2010 World Beer Festival VIP tickets sold out

For both the afternoon and evening sessions on Saturday, January 16, the VIP tickets are sold out. The World Beer Festival at the convention center on Lincoln Street still has tickets for general admission. Go to www.allaboutbeer.com/wbf.

Development on the coast

MeadWestvaco has disclosed a master plan for a 72,000–acre development close to the S.C. coast along the east side of the Edisto River. The company expects the plan to adjust over the next 50 years as it reaches completion.

Verizon

The S.C. Dept. of Commerce and the Central S.C. Alliance announced on Thursday, Dec. 10, Verizon’s new state–of–the–art customer service facility on Spears Creek Church Road in Elgin. At a total cost of $40 million, the new facility will accommodate Verizon’s current 1,500 employees at the Columbia Call Center plus allow for some growth.

Probably applicable to downtown Columbia

The International Council of Shopping Centers Inc. is holding a seminar at 6 pm, January 14, in Charleston’s Francis Marion Hotel on the virtually untapped student market of downtown Charleston. Ask jtron@icsc.org for more information or go to www.icsc.org.

Columbia makes the grade

Local Market Monitor in its Home Price Forecast declared Columbia among the top 19 performing U.S. markets with populations greater than 600,000. For more information, go to www.localmarketmonitor. com.

Sanford on the job

A S.C. budget oversight board is expected this week to cut another 2.6 percent from state spending, about $124 million of additional budget cuts, as revenues fall short of projections. Meanwhile, Governor Sanford declares federal health insurance proposals would have a disastrous impact on the state’s budget.

Back online

SCANA’s principal subsidiary SCE&G has completed its scheduled refueling and maintenance at its V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, which returned to full–service capacity Thursday night, December 10. The plant has been out since October 16. Such an outage typically follows an 18–month operating cycle.

Tough times for The South Financial Group, parent of Carolina First

What was a little more than $30 five years ago, a share of TSFG stock on the December 15 opening bell was 59 cents, low enough to lose its listing on the Nasdaq. TSFG heard notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market on December 4 that it was in noncompliance of minimum bid requirements. A stock price cannot fall to less than $1 per share for more than 30 consecutive business days. TSFG’s stock last closed above $1 on October 21. TSFG has 180 days from December 4 to get its stock price above $1 for 10 consecutive business days in order to avoid delisting. Since the first quarter of 2008, the company has lost about $1.1 billion. The largest quarterly loss since the first quarter of 2008 was in the most recent, the third quarter of 2009, when the losses totaled $340.8 million. Lean times for the board at The South Financial Group

Darla Moore has resigned from the board at TSFG, effective December 31.

Manufacturing

According to a new economic impact study by Miley Gallo and Associates, manufacturing continues as the largest industry cluster in S.C. In 2008, S.C. had about 5,200 manufacturing establishments. With 15 percent of all jobs in the state, manufacturing paid more than 20 percent of all wages. The average manufacturing wage of $46,192 is about 27 percent above the state average wage. Both direct and indirect impacts from manufacturing combine for $141 billion in the state.

Boeing

As the Star’s Business Section was going to press, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was going to the skies for the first time in the early afternoon of Tuesday, December 15. By 2012, Boeing’s North Charleston full–assembly plant will be producing three 787s per month.