10/02/2025
🌟 Ever Wondered How Industrial Recruitment Works in Cherokee County, SC? 🌟
Have you ever wondered how the Cherokee County Economic Development Office brings industries to our community? Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the process:
🔍 Request for Information (RFI):
We receive RFIs from various sources:
- 70% from the SC Department of Commerce
- The rest from Upstate SC Alliance, realtors/brokers, utilities, and sometimes our own economic development personnel.
📋 What's an RFI?
An RFI provides details about the project, including:
- Project name (Rarely Gives Company Name)
- Project Information
- Site Requirements
- Capital investment
- Number of jobs
🏗️ Project Evaluation:
We ensure the project aligns with our county's values and needs. We do not work with industries like junkyards or gasification that could be detrimental to our community.
🔍 Site Selection:
We look for compatible sites based on the project's needs, such as site size, water, wastewater, natural gas, and power requirements. We also make sure it will have minimal impact to residents and businesses in the area. Once a site is identified, we begin filling out the RFI, which takes about 1-2 weeks, covering utilities, property, costs, transportation routes, taxes, workforce and many other things.
📤 Submission:
Once completed, the RFI is sent to the Upstate Alliance and/or the Project Manager at SCDOC, who then forwards it to the site selector or project for evaluation. In some cases we submit sites through a website. Sometimes we work directly with the site selector, but always involve SCDOC at some point.
🏢 Site Visits:
If our site is still in the mix after a site selector evaluates the property, a site visit is scheduled. This usually includes a meeting at our offices on Spartanburg Community College - Cherokee, where we discuss:
- Community and workforce
- Quality of life
- Training
- Housing and education opportunities
- Support of industries
- Then we tour the site(s)
🤫 Secrecy:
Sometimes we have to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) when working with companies exploring new sites. This protects the company as they plan their expansion—leaking information could impact their stock or give competitors an advantage. For the county, even a small slip could risk another location swooping in on the project. Confidentiality helps everyone stay on track and ensures the best outcome for the community!
🤝 Incentives Offer:
If the project is interested in our sites we receive a Project Profile Sheet that tells us committed investment amounts by year, job numbers by year, and confirmed pays for each job. We use this to prepare an incentives offer based on factors like capital investment, job numbers, base pay, and site location. We conduct a Fiscal Impact Analysis to determine the fiscal and economic benefits after incentives.
The county incentives offer is sent to SCDOC, who compiles with their incentives into an incentives package for the project. If everything aligns, the project chooses Cherokee County, and the real work begins.
📜 Final Steps:
At the Cherokee County Development Board, we work closely with county administration, economic development attorneys, and project teams to create a formal agreement called a FILOT. This agreement goes through a careful process, including three county council readings and a public hearing. Once that process is complete, the project is usually announced—though sometimes we must wait due to state processes or confidentiality requirements.
📝 The Process:
Projects can take a few months to years to finalize. For example, Niagara Pharmaceuticals took two years, while Champion Foods took two months. It's important to understand that all aspects have to be rights for a project to choose a site. You can have the best workforce in the world, but if you don't have utilities to a site it just doesn't work.
Jim Cook, CCDB Executive Director (Retired), says, "Economic Development is like a three-legged stool. If you take one leg away, it will collapse. We need ensure all three legs are strong."
Cherokee County is committed to bringing quality industries to our community, ensuring responsible growth and sustainable development, balancing economic benefits with environmental protection, community well-being, and long-term infrastructure capacity! 🌟
