultation with Market Street Services, an Atlanta-based firm specializing in community and economic development.

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The Mystery of Amazon HQ2 Has Finalists Seeing Clues Everywhere

By Karen Weise

Over Labor Day weekend, a club promoter who goes by the name Purple posted a photo on Instagram from the LIV nightclub in Miami. In front of a wall graffitied with names and a single “Life Is Beautiful” sticker, Purple’s arm was casually draped over the shoulders of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon chief executive, whose pants matched the host’s name.

“It’s not every day you get to hang with the richest guy in the world,” Purple wrote on Instagram. “What a pleasure.”

But when The Miami Herald covered the celebrity spotting, its cares turned toward the practical: “Could this be good news for Miami’s HQ2 bid?”

Friday marks one year since Amazon announced its search for a second headquarters, a project called HQ2, which the company says will bring $5 billion in investment and 50,000 high-paying jobs to the area it chooses. With no city crowned yet, news outlets, politicians and communities around the country are left reading between the Instagram lines.

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Market Street executive: Wichita, region ahead of others on economic development

By Bryan Horwath 

The vice president of a consulting firm hired by the Greater Wichita Partnership likes to say that economic development plans need to be updated often in order for communities to stay up with their competition.

"Typically, we're talking about five-year strategies in terms of funding cycle and planning horizon," says Alex Pearlstein of Atlanta-based Market Street Services. "Because economies and communities change so much now, you kind of have to take a look every year at what you've done."

Pearlstein is in town this week to begin work to help move along economic development plans for the 10-county region that surrounds Wichita.

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GWP looks to Atlanta firm to help with regional development

By Bryan Horwath – Reporter, Wichita Business Journal

As the community’s appetite for growth becomes more and more obvious, the Greater Wichita Partnership is hoping for some clarity on what the area needs to move forward.

Last month, the publicly-supported regional economic development organization asked for and received $45,000 in additional funding from Sedgwick County to go toward the hiring of a firm to help it focus in on a long-term development plan. The partnership is also getting $45,000 from the city of Wichita.

Not all county commissioners thought giving additional taxpayer money to the partnership was a good move (Commissioner Richard Ranzau opposed the idea), but the additional funding was approved.

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Two-day planning session outlines a vision to move county forward

By Doug Ford

Repairing potholes and building bike trails shouldn’t be an “either or” proposition, and moving Halifax County forward while preserving what it already has was one point of discussion at a two-day planning session attended by the board of supervisors and other community leaders Tuesday and Wednesday at Southern Virginia Technology Park.

Supervisors, Halifax County Chamber of Commerce President Mitzi McCormick, Halifax County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Lineburg, SVHEC Executive Director Dr. Betty Adams, Halifax County IDA Executive Director Matt Leonard, HCSA Executive Director Mark Estes and Tom Raab and Carl Espy, town managers for the towns of South Boston and Halifax, respectively, discussed both attributes and challenges facing Halifax County and possible solutions moving forward as part of forming a vision for economic development and growth.

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