Competitive Assets

jump to: Workforce/Education | Strengths of Economic Base | Business Climate and Costs
Climate of Entrepreneurship | Infrastructure | Workforce | Business Diversity

Workforce/Education:

  • Steady flow of trained and experienced transitioning military personnel and spouses readily available in the Region
  • University of South Carolina at Beaufort (USC-B)
  • Collaborative Pipeline Programs linking K-12, Technical College of the Lowcountry and USC-B
  • Strong Technical College of the Lowcountry
  • Popular destination for skilled and experienced retirees
  • Community recruitment victory of the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Hilton Head Gateway Campus, South Carolina’s newest 4-year college
  • Early college and career programs

Strengths of Economic Base:

  • Locational proximity between two major ports in Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA
  • Desirable and convenient geographic location
  • Located within the Aerospace Corridor of the southeast
  • Strong base of healthcare and hospitality industries
  • A growing diversity of new business startups
  • Community of defense contracting businesses
  • Executives attracted to Lowcountry environment and lifestyle
  • 3 military installations including the Marine Corps Air Station with the addition of F-35 operations and training facilities
  • Strong available transitioning military workforce

Business Climate and Costs:

  • Positive real estate market
  • Affordable cost of physical infrastructure, property and utilities
  • Investments being made in developing industrial parks, larger scale business parks, and distribution facilities in the region
  • Attractive property tax incentives
  • Assistance available for job training

Climate of Entrepreneurship:

Infrastructure:

  • Direct interstate connections between the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport and the Port of Savannah and outward to major US markets via Interstate 95 and US Highway 17
  • Advantageous position between two major US ports, Savannah and Charleston
  • For the SCDOC Buildings and Sites Locator, Click Here
  • Business parks and industrial sites convenient and affordable
  • Major logistics and warehousing potential
  • Utility services ample to meet strong future growth needs

Workforce:

  • Our labor market offers young, energetic and talented individuals with a diverse range of skills and training
  • Talent pool of nearby Savannah holds potential for even broader range of options
  • Transitioning military personnel offer highly-trained specialized skills in aircraft maintenance and repair, and logistics
  • More specialized needs can be met through training programs at ReadySC, South Carolina’s premiere employment training resource

Business Diversity:

Looking around corners. Diversity creates stability. Cultivating a diverse mix of businesses will lead to more stable long-term growth and ensure that our local economies won’t be limited to the fortunes of only one or two particular industries. The purpose of our alliance is to improve, diversify and strengthen the Lowcountry economy while respecting our unique culture and environment.

Our economic heroes: Keystone Employers. We champion the types of businesses that export goods and services outside of the local economy while providing better jobs and benefiting our existing local business such as construction, healthcare and independent retail. The kinds of Keystone Employers ideally suited to the Lowcountry are light manufacturing and assembly, technology, back office operations, aeronautics, logistics and distribution, knowledge-intensive and green industry.

We promise to do our part. We actively work for pro-business economic development policies, infrastructure improvements and workforce development. We work to maintain business-friendly regulations and tax policies, while also protecting our environment and preserving the unique lifestyle. And we work specifically for you, the business community, to make your decision process as streamlined as possible.