BMW Archives - Page 2 of 3

January 2019 Newsletter

The Upstate

Not just passing through anymore – tourists spent a record $278 million in Spartanburg County last year, up almost $90 million from five years ago. Also, hotel room growth is up 23% in the last two years. (Post and Courier)

A guide to Greenville, complete with event calendar (p 70). I’ll bet you find something in this guide you didn’t know about. I liked the Gateway Walks, starting on page 84 – clever way to showcase the city. (Community Journals via Issuu)

Is there still hope for the Bass Pro Shop in Greer? (Greenville News)

New solar projects planned in Spartanburg county. (Greenville Business Magazine)

BMW begins building the new X7 at the Spartanburg plant. (UBJ)

Below the radar…Mid-size companies are a significant part of the state’s economy. (Greenville Business Magazine)

Back story to the GVL’s County Square Development Team. (UBJ)

Greenville Business Magazine lists 50 influential people from the region. (GBM)

Passenger and Cargo traffic continues to rise at GSP International Airport. (UBJ)

Spartanburg Regional buys Mary Black. (GSA Business Report)

A survey shows 75% of downtown Spartanburg businesses reported increased revenues over the past 3 years. (WSPA)

The State

Alarming…
“Since 2008, South Carolina saw its total student loan debt increase by 315%, growing from $5.5 billion to $23 billion.” (Experian) H/T GVL Today Newsletter

The State Ports Authority enjoyed its third consecutive year of record containerized cargo growth in 2018 – 6.8 percent (Post and Courier) Also, it is considering a plan to use barges to move containers. (Post and Courier)

See also, BMW may ship partially assembled cars in containers to South Africa, China and Thailand. (Post and Courier)

C&M Hog Farm opens a transload facility at Inland Port Dillon…a good example of how the inland port system could support state agriculture. (Progressive Rail Roading)

Automotive gets a lot of attention, but Aerospace is a big hitter too – adding $14.1 billion to the state’s GDP. (Greenville Business Magazine)

The Bigger Picture

How to fund Land Banks (ShelterForce)

Wearables appear to be catching on. Apple reported 50% year-over-year growth in these types of devices, driven by the popularity of the Apple Watch and AirPods among holiday shoppers. (Apple)

Thanks for reading!

July 2018 Newsletter

Volvo opened its first US factory – in our state. (Autoblog)

See a video of the plant. (YouTube) Its helps one understand how truly global car companies like Volvo are.

But talk of tariffs is causing quite a stir at home…

Tariff Dispute Threatens Exports of American-Made Cars (WSJ)
BMW and Daimler are particularly vulnerable to the tariff dispute. Both German auto makers have massive factories in the U.S. South that employ thousands of workers and build luxury sport-utility vehicles for export to China and Europe, as well as sale in the U.S. The tariffs will force the companies to either charge customers in China more or absorb the added costs…
BMW last year sold 385,900 vehicles made at its factory in South Carolina. Of those, 87,600 were shipped to China, while another 112,900 were sent to Europe. Any new vehicles BMW ships from its U.S. factory to China will be subject to the 40% tariff, making them more expensive than the models that rivals build in Europe and then ship to China.

BMW says U.S. tariffs on EU cars may hit investment there (Reuters)
The BMW plant in South Carolina is its largest globally and ships more than 70 percent of its annual production to other export markets, the company said.

Experts: Trade war could hit Upstate hard (GoUpstate.com)
In a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, BMW said tariffs would raise its cost of doing business in this country and could risk cutting production and jobs at its Spartanburg plant.

South Carolina will be one of the biggest losers in Trump’s trade wars, business group warns (Greenville News)
States with large automobile production facilities, such as South Carolina, are among the most exposed to the tariffs, according to Bloomberg News. However, the chamber’s numbers show the three most impacted products — refrigerators, paper pulp products and lawnmowers — make up a combined $112 million of South Carolina’s exports to Canada.

Bloomberg has a nice piece, The New Startup South, covering Greenville’s startup scene. (Bloomberg)

Whatever happened to the Bass Pro shop project on I-85 and Hwy 101? (GoUpstate.com)

Samsung will bring 400 jobs to the Upstate. (Upstate Business Journal)

GSP continues to add more flights. This is not only good for us going places, but bringing others to the Upstate.
Denver, Las Vegas among new options for GSP fliers (GoUpstate.com)

The way we travel around cities is changing. Even in smaller cities like ours, we will one day see options like electric scooters and dockless bike sharing. Long term, these will most likely be options in popular car sharing apps like Uber and Lyft. Read about little vehicles at CityLab

Cherokee completes its spec building. (Greenville Business Magazine)

“Most spec buildings this size are located on 10 acres, but ours is on 24, making it more expandable—up to 240,000 square feet. We made sure it had enough capacity for 17 loading docks, allowing it to be customizable for any number of future tenants. Higher and bigger is always better in these projects. Our building has 32-foot clear ceilings that are 34-feet tall at the center, with 50 feet of space between columns to make sure future occupants can make use of the space. Wider is better too,” he laughs.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail brings success to Travelers Rest. Will other towns try the same formula? (Greenville Business Magazine)

…hospitality-tax figures reflect how much the trail has paved the way to growth. In 2009, the 2-percent levy on all prepared meals and beverages served in town generated about $330,000. Last year, the city’s take nearly doubled to $634,000.