Charleston Regional Development Alliance

Berkeley, Charleston & Dorchester Counties

Printed from www.crda.org

North Charleston set to become international business hub

Jul. 1, 2003
Charleston Regional Business Journal
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey says that when the North Charleston Coliseum was being built a decade ago, the city made the site a foreign trade zone with the hope of some day luring international business.

Now that the South Carolina World Trade Center has decided to move its headquarters to the Coliseum-Convention Center complex, that hope might become a reality. SCWTC officials recently announced plans to build an office facility at that location to replace its cramped offices in downtown Charleston’s BellSouth building and expand international services.

According to SCWTC Executive Director Mark Condon, most of the new space will be “marketed to importers, exporters, shipping lines, maritime attorneys, global technology firms and other businesses engaged in world trade. The center’s goal is to create an international address that would attract a concentration of tenants with similar interests.”

Condon believes the new World Trade Center will attract foreign sales offices to South Carolina, which in turn would lead to further investment in the Palmetto State.

Summey describes the SCWTC’s new location as “perfect,” noting its convenience to Charleston International Airport, nearby hotels and the port. He adds that among the world’s 297 trade centers, this one will be unique in that it will be the only World Trade Center attached to a convention center.

Exactly what the new SCWTC facility will look like and where on the complex it will be built have yet to be decided. Last month, Condon told the Business Journal that SCWTC officials proposed a nine-story tower that would house the SCWTC’s new offices, an international bank and office space for foreign companies interested in testing their products on the U.S. market.

However, being close to the airport presents building obstacles.

“Flight patterns must be taken into account,” says local developer Eugene Blanton, chairman of the SCWTC’s building committee. “That’s why the building’s height is a key issue.” According to Blanton, a tower could be built on the north side of the convention center complex but not on the south side, where it would interfere with flight patterns.

Blanton says the building committee will spend the next four months soliciting and reviewing building designs and then marketing the project to contractors. Once the marketing is completed, he expects the project to take about 16 months to build.
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