Real estate lecture

Ethan Penner, president of CBRE Capital Partners and executive vice president of CBRE Investors, will give a public lecture, “Real Estate and Capital Markets Idea Exchange,” Thursday, March 25, for the Darla Moore School of Business Wachovia Executive Lecture Series. Penner will speak at 11 am in the Lumpkin Auditorium on the eighth floor of the Moore School. The lecture is free and open to the public.

South Carolina Business Hall of Fame

The 26th annual S.C. Business Hall of Fame banquet will be held on May 27 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Established in 1985 by Junior Achievement of Central S.C. and The State newspaper, this year’s affair will honor three South Carolina business leaders: Harris E. DeLoach Jr., chairman and CEO of Sonoco; M. Edward Sellers, chairman and CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of S.C.; the late Silas C. McMeekin, former chairman and CEO of SCE&G. For tickets and further information, contact Stephanie Stuckey at 252.1974.

Bad news and good news for Carolina First Bank

First, the bad news. The South Financial Group (stock symbol: TSFG) saw its stock price fall below one dollar in October, 2009, and it has stayed down there since. If it doesn’t rise above one dollar for an uninterrupted period of at least 10 days by June, the stock can be delisted by Nasdaq. South Financial has reported eight consecutive quarterly losses, amounting to $1.3 billion. In February, the compensation given South Financial’s board of directors was cut in half, and two directors resigned in the same month, including Atlanta–based Donald T. Heroman, who joined the board in July to fill the spot left vacant by former company chairman and CEO Mack Whittle. USC trustee Darla Moore had already resigned from the board in December. South Financial is the parent company of Greenvillebased Carolina First Bank, S.C.’s largest stateheadquartered bank. Now the good news. Carolina First Bank has been ranked No. 1 in U. S. Small Business Administration loan production in South Carolina for the first four months of the fiscal year that began October 1, 2009.

City vacancies

The City of Columbia is accepting applications for two vacancies on the Board of Zoning Appeals. On the Design Development Review Commission, the city is accepting applications in four different capacities: architectural historian, architect, lawyer, and city planner. And the city is also accepting applications to fill two vacancies on the Planning Commission. The deadline to apply is Monday, March 29, 2010. For applications and more information, contact the city council office at 545.3061 or send a request to ergober@columbiasc.net.

State revenue down

According to S.C. Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, from July 1 through February 28, state revenue is down 6.4 percent compared with the same time last year. As of February 28, the state has taken in $247.7 million less than last year, already a down time for state revenue.

More doctors for the Upstate

Plans are proceeding for an expansion of the USC School of Medicine on the Greenville Memorial Hospital campus. A joint meeting of the boards of trustees of both USC and the Greenville Hospital System was held on Wednesday, February 24. The pending proposal to join the two institutions allows for an initial 40 students to spend all four years of their medical education in Greenville, beginning in 2012. The future home of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine at Greenville has been located in an existing building on Grove Road in Greenville. Meanwhile, in Spartanburg, the development of an osteopathic medical school proceeds as an alliance among Spartanburg Regional Hospital, Wofford College, and the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine. The four–year post–graduate medical school has begun construction of its three–story, 65,000 sq. ft. building on Howard Street in downtown Spartanburg.

Port Royal about to go

On February 5, the S.C. State Ports Authority signed a letter of intent to sell its Port Royal property, expecting the sale to close in another six to nine months. Columbia–based NAI Avant is handling the deal. Before the letter of intent, the latest asking price was around $20 million. In March 2008, Port Royal Harbor LLC failed to close on its bid of $26 million to buy the property.