Welcome to our Thriving at the Beach podcast, your reliable source of information and a peek under the tent regarding all of the amazing things taking place in our Grand Strand community. There are so many great things underway here that we believe it's time to start telling our stories. That's exactly what Thriving at the Beach will do. This podcast has been created for all the residents in this great coastal community because we want you to be the first to know things that are coming and get the most accurate and up to date details on every initiative. In this podcast, we'll be hearing from the community partners that are busy building a brighter and more vibrant tomorrow.
These partners will include the city of Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach Downtown Alliance, the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Team, the multiple chambers of commerce, the HTC Aspire Hub Emerge leadership, key business leaders, assorted community partners, and many more. It's our hope that you'll catch the momentum of how we are and will be thriving at the beach. I'm Peggy Masterson, and I'll be your host for Thriving at the Beach. I'm the director of the Partnership Grand Strand Foundation. And in case you haven't heard about us, we are the nonprofit foundation that's an extension of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce.
We were created by local business leaders to serve local residents and local businesses across all of the 14 communities that make up our beautiful coastal area. Our work allows us the opportunity, a very unique opportunity, to collaborate and support all of the organizations that are busy building a better tomorrow. This provides us a wonderful opportunity to collect all this exciting information and share it with each of you. I could not be more excited to be able to facilitate a way for these experts to tell their stories and share their exciting news with you. So get ready, get psyched to get a peek under the tent on projects, businesses, and opportunities coming to our area.
I can't wait to watch you catch the momentum and then share it with others. Let's dive right in. Welcome to a new episode of Thriving at the Beach, where our primary goal is to get you excited about the future of the Myrtle Beach and surrounding areas. And we do that by giving you an opportunity to meet some of the people that are busy driving success, that are working so hard behind the scenes towards what our future will be. So with that, I am so thrilled to have Sandy Davis as our guest today.
And Sandy is a great example of a community leader that is working behind the scenes day in and day out on multiple initiatives that are driving total economic growth in Horry County. She is the president and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation. And if you've not heard of it, today's the day you're gonna get more information about exactly what her organization is and what it does. She is a Coastal Carolina grad, a wife, a mom, and a transitional leader within the Horry County community. She's actually originally from New Jersey, our little fun fact, but she's been here long enough to develop quite an authentic southern accent.
So, you'll hear that as you hear from Sandy today. Sandy and her team have their fingers in so many future focused initiatives here. I'm pretty sure there are very few people that Sandy doesn't know in the Horry County area. She's been, connected for quite some time. So with that said, Sandy, thank you so much for being here today.
We super appreciate it, and we know how busy you are. So thank you for taking a few minutes to spend with us. Thank you. I'm excited to be a part of the story. Awesome.
So as I said earlier, I I feel like this might be a good opportunity for folks that are listening to really kind of get a a better or more robust understanding of what is the Regional Economic Development Corporation, what do you do, what kind of things are you focused on? So the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation was previously known as Horry Partners. It was created to diversify Horry County from just tourism. It just we're very well known for tourism, and I think that's always going to be that way. But we wanted to give an opportunity to the people who went to college and wanted other positions that we did not have in our area.
So a lot of leaders in Horry County got together, created Horry Partners, later realized that, our name wasn't really that catchy because no one knew who Horry was or even how to pronounce it. So they decided to rebrand and came up with Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation. So we are responsible for recruiting industry within Horry County and also most important to retain our existing industry, to find their needs, whether it be, you know, more property, workforce, whatever it is that we can help them do. And we also try to seek out their suppliers if they have anyone interested in moving closer to them. So that is one of our biggest needs.
We are a public private partnership, so we do also work off of membership, much like the chamber, but we also are supported by Horry County and all the municipalities. Interesting. I didn't realize that, it started as Horry Partners. A partnership, did you say, or partners? Partners.
Horry Partners. So a lot of similarities to PGS in that regard because, really, we were formed by several concerned business leaders that basically said, we wanna replicate, I think, what the EDC is doing, but on a smaller scale for more localized small businesses. So just to be clear, Sandy's group is focusing on the, the larger businesses, the industrial parks, those kind of things where PGS is supporting her work but doing it more in, with a focus on the small businesses. So that description of what you do is is very, how shall I say, light considering what I know about how your day runs and the things that you are involved in. But I think that it's really helpful to delineate, and and let folks know they're listening.
There are organizations like yours and PGS that are working really hard to drive a nice and prosperous future for us, and that's really what we're here to do to, talk about that as it relates to Thriving at the Beach. So, as it relates to the work that you do, I was wondering if you might be able to share, a couple of initiatives that you're currently working on and, why you're focused on those. Definitely. So besides recruitment, going to, trade shows, marketing missions, having lead generation calls, which is whenever we actually get to meet a company over the phone or Zoom. And our niche is usually 35 employees or more, at least a two and a half capital investment in Horry County over a five year period, and that we're looking for that average wage, which has now risen above $23 an hour in Horry County.
When I started, it was around eleven. So it has really, really changed a lot since COVID also. But, when we're not doing that and out visiting our existing industry, we're working on product development, which is really starting to change in our area. We have had a lot more industrial developers interested because they can tell that the product they're building here is really moving fast. So that is one of our main goals because it's hard to sell out of an empty wagon.
We need to have the property, not just Greenfield. Everyone has land, so we need to have a building, at least available even so they can see it and think, you know, I do need this. This is what I need, but I want it to look like this instead, or I need these changes to make it work for my business. So product development is very big on our list. Also working with utility providers, right now you see a big push for a lot of electricity needs, a lot higher kilowatts than what we're used to, especially when we're talking anything to do with AI or Oh, sure.
Yeah. That makes sense. Batteries. And also the need for natural gas. The need for natural gas has been something that we've fought with for many years.
Natural gas, our biggest thing that we have to sell to customers is if you use natural gas for your heating in the Upstate or Canada or anywhere else all over the world, that if you're used to using natural gas for electricity, our electricity here is a lot cheaper, on electric than it is on natural gas for many of our customers. So if their equipment doesn't need natural gas, then usually we can sell them without the natural gas, which is how we have recruited several before. But that is a need that we do have for some of these companies who need it for their products, their equipment versus the need for, heating their facility. So that is another thing that we are currently working on with Dominion and searching for property where we would be able to provide that service throughout Owry County. And it is definitely a push to go one area.
So that is something that we're looking at now. And then we also have the need for workforce housing, which we can talk a little bit more about later, but just the turn after COVID and the amount of people who moved to Horry County, because we did have a quick opening, Sure we do. For our governor compared to a lot of other states. So it really increased the value of homes here because so many were being purchased that we are now no longer, able to have housing for the single income that's ranging from around 48,000 to $70,000 And it makes it hard for manufacturers, government employees, healthcare, schools Oh, yeah. To recruit those beginning employees.
That's right. They you know, with the the minimum wage being what it's been in the in the past compared to the cost of living, Folks that are single and just getting started, they can't even afford to make ends meet, you know. They can't afford to take a job that's at that minimum wage. So I'm That's right. And not just buy a house, but you can't even rent.
Right. With the rent rates now either. I mean, it's just it's really hard. And that used to be something that we said all the time is this is a great place to live, work, and play. But if you're trying to recruit people here now, they can't afford to live here.
So, yeah, work and play may be a great option, but they still have to have somewhere to live, and workforce is a huge issue for us. Yeah. That is kind of fundamental for sure. Question for you. When you mentioned, that you work on creating products for the, I guess, prospects that you're dealing with, I'm assuming those are industrial parks, kind of commercial facilities, that kind of thing.
Can you tell us a little bit about the industrial parks that are already here? Because some folks may not know about all of them, and then, any plans that are brewing for, future industrial parks. Definitely. So, Ascot Valley was a previous textile mill that was located off of Highway 22 And 701. Okay.
That part was purchased by Santee Cooper. They took the building and the land and they cleared it. And we have been trying to sell it as one big parcel for quite some time. And then we did a master plan back, during COVID, right before COVID, and we have now sold every lot in that park. We do have one spec building currently going up.
It's 100,000 square feet, expandable to 125,000 square feet, and we have about four people currently looking at that building. So that park sold at 65. Yes. So we're very excited about that. So then with Horry County, we purchased land across the road from it, and that is gonna be Ascot Valley Phase 2.
Okay. We are currently having it, brush cut and cleared so that, we can make it more appealing, but we have not master planned that park yet because we aren't we have submitted so much recently. The demand has been really high in our area that we may just sell the entire 50 acres to one customer. So that is something that we're still up in the air about, that would have rail service, so that and it will be located behind Horry Electric's new substation, so the electricity requirement is there, the rail service is there, and those are certain needs for projects when we receive RFIs. Is is it rail served?
What type how much, kilowatts could you start with right now without upgrading a facility? So those are things that are very important. In, Loris, we have the Loris Industrial Park. We have Wild West and Carolina Food Service, LaDC, all located in that park that is co owned by the MBREDC and also Santee Cooper. It is currently going through a, what the South Carolina Department of Commerce calls a Palmetto site.
All the due diligence is being updated to help push that part quicker if a company were to want to see all of that, it helps to really have that available. Ascot Valley Phase II and also Cool Springs located in the Aynor area has received that certification this year. So we now have two sites listed on Department of Commerce that are Palmetto sites. It means like the geotech phase one, wetlands, everything is ready and you could start building as soon as you could get your permit. So that is, a big of it really appeals to companies who are needing to be in within a year or a year and a half.
So some of the prep work, I guess, is done and approved when you get that Palmetto certification. Is that what That's right. Okay. So then they show that if they get ready to build, they're not gonna run into any problems they didn't know about where if you just bought property from anyone who did not have that due diligence done, you may get halfway in and realize, oh, I'm not gonna be able to build on the site after all. Oh, boy.
So we don't want that. Right? Exactly. So we have seen it happen before, so it definitely helps to have all of that already out of the way. So we have the, those are three of our parks.
We also have the Bucksport Marine Park, which is really huge and something that we're working on this year. We have been attending the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and we are going to attend the Miami Boat Show this year as well. We are hoping to have a marine park, a boat builder, or some kind of boat suppliers located at that park within the next year or two. There has been a new road built leading to this park, makes it a lot more appealing. It is off of Highway 701 between Conway and Georgetown.
There is a new boat building program at Horry Georgetown Technical College. Yes. I heard about that. So that is to help us, recruit industry for this park that's owned by Grand Strand Water and Sewer. So we, do not have a building there yet, but there are several upgrades that have been made to the marina and dock area to allow these type of companies to be able to utilize those facilities.
Then we have our, Myrtle Beach ITAP, park, where we recently located DC blocks with the announcement of the subsea C cables from Google and Meta. Exciting stuff. Yes. And they are currently already expanding. So we're working on the purchase of 20 additional acres located beside their current facility.
Wow. We have a contract and we are waiting for the appraisal to be completed. FAA has approved it, so that will soon be, that will soon be expanding their property footprint at ITAP, and they have been a great fit because that area just we do not try to push companies there that are gonna have a lot of trucks going in and out, a lot of traffic just because market common is just Sure. It's just so aesthetically pleasing right now that you don't really want to change, what's going on out there. But, yeah, we still do want to utilize that property for either aviation or technology.
Technology is really low on employees, but high on investment, which puts a big tax benefit for both the city of Myrtle Beach and Horry County without weighing in on our infrastructure. So we are hoping to continue that on the technology side. And then, on the aviation side, we would love to see a huge aviation project with lots of employees to support Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics and their graduates. So that is currently, our ITAP facility. We have about 400 acres still available there, so we'll continue to push that out.
We also have Water Tower Road, which is our only private park that we are currently marketing. That is the new home of UPS, which is not in the park, but it's across the street. But we located them on Water Tower Road First, working with Waccamaw Land and Timber on their property, which has been a huge asset to UPS and also Edgewater Ventures who bought the private park. And so in the private park, we have located Pepsi and most recently Amazon that we hope to open at the October. Those two wins for the EDC would not have been possible had Edgewater Ventures not purchased that property and begun the building.
So those are two of an originally four planned buildings, which has now expanded to seven. So we are going to have three more buildings because it has there was such a need. The Amazon building, we had at least seven companies looking at the building. Wow. Yes.
So it's very exciting. We have to continue moving that forward, but that's what product can help us do. Well and it's interesting to listen to you to to understand the the kind of multiple constituents or or stakeholders that have to come together to actually place a large company here in this area. You know, the utility companies are hugely involved, and then you've got folks that need to come in and purchase the land if you're not able to do that. And coordinating all that.
And that's solely happening on your team for the most part? Yes. Including the zoning changes. Zoning changes. Because most of the time when we buy land as zoned CFA, or forest agriculture land because taxes are cheaper.
And if no one has been utilizing that property, they do not want to pay a highway commercial rate for land that has just been sitting vacant. So then we have to take it to the county or the municipality, go through the changing to get the land zoned properly before we can get someone to come in and help us with the industrial side. So, obviously, when you're involved in zoning and those type of things, you're very, very closely connected to the Horry County government. Right? Yes.
Horry County and every planning and zoning in the city, we, have a great relationship with. Wow. Talk about complex. I know. But, you know, this this growth that you have, these industrial parks and all of these businesses coming in, has that I guess, how many years has that been in the works?
And are you seeing that kind of pickup pace become I know you've got a lot of folks that are interested, but can you give us a sense of the timeline it takes for, one of those businesses to come to the area? And then what kind of pulse or what kind of pace, I guess, you're seeing today? Usually, I would say a minimum of a year and a half before we announce a project. That's usually how long it is because we'll send them several parcels of land. They will have to take it up their chain, and usually they have board meetings.
Sure. And then they'll get back to us. When they take something to a board, there's usually very rarely only one selection. When they present something to their board, we're usually in the category of a top three to five. And then from that, they'll come back and say, our board has decided they're gonna come visit your location, and we'll we'll also take them to another location, and then they'll meet again, and they'll tell what they found.
And then it's getting the due diligence and the pricing for them. And when you talk about partners, our partners really come into play during this because they want to know how much is workers' comp gonna be in your area? How much is the building taxes? How much is the building insurance? What's your interest rate?
Can I use a local bank? What would be the easiest bank for me to use? So all of those insurance companies, realtors who help us close the deal because we don't typically we don't usually represent anyone in a transaction. So we have our realtors involved. Then we have an attorney to handle the closing for them.
We have an engineer who puts the building on a layout and shows what it's gonna look like for us. I mean, so many people come into play that I feel like a lot of my job is talking on the phone to them every day and making sure, hey, did we follow-up with this? Have we done this part of the project? You know, and keeping them you have to use the people that you know are going to keep the project confidential. And people are like, oh, why do you like to keep it confidential?
I mean, you can tell us even if you don't win the project. Actually, we could, we could do that, but the state and the county, if the project says, hey, we're going there, they do not receive any incentives. If it is announced before the state announces it, the incentives are off of the table. Really? Yes.
Oh my goodness. Because once you do that and we're competing with other states and our incentives get out, the other state's gonna change their incentives and make it better. They're gonna sweeten the deal. And then the community that just shared all the information they found out just helped us lose the project. So that is one reason it's so important to keep it confidential.
Another thing while I'm talking about the community, that projects tell us, they love to come in town a day before they're gonna meet with us or stay a day after. Usually, it's a day before because they want to share the concerns with us, but they like to ask people, where where do the locals go? And they like to go to those places where the locals are and just ask questions. Find out what they like about our area, what they do not like, and then those they bring those to us when they meet with us the next day. These are all of our concerns.
So the community plays a huge part whether they realize it or not Sure. In which companies determine if they're gonna land here or not. Well, and that's so smart, really, when you think about it because they're getting kind of unfiltered, completely honest responses from people. Exactly. And I think that having those brought to you and your team probably provides a lot of insight in terms of what areas do we need to continue to focus on or where do we have a gap that we have to, you know, sew up and so forth that these potential investors might be, concerned about.
Definitely. And we take them out to meet other businesses too. So and they pick them. We do not pick them. We'll say this this is what, you know, they do something similar to you.
Do you want to meet with them? Because sometimes they do because they do similar things. Sometimes they do not because they're they could possibly be a competitor or they do not want them to know that they're gonna be coming into the area right now. So it's different for each project, but we will tell them, you know, some of the other ones they'll also say, well, I'm from New York. I would like to meet with someone you've recruited here from New York.
So we will take them to that company. We go out of the room. We let them ask openly honest questions about their experience when we recruited them here, how their workforce is now, how the wages are, how their incentives went about, you know, was it a easy process? Was it easy to get stuff passed through the county or the city that they're locating in? So those are the things they want to hear from someone other than me who they view as a salesman.
Mhmm. Interesting. And you have to facilitate all that, you and your team. Which is great. And I know it's a small team.
Right? A very small team of three currently. But we do have when they fly in, they usually do not rent a car. We pick them up from the airport, we facilitate their hotel, and we pick them up, we have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And it used to be when a company would come into town, they would stay three or four days.
Now that has cut down to one or two days. So usually they fly in. They're here all day. We tour all day long, go to dinner at night. The next day, take them back to the airport or the shuttle from my hotel will.
But it has I have noticed a big change in what we used to see compared to now. I think people have just gotten so much busier that they wait when they do a lot more by email. Like, ten years ago at the EDC when we would have a project come in, they would stay three or four days. One of those days was devoted to nothing but them sitting in our conference room and having the banks come in and give their spiel and then the insurance companies and the engineers. But now it's more like they wait to do that once they know they're gonna be in the area.
Interesting. So you're you're also kind of facilitating and coordinating that conversation with banks and the engineers as well as the utilities and wow. I'm I'm tired just thinking about all the things. Yeah. You know why my wrinkles are growing.
Hardly. Hardly, my dear. So, I wanted to circle back around to this marine park that you mentioned earlier, and I wanted to see if you could just you know, one of the things that we know we need to do in, Horry County as we continue to move forward is this whole notion of people working together, supporting one another. And I wanted to see if you could tell us a story about HGTC and what, doctor Foer and her team have done to partner with you and make this kind of marine vision a reality. Definitely.
First, I want to say, doctor Foer and her team are always willing to do anything. I could give you several examples of projects that we have had where they were eager to start a program right away, to, you know, assist those companies with their workforce needs. So this is just one example of, some of them that we have worked. But definitely the Bucksport Marine Park, it's it's a location in between Horry and Georgetown counties that would be very easy for Horry Georgetown Tech to accommodate because they have, campuses in both locations. That makes sense.
So when we were looking at this, we knew, you know, in order to recruit a company, their first question's gonna be workforce. It's every it's on the top of everyone's list right now. Specialized workforce. Right? Exactly.
So boat building, we felt like you could kind of mix some of that with the construction and also the welding. So we already offered those two, so we didn't feel like it would be, you know, a huge burden. Doctor Ford immediately took the program and ran with it when we were in a board meeting discussing what our needs would be. She already, when we first started this, she began the diesel mechanic program, so that program kicked off first and has been hugely successful. That was also a big need for a lot of the boat repair companies and boat sales companies that were already in the area.
So, as that program began to build and they were able to place those students, we felt that would be beneficial to us, as well as the companies that we have been trying to recruit that would need those type of skills. We were hearing, what about boat building? So as the two play hand in hand together, doctor For ran the curriculum and got approved for it, has recently been awarded the highest EDA grant, I think, ever given in Horry County for this program. Wow. That's awesome.
It is awesome. So that program is now gonna take place. It is going to be held in the, on the Georgetown campus. That's where they had the room to be able to do it. And with our companies that we're we're working a project right now that is looking to go to the Bucksport Marine Park, and the class, of course, that core the new program is what has made that possible for them.
They think that it is a wonderful program, and they even said, we would be willing to build a classroom inside of our facility for the hands on learning experience and training. So doctor Forr met with them. Actually, that is one of the companies that came in for the Myrtle Beach Classic, the PGA this year. Okay. So we were able to host them at PGA, show them what we had to offer as far as quality of life, which was huge, and also for them to be able to showcase, right?
Yes. I mean, the best. That was, like, number one, and it helped us bring other companies here as well, but I do wanna spotlight that one. And, doctor Ford met with them that day. We had a quick lunch together, and then went out to the Myrtle Beach Classic.
Also, doctor Ford brought in Brandon Hazleton, who will be the dean over that program and also one of the, well, the directors, I guess, over that program. They all came in and met with him, just made him feel very welcome and that they didn't just want to provide students to him, that they wanted a partnership. What a great story. And, you know, so often, we we can overlook the role that education, higher education and skilled education play in terms of building prosperity for an area. And I think that's an awesome example of of how an idea kind of was surfaced, a need was identified, and the community in under doctor Ford's leadership went out and made it happen.
Exactly. So I think that that, you know, anybody that's listening to this, if they can't walk away feeling excited about what the future holds based on the leadership that your team has brought to this community and all the folks that you touch, I think there's something wrong because, the momentum is high. And, the fact that you've got as many companies as you have expressing an interest, wanting to kind of compete for the same properties that are available and such is gosh. I think I think that's just very indicative of of what we can expect to see, in the, months and years to come. And I know it didn't come easy, but, it's gotta be at least personally rewarding at some level for you and your team to be able to see it come to fruition.
Thank you. It is very rewarding, but I will say what's even more rewarding is when we hear back from a company that tells us the team in Horry County made it happen. And I'm just blessed to work with some of the best leaders that I would put up against anyone's area to help win a project. Yeah. It sounds like it for sure.
Mhmm. So with that said, as we kinda wrap things up, I'm interested, as the CEO of the, Regional Economic Development Corporation. I'm interested in your kind of personal thoughts in terms of I think we see momentum. I think you're you're feeling, like, personally rewarded by some of the work there. But what what would your comment be as it relates to what the future holds for the Horry County and surrounding areas?
I think one of the biggest things for me is that when we started when I started at the EDC and people talked about Myrtle Beach, the first thing they would always say, of course, is I've been there to play golf before. I did not know that you were interested in industry. Mhmm. And I think we have changed so much from that now that when I get a call from another company, they say, oh, well, I saw where Amazon recently announced they they are going to be there. Or I was working on a project, and I was in Texas, and I heard about this company that is moving to Myrtle Beach area in Horry County.
And, of course, they never say Horry, but in in your county, but I just think that knowing now that other people are learning about us besides just golf, and the people who come here for golf, a lot of them are industry leaders. Sure they. And to learn more about our area and actually begin to start thinking about, hey, I can live where I play golf, I can move my company where I play golf, or I can expand my company to where I play golf. I I just think that that to me is what has really started to help us grow. So I'm excited about that for our future.
So kind of, almost on the map kind of a thing that people are starting to get curious and that they're really kind of being able to connect the dots between that live, work, and play scenario. Yes. I mean, you can vacation here or you can feel like you're on vacation every day and move your business here. Well, that's awesome, Sandy. Thank you so much for your time.
And I think that's a wrap, on our first episode together, but I hope you will come back often and give us updates and chat with us a little bit about, all the great work your organization is doing. Definitely. And thank you, Peggy. I appreciate y'all being a partner in how you work to help us as well. Thank you.
Appreciate you. What a jam packed interview with Sandy Davis. Every time I hear her speak about the work that the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development team is doing, I'm more impressed, and I'm more encouraged about the future of our surrounding community. She is literally involved in every aspect of bringing new businesses into Horry County and across the Grand Strand. She's built an amazing set of community partners that help make it happen, and she sees every last detail through to the finish to provide the best possible experience for each of these, industry partners.
So we're fortunate to have her. I can't wait to have her come back and talk to us again at a future point in time, but that's all for now. And until then, keep thriving. So that's all for this episode. Thanks so much for listening.
You can find this podcast as well as a transcript of the podcast on Partnership Grand Strand's website, which is partnershipgrandstrand.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll release a new episode every other week, so stay tuned to get that behind the scenes info on how we are thriving at the beach and across our entire coastal community. Till next time. Keep thriving.
