Interstate access has long been viewed as an asset for Orangeburg County, providing a location especially attractive to businesses that depend on transportation.
The South Carolina World Trade Center wants to take advantage of the location by working with South Carolina State University and Orangeburg County to develop a multicomplex distribution, education, business and retail center.
The three announced Thursday the launch of a study to determine the feasibility of developing a World Trade Park and Education and Research Center.
The six-month, $97,500 study will identify the various economic markets that would prove attractive to potential investors and define the attributes of the county that could prove attractive to prospective investors.
The study will include a financial and economic impact analysis of the area and aim to provide officials insight into how to organize and manage resources to realize the local potential. It will also include a strategic plan.
Orangeburg County and S.C. State will share the cost of the study, with the SCWTC providing additional funding. No specific parcel of property has been identified for the park.
The study will be conducted by Virginia-based ANGLE Technology Group, an international management and consulting company with a focus on technology commercialization and economic development.
"We first are taking an inventory of the strengths of the county," said Robert Rea, senior executive of ANGLE Technology.
He spoke to the feasibility study steering committee gathered during the Thursday press conference at S.C. State. The committee consists of Orangeburg County educational, business, economic development and city leaders. The group will meet periodically throughout the study process to review and receive updates on its progress.
Rea said the county has some obvious strengths: a transportation system with two interstate highways, proximity to the Charleston port, two rail lines and educational institutions.
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"We anticipate that there will be pressure on industry and pressure on the port," Rea said.
Rea said the study will provide the county with needed data, an economic impact assessment and a financial model to gauge various economic scenarios. The study will also be used as a resource in the county's discussions with private investors.
ANGLE Technology has worked on feasibility studies for various research parks and business incubators, including the 350-acre Qatar Science and Technology Park in Qatar. The company is also working to conduct a feasibility study with Norfolk State University for a research park.
County officials say the project would complement other projects ongoing in Orangeburg County, such World Trade City Orangeburg LLC and Jafza International. The companies have announced plans to build logistics hubs with a combined investment of about $1.7 billion and upward of 11,000 jobs on about 2,500 acres of eastern Orangeburg County land.
Thursday's launch of the feasibility study is the latest step in a project SCSU and SCWTC have been working on for at least the past five years.
The two entities in 2003 voted to pursue a partnership and, in January 2006, officially approved entering into an agreement of collaboration.
Projections then called for the project to be a $400 million, 3,000-acre World Trade Park and Education Research Center. University officials say those projections are just that: projections and goals. An initial location was selected near the intersection of Interstate 26 and Interstate 95.
But over the past two years, the project had become stagnant as various players in the initial discussions became involved with other obligations.
SCSU officials envision the PERC to have three major components:
* A product distribution center that could possibly include a technological student laboratory and manufacturing/distribution complex for commodities imported and exported through the World Trade Park.
* An Education, Training, Research and Business Development Center that would link the high schools and, eventually, the post-secondary World Trade Career Pathways Program to real-life experiences, provide teacher training in global economy issues and business development, and serve as an incubator for new and aspiring entrepreneurs.
* An outlet mall and retail business center that would house and support various retailers recruited and/or grown out of cooperative entrepreneurial efforts of the students and participants from the education center. The goal is to see major retail outlets recruited to mix with new businesses, which will bring an international flavor to the new commodities manufactured and distributed by the students of the education center.
Anticipated businesses could include restaurants, office buildings, hotels and golf courses.
SCSU's role would be to conduct research in areas such as supply-chain management, use of technology for distribution and efficiency, as well as testing new products distributed from foreign companies.
A Logistics Transportation Center would be the "intermodal division" of the proposed $70 million, 475,550-square-foot James E. Clyburn Transportation Research and Conference Center.
That would resemble the I-CAR public-private partnership in which Clemson University situated its School of Engineering at the BMW production facility, some 50 miles away from its main campus.
S.C. State University Interim President Leonard A. McIntyre expressed the university's assistance in working with the PERC project.
"South Carolina State is one of the top employers ... we make a significant contribution to the economy in our county as well as in our state," McIntyre said. "We know that working together we can make an even greater contribution to economic development in the region and beyond."
McIntyre said the project falls in with the university's mission of teaching, service and research.
"We believe in the mission of the World Trade Park and the Education Research Center," he said. "We are committed to this project and we will do all we can to ensure its success."
Leola Adams, SCSU interim vice president for research and economic development, said the project will provide students opportunities upon graduation.
"We know that economic development will serve our citizenry extremely well," she said, noting the college currently has a master's of science in transportation. "This university is one of the vehicles to which economic development will grow. By growing it locally we grow it statewide and then our contributions will take us beyond the state of South Carolina."
Orangeburg County Administrator Bill Clark ide.jpgied the project as a key in positioning the county for the state's "economic boom."
"This feasibility study is a continuation of the strides that we are making in the county," Clark said. "This launch will have a significant impact on trade and transportation in our state and nation, while bringing high paying jobs and increased opportunities for our local residents."
Belinda Davis, executive director of the S.C. World Trade Center, said the group has three foundational pillars: trade services, innovation and education.
"The WT-PERC is touching everyone of those underpinnings," she said.
The SCWTC is a non-profit, non-governmental, licensed affiliate of the World Trade Centers Association.
There are 289 World Trade Center Association affiliates in 90 countries -- in cities as far flung as Auckland and Ankara, Beijing and Boston, Sofia and Sao Paulo, Havana and Helsinki.
Working together, they serve more than 750,000 companies, providing one-stop access to business and governmental agencies involved in international trade.
T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com and 803-533-5551. Comment on this and other stories at www.TheTandD.com.