Economic Development Committee

TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT, SOUTH CAROLINA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Monday, May 3, 2021 Municipal Complex, Council Chambers 100 Ann Edwards Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 MINUTES Members Present: Kathy Landing, Chair; Laura Hyatt, and Tom O’Rourke Rick Crosby (MPW) was present via teleconference Staff Present: Eric DeMoura, Town Administrator; Christiane Farrell, Assistant Town Administrator; and Lauren Sims, Community and Government Affairs Chief 1. Call to order Ms. Landing called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. Approval of Minutes from the April 5, 2021 meeting Ms. Hyatt moved for approval; seconded by Mr. O’Rourke. All present voted in favor. 3. Public Comments Mayor Will Haynie thanked the Committee for the work they are doing. He would like to mention an email that was written after the agenda was published. He stated that the CRDA (Charleston Regional Development Alliance), has the One Region Committee that is working on a strategic plan for economic development and resilience based on what was learned from COVID-19. He said CRDA will be working on this between now and the end of the year. He will keep Council posted. Howard Chapman, stated that he would like to speak about his friend, who recently passed away. Kenneth Wayne Luther was a patriot and a true American. He spent 33 years in the National Guard, a number of years on the State Highway Patrol and was also a US Marshal at the Federal Courthouse downtown Charleston. He said Mr. Luther ran the Shrine Temple and then moved over to Blue’s, now known as True Blue’s with Debbie Lybrand. He said they were truly  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 2 of 12 Mount Pleasant entrepreneurs. He asked if his obituary could be placed in the official minutes. He would also like to speak about how the Mount Pleasant Police Department interfaced with the Charleston Police Department for the funeral procession from Stuhr’s Funeral Home on Mathis Ferry to Holy Cross Cemetery on James Island. He thanked both police departments. Kenneth Wayne Luther, 76, of Awendaw, South Carolina, entered into eternal rest Wednesday, April 28, 2021. His Funeral Service will be held Saturday, May 1, 2021 in J. Henry Stuhr Inc., Mount Pleasant Chapel, 1494 Mathis Ferry Road at 1:00 pm. Interment will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery, 604 Fort Johnson Rd, Charleston, SC. All Highway Patrol Officers and National Guardsmen in attendance are asked to serve as honorary pallbearers. The family will receive friends Friday, April 30, 2021 in Stuhr's Mount Pleasant Chapel from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Wayne was born January 15, 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina, son of the late Theodore R. Luther and Mary Glover Luther. He retired from the US Army National Guard after proudly serving for 33 years. He also retired from the SC State Highway Patrol and US Marshal's Service. He was a member of the Omar Shrine Center, Mason Lodge #396, Washington Light Infantry, and Sumter Guard. He was a life member of the Marion Marauders Society. Wayne will be truly missed by everyone. His family and all who knew him will cherish his memory. He will never be forgotten. He is survived by his son, Kenneth Wayne Luther, Jr. (Alicia) and grandsons, Lawson, Alex, and Gaines; brother, Wesley Luther (Clare) and  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 3 of 12 nieces, Rebecca Jones (Adam) and Charlotte Bull (Chris); life partner, Deborah McNeill Lybrand and family, Amber Carrey, Michael Lybrand, Christopher Lybrand, and 8 grandchildren, Dylan, Mason, Madison, Morgan, Reagan, Layla Kate, Abigail, and Charlie. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Greenville Shriners Hospital for Children, 950 W Faris Rd, Greenville, SC 29605, https://donate.lovetotherescue.org. A memorial message may be sent to the family by visiting our website at www.jhenrystuhr.com. 4. Discussion regarding target industries for the Town of Mount Pleasant Lauren Sims, provided the following presentation to Committee: Ms. Sims stated that these are the target industries for CRDA (Charleston Regional Development Alliance) and CCED (Charleston County Economic Development), to ensure the Town is in alignment with regards to economic development strategies. She said the bolded  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 4 of 12 titles are those that the Town is already seeing, and they work with the infrastructure and space available.  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 5 of 12 Ms. Sims stated all of these industries together account for roughly ten percent of the local economy in the Town of Mount Pleasant. She stated this information is presented for discussion to see if these are the industries Council would like to continue to attract or if any additional types of businesses should be included in our strategy. Mr. O’Rourke asked for an explanation of the term automotive and if it is manufacturing, repair or sales. Ms. Sims said it is the design and manufacturing of automobiles. Ms. Landing asked if we do not include that even though CRDA and Charleston County have it in there mainly because of the amount of land it would take. Ms. Sims responded in the affirmative. Ms. Landing said we have Hubner, which is not automotive but aerospace and asked if we have spaces available for another business such as that. Mr. DeMoura responded in the affirmative. Ms. Landing said we are not discounting ourselves entirely but our focus areas are some of the other industries and Ms. Sims responded in the affirmative. Ms. Landing said we need to focus on adding two categories. One being the port area with shipping related businesses, and the other is content production with businesses such as Moon Dog. She said content includes streaming, film, television, producing video games, animation and post-production work. Mr. O’Rourke stated we need to decide what indicators we are trying to reach when we decide what will and will not be good for the Town. Mr. DeMoura said this has been shown in our economic development strategies with our mission and approach, and the answer it is it has to be an industry that meets the profile of the community. It also has to be an industry that is attractive to the people who live here as we want good, quality jobs for our residents which cuts down on traffic. Mr. DeMoura said the indicators are good, solid wages, meeting the profile of our demographics and fit the direction that Council has set for the community. Mr. Crosby said that is part of the opportunity and strategically it would warrant taking some time to identify two to four target industries we would want to try to attract and gear our approach toward those industries. He stated he does not think the types of industries we want have been clearly defined.  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 6 of 12 Mr. DeMoura said there has been an economic strategy for a long time. He said it has been clearly marked, shared with the elected body and the target industries have been identified. He said the strategy is consistent with Charleston County Economic Development who has been a big partner of ours in helping us achieve our success and has been shaped by CRDA. Mr. DeMoura said we have identified what those were on the first slide, and then identified where we have gone by extension. Our community is different so we have other target industries. Mr. DeMoura said one good example is what we have been doing in the port area. He said our transportation projects alone are very important to the development of that area because they help to maximize a person’s ability to develop their property and meet the type industries that support that area. He said there many more wins and successes that maybe are fully understood. Ms. Landing said these topics have been discussed for quite a while with finance and corporate being added several months ago. She said during COVID when meetings were only being held remotely, she asked staff to help organize a meeting with both CRDA and Charleston County ED to start exploring some things to be able to move quickly in 2021. She said that led to an on-going process where Ms. Farrell and Ms. Sims have been attending a number of meetings to make sure they realize what the Town is interested in attracting.  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 7 of 12 Ms. Sims said the above are the wins and successes in terms of the Town’s economic development, and most recently, we are pleased to welcome the Bourne Group, formerly known as Project Cruise, to the port district area. She said they are occupying a former gymnastics studio on Port Authority Drive which is a tremendous transformation of that space. Ms. Sims said they specialize in upfitting maritime interiors – everything from design, production, manufacturing, installation and project management. Ms. Landing reviewed some of the businesses on the list that had been here and gone through expansions or had some concerns that were able to be worked through. Ms. Landing said we have some unique spots in Mount Pleasant so we cannot have a one size fits all approach, so these targets help see how we are defined because of the uniqueness. 5. Discussion with regard to the formation of an Economic Development Corporation for the Town of Mount Pleasant suited to the characteristics of the town, our assets, infrastructure, etc. Ms. Landing said there are economic development corporations in places like Dorchester and Berkeley Counties, and prior to her time on  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 8 of 12 Council, the Planning Department along with the Business Development department did research into this, and led a group to go visit Tampa, Florida to see what they had been doing with the booming growth that they had experienced. Ms. Landing said when they returned, after much discussion, it was determined that their model might not be the right fit for Mount Pleasant. She said often the economic development corporation essentially acts as a quasi-arm of government, but yet it is also independent. Ms. Landing said it normally involves developing a large parcel of land and/or it involves redevelopment of abandoned areas. Ms. Landing said she is open to ideas. Mr. Crosby said this is a topic that has been discussed for fifteen to twenty years. He said he thought the first economic development corporation was in Greer, and they met with representatives from both Greer and Rock Hill, thinking it might a good idea for Mount Pleasant. He said the topic has been put aside for many years, but since then, Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach all have started economic development corporations. Town representatives have met with economic development staff members for San Diego, Austin, and Nashville, all of whom have economic development corporations. He said he does not know if that would be a fit for Mount Pleasant, but perhaps it needs further study in order to make a determination. Ms. Landing said the CRDA acts like an economic development corporation, but it is regional, and they have been helpful. She said there are a couple of very substantial projects in the works currently, but we are open to the idea of public/private partnerships. Mr. O’Rourke said his questions would be who actually manages it and how much of the Town’s resources will go toward it. He said every day land goes away and he is concerned about the spaces left in order to have this true economic development that we think is going to be important. Mr. O’Rourke said he knows a lot of work has been done on economic development but we need to identify where these great places are going to go that we want to bring to the Town. Ms. Hyatt said she would be interested in knowing what the Town’s financial commitment would be, and the return on the investment. Mr. Crosby said an entity or a person working solely to bring economic development to the Town would be beneficial to the efforts of economic development.  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 9 of 12 Ms. Landing said she would like to propose for next month that we invite someone from one of these other communities that has an economic development corporation, and someone on a local level to be at the meeting, and also to have a review of what has been done in the past. 6. Discussion with regard to funding for an economic development officer dedicated exclusively to the Town of Mount Pleasant at the town, the county, or within an economic development corporation. Ms. Landing said when she was first elected, Amy Livingston was working as the business development officer. She did a lot of outside- facing work, and now Ms. Sims has filled that roll. She said Ms. Livingston had come from an outside background and brought many people to the table to talk about economic development. When Ms. Livingston moved on, there was another person hired to fill the position which did not work out at the time. Ms. Landing said there is a great system in place currently for both business development and outreach, with Ms. Sims and Ms. Farrell, and the question now is have we reached the need to hire an additional person with outside connections. Mr. Crosby said we need to keep in mind the distinction between business development and economic development as they are not synonymous. Ms. Landing said what we have now is more business development oriented, but there is no one that goes out to recruit the industries want to attract. Mr. O’Rourke asked if a person is hired for economic development are they given targets, and Mr. DeMoura responded in the affirmative, but we must have a specific reason to hire a position. For example, if Town Council and Waterworks decided an economic development corporation made sense, and was targeted toward the port, there would be a lot of work done to put in place any potential needs such as infrastructure, water and sewer or other ways to move product. Mr. DeMoura said then the argument becomes an additional person is needed with that particular expertise. He said we have tried an economic developer for two decades and it has been met with mixed success, not entirely due to a good or bad strategy or person. He said sometimes there are challenges, and it is a tough job. He stated he, Ms. Farrell and Ms. Sims all do their best to handle the business development, but a different  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 10 of 12 strategy or a large amendment to the current strategy would be needed before a conversation about a new hire should be held such as what would they do, how would they be deployed, is it a full time economic developer, should we leverage other assets such as Charleston County Economic Development. Ms. Landing said over the last three years, a fair amount of outreach has been done on things that had not been pursued in the past. Ms. Landing said Hubner has been a success story, close to the port, and we know that there are companies that are located in Nexton and Ladson because of Boeing, the automotive industry and the port. She said there is no reason we cannot bring in something that would be a little smaller scale. Ms. Landing said she did some research on International Paint who closed their headquarters in the United States and were bought by AkzoNobel. So as an example it might be sensible to think that a company like that might want to have an office or headquarters at the port, and there should be someone that would make the calls to start the recruiting process. She said those would be the types of things an economic development officer could do. Mr. Crosby said he thinks Mr. DeMoura’s comments are on point, and if we are going to be in the economic development business, whether an individual or a corporation, we need to make the determination if we are going to focus on and commit to it, and then go forward. He said there has been a lot of talk about economic development for twenty years, and it has not received the focus it needs in order to be successful. Ms. Landing said this could be put on the agenda for next month to discuss and see if there is a fit for a full corporation or an officer, but she said there are some things going on behind the scenes that would answer this as we move forward. Mr. O’Rourke said we bring in a lot of experts and asked if there is anyone nationally that could be brought in to perform some type of study to talk about item 4 and 5 as to the advantages and disadvantages. Mr. DeMoura said he thought that would be a wise move. Mr. O’Rourke said twenty more years of discussions does not help, but it would be beneficial to bring in an expert and have them lead discussions on this. He stated this would be a great topic for a Council retreat.  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 11 of 12 7. Discussion with regard to the hiring of a branding and marketing consultant to help the Town of Mount Pleasant package all the benefits of locating businesses within the town. Ms. Landing said this topic was discussed some time ago and asked Ms. Farrell to recap her research and conversations with CRDA. Ms. Farrell said she communicated with both CRDA and Charleston County Economic Development to get input on the best way to proceed with the thought that perhaps rather than the Town reinventing the wheel, that we could couple with their efforts. She said it started with looking at the target industries as we need to identify where we are going and what we are doing in order to better develop a campaign, marketing or branding strategy. Ms. Farrell said the result was to continue to work with our partners at the CRDA and the County and look into digital campaign rather than brochures, which is the way they found the most success. Ms. Landing said that even with the presentation that Ms. Sims gave, we have incorporated CRDA and the County’s ideas, and one of the things they said in the call in December was to put together a brochure that states what fits best for Mount Pleasant. It was decided that instead of a brochure, a dynamic place on the website would be better. She said one of the conclusions was that rather than the Mount Pleasant website being the only source, because there is so much information, is to have something that truly is designed to attract potential corporate businesses as well as individual business owners to Mount Pleasant. She said we already have the Experience Mount Pleasant website, and there has already been some expansion of that. Ms. Farrell stated it is more business development oriented, but it does include a section about economic development incentive packages and grants, and the thought is that would probably be the best place to expand any type of marketing or branding. Ms. Landing said there is a distinction between business development and economic development, but we also need to keep our current businesses happy so we do not lose them. She asked if there were any thoughts on bringing in a consultant. Mr. O’Rourke said he believes an expert would be able to have many recommendations and if Council felt this should be done, we should wait on this and let that be the part of the scope of the consultant.  Economic Development Committee May 3, 2021 Page 12 of 12 Ms. Hyatt said she thinks what we are discussing here would have the biggest impact for the least investment. She watched a presentation for the City of Charleston and it really sold her on it, and she already lives here. She said it could really have an impact if it is put together correctly. 8. Discussion of the history and purpose of the 1% fee paid annually to the Town of Mount Pleasant by Mount Pleasant Waterworks, and whether a portion of it could be dedicated to items 5, 6, & 7, above. Mr. Crosby said Mount Pleasant Waterworks has partnered with the Town relative to economic development since day one, and we were partnered with hiring the first economic development officer about 15-20 years ago. He said after the officer left, it was determined that the one percent would be sent to the Town and the Town would decide how it should be spent. He said the funds are given to the Town once a year. Ms. Landing said last month, it was determined that a good part of the money has been used toward the economic development incentive packages, so any corporation that is bringing true economic development is able to qualify for packages that ensure that we are their first choice to come to Mount Pleasant or to stay if they are looking to expand. She said if there is excess money still available that could be used toward the economic development officer concept, then we need to make sure the funds are targeted correctly. 9. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:54 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Christine Barrett Clerk of Council May 3, 2021