Ms. Blinson, who serves as Commerce’s senior community development planner for nine counties — including Union — spoke to Friday’s Union Partnership meeting at the Upstate Workforce and Economic Development Center. During the meeting, which focused on the various aspects of economic development, Ms. Blinson pointed out that she holds up Union County to other communities as a model of cooperation on economic development issues.
“There are some counties where the municipal and county government will not talk to each other, will not work with each other,” she said. “That’s not the case here where there’s a strong city-county-state partnership. The city and the county have worked well together to develop products and they’ve worked well together with other partners such as local banks and utilities.”
Ms. Blinson pointed out that everything the Department of Commerce has asked the city and county to do to improve their ability to attract new industry has been done. A prime example of this is Union Commerce Park, part of which is occupied by LSP Automotive’s sheet metal stamping facility, and the spec building which houses Timken U.S. Corporation’s maintenance division. Though the park and the spec building were vacant for several years and drew criticism as a waste of money, Ms. Blinson said they were anything but. She said that even as it was vacant, the park and especially the spec building were working for Union County.
“They’re always working for you because they’re getting prospects to look at you that you may not be aware of,” she said. “They are listed on Commerce’s website and the Upstate Alliance’s website.
“Today, economic development is all about the web and you don’t know how long prospects have been looking at you,” she said. “They do look at your local newspaper and they look at your local blogs. So don’t think a spec building isn’t working for you because its working for you all the time.”
Ms. Blinson pointed out that the park was a factor in LSP’s decision to locate here. She added that the LSP is already in the process of expanding its facility. As for the spec building, Ms. Blinson said it kept Timken’s maintenance operation from leaving the county.
“The spec building allowed Timken to stay here, and that meant $5 million in investment and 30 jobs remained in Union County,” she said. “Other counties would have loved to have gotten that.
“Prepared industrial sites and spec buildings are what get companies to look at you,” she said. “Eighty percent of prospects look at existing buildings, they look for what can get them up and operating the fastest. They don’t want to go where there is no water and sewer. Infrastructure is money well-spent and so you must be proactive.”
Ms. Blinson said the county’s purchase of the Trakas Site on U.S. 176 as its next industrial park is a sign that it remains proactive about economic development. She also cited the agreement by Union and Jonesville to link their sewer systems as yet another sign of the kind of development-oriented cooperation that Union County is famous for.
“The sewer line between Jonesville and Union will open up sites for industry and commerce,” she said. “This is something that needs to be done just like the industrial park and the spec building needed to be done.”
Jonesville and Union agreed in January to link their sewer systems in order to make industrial-level sewage treatment available to the northern end of the U.S. 176 Corridor. The project will cost $3.7 million and officials hope to secure funding from the $819 billion federal stimulus package being considered by Congress.
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