For sale: 18 acres at CanalSide and 178 acres at State Hospital

The panel to steer the 178–acre State Hospital campus to full privatization and development has narrowed the pre–sale consultant selection to three firms. Among the three, only one is to be selected, which begins to explain why our governor wanted the panel in charge instead of city council. In a similar effort to develop public property, city council’s ten–year efforts at CanalSide took four major consulting firms, we understand, and at what costs we hope to soon find out. The city’s cost to move 18 acres is soon to be compared to the state’s cost to sell 178 acres. The Columbia Star submitted last week a Freedom of Information request to the city, as the response might offer a pre–sale cost figure at CanalSide. The city has four offers to buy and develop the CanalSide site, and a selection is expected in another week.

Development does Dallas

The 2004 vacancy rate in Dallas–area office space was 26%, the highest in the country. Downtown Columbia’s was almost a ten–point drop from that. Average annual effective rent in Dallas was $14.58, a 23% drop from the year before. Main Street’s Millennium Building, home of Nelson Mullins, is chasing new leases in the $23–$24 range. For economic development purposes, however, the vacancy and rent doldrums in Dallas make for advantages. Available cheap office space moves new businesses into the area.

And the money keeps coming

Meanwhile, new capital going into real estate investment trusts (REITs) is almost $3 billion this year, which is more than twice the $1.4 billion last year. The stocks of REITs, companies owning real estate or mortgages that must pay out at least 90% of their taxable income in the form of dividends, delivered total returns of 32.1% in 2004 and 37% in 2003. Dallas and other big cities are overbuilt. Can the secondary markets like Columbia get in line for that REIT money?

Airplane assembly cluster

Boeing is already pumping hundreds of millions into a plant next to the Charleston airport for partial assembly of the new 7E7, and Savannah is home to Gulfstream. Airbus, Boeing’s European competitor, is putting out feelers to the US for a $600 million plant to assemble airborne refueling tankers. The US operation initially set up for the military tankers, according to an Airbus spokesman, could potentially assemble passenger jets. Why not Charleston? The sales pitch starts with the Port of Charleston. Also, we have a combined military/commercial airport and we have the beginnings of a jet plane assembly cluster, all on the East Coast looking at Europe.

Unemployment

SC’s unemployment is 6.7%, over a full point higher than the US average. Lexington County, on the other hand, has unemployment half the state average. SC manufacturing lost 2,000 jobs in 2004. However, the outlook is pretty good. In 2005, SC is predicted to score a jobs gain of 1.6% overall.

SC and NC state chambers meet

Last week an upstate–dominated SC Chamber of Commerce delegation met for the first time with their peers at the NC chamber of commerce, called the NC Citizens for Business and Industry. The meeting was held at Duke Power headquarters in Charlotte. Hunter Howard, president of SC’s chamber, offered how the two chambers might lobby Washington together on matters such as the environment, transportation, and economic development. Ruth Shaw, president of Duke Power, disclosed her company’s plans to spend $40 million over the next four years to reverse the effects of losses in manufacturing. Duke will make cash grants to schools and economic development programs in its customer domain, which doesn’t include the Midlands. SCANA, pull up the slack.

We’re not invited

The Big Event this week is the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Expect over 4,000 people to attend, to include many of the world’s top business leaders and heads of state. The purpose is to breed new ideas and fresh approaches to tired old problems. This is the Real UN because corporations and countries work together, and only the top people are invited. Among the attendees are Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Hewlett– Packard’s Carly Fiorina, Senator John Kerry, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Palestinians’ President Abbas, Israeli Vice Premier Peres, and President Yushchenko of Ukraine. An anticorruption initiative is expected from an organized group of 43 corporate chief executive officers. The real accomplishments come from private, secret meetings in the back rooms, stuff we may never hear about. Still, it’s an annual gathering, and what doesn’t get done this year always has a clear shot next year.

Death of a good guy

and a great industrialist

Kiyohiro Tsuzuki, former owner of TNS Mills, died in Greenville last week. He was 67. About 15 years ago, he built Nippon Center, which housed the best Japanese restaurant in the US, Yagoto, in Greenville, of all places. Yagoto served superior food at market prices, but the operation was a loss leader and had to close a few years ago. Tsuzuki wanted to promulgate Japanese culture, and he did. Greenville architect Kirk Craig is trying to save the building. Architecturally accurate, the building’s style is from the Kyoto period, around the 11th Century. Built and upfitted for well over $10 million 15 years ago, the building’s asking price is now $1 million, about the price of one heck of a home.