NPR does a story on South Carolina, refers to Charlotte region as once-booming (Columbia: lease, credit)

[Columbiadata]

It's a great day in South Carolina, with an unemployment rate of 9.9%. Employment has begun to pick up in the state's metros, but York County, which used to draw people for its rural setting near the "once-booming" Charlotte region, has an unemployment rate over 11%. Chester County, where the reporter spent the second half of her report in an attempt to paint an accurate picture of what's going on in South Carolina, has a higher unemployment rate.

'It's A Great Day In South Carolina,' If You Have A Job : NPR

[GSP101]

Originally Posted by Columbiadata

It's a great day in South Carolina, with an unemployment rate of 9.9%. Employment has begun to pick up in the state's metros, but York County, which used to draw people for its rural setting near the "once-booming" Charlotte region, has an unemployment rate over 11%. Chester County, where the reporter spent the second half of her report in an attempt to paint an accurate picture of what's going on in South Carolina, has a higher unemployment rate.

'It's A Great Day In South Carolina,' If You Have A Job : NPR

LOL....I love it when journalist attempt to understand economics. The higher unemployment rates in the area are primarily driven by the large number of new residents. Last year, the "once booming" area added 55,000 residents. That is great but, they also bring their unemployment to the area.

While the area is not doing as well economically as a few years ago, it is a relative concept. The downtown vacancy rate rose from 2% to 11-12% recently. Most cities would kill to have a downtown rate in that range especially when considering that a new 50 story office tower just opened with 100% occupancy. This tower has over 1.3m sq feet of leasable space. Once Chiquita signs in the 19 story NASCAR tower, another 150k sq feet will be removed from inventory. Nomura Securitites is also looking to join Citgo Fund Services, US Bank and 5th 3rd downtown as recent additions to the financial core.

These corporate additions will continue to attract residents which keeps upward pressure on the unemployment rate. Long term, Charlotte (and York by default) will be one of the economic leaders in the country as they have been for the previous two decades. York grew over 30% in the last decade and is expected by many Charlotte leaders to be a future growth leader in the Charlotte region.

If traffic is any indication, Charlotte is getting back to pre-recessionary levels.

[Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus]

Originally Posted by GSP101

The downtown vacancy rate rose from 2% to 11-12% recently. Most cities would kill to have a downtown rate in that range especially when considering that a new 50 story office tower just opened with 100% occupancy.

Why is a rising vacancy rate downtown a good thing?

I was under the impression that there was an overhang of commercial space.

[redcliffe]

Charlotte is very close to GSP(Spartan)'s heart. Should change his name to something else. CHMECK or something.

[Columbiadata]

As the OP, my point in mentioning what the reporter said about Charlotte was not to call out Charlotte, but to insinuate that the reporter seemed to have a certain way of approaching her story: negative. I wasn't really clear about it. Charlotte and SC's metros' unemployment rates and employment growth aren't bad now comparatively speaking, yet she chose to present Charlotte as past its prime and focused on a rural SC county as reflective of the state in general. I guess she did so because the topic was politicians trying to get votes by trying to make South Carolinians believe they can solve the economic crisis in general.

[GSP101]

Originally Posted by Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus

Why is a rising vacancy rate downtown a good thing?

I was under the impression that there was an overhang of commercial space.

Obviously rising vacancy rates are not the direction that you want to be heading. But, considering that the starting point was an unsustainable 2% rate, that Charlotte added a couple of million sq feet of class A space in the past couple of years and that there was a major recession affecting a major employer in the city, rising to what is considered very healthy vacancy rate is not bad. And, there are not many cities that can open a 1.3m sq foot building 100% leased.

Bissell Companies is bullish enough on Charlotte to build 500,000 sq feet of Class A space on spec (without tax credits). So far, looks like half of that may be taken before the 10 story buildings are topped out.

[GSP101]

Originally Posted by redcliffe

Charlotte is very close to GSP(Spartan)'s heart. Should change his name to something else. CHMECK or something.

Red......not sure why you say this.

[redcliffe]

Originally Posted by GSP101

Red......not sure why you say this.

Simple. Anytime someone post positives about Greenville and the upstate, you attempt to slap them down and put them in their place. At the sametime, you put Charlotte on a pedestal. We all know Charlotte is bigger, but that doesn't take away from the positives of Greenville and the upstate. While I like Charlotte, it isn't all that to me. I prefer the smaller Greenville area.

[GSP101]

Originally Posted by redcliffe

Simple. Anytime someone post positives about Greenville and the upstate, you attempt to slap them down and put them in their place. At the sametime, you put Charlotte on a pedestal. We all know Charlotte is bigger, but that doesn't take away from the positives of Greenville and the upstate. While I like Charlotte, it isn't all that to me. I prefer the smaller Greenville area.

Red....I think you are reading too much into it. I don't have a grudge against Greenville but, I am not going to be a cheerleader and pretend that it is the utopia that some Greenville posters claim it to be, especially when they come on here and bash Columbia with baseless and fabricated statistics.

If you look at the real data (not some magazine ranking that is influenced by information packets received from visitor bureaus), Columbia has done very very well relative to the other SC metros in the past decade. I am not putting anyone in their place when stating that other than to show the real numbers. To be honest, I was a little surprised in seeing how well Columbia has done. Columbia has challenges (the river needs to be incorporated into downtown more than it is....that is a huge economic development tool) as do all metro areas of SC, including Charlotte. But, it has done well in terms of growth, income levels, and creative class levels in the previous decade. These posts from a few Greenville posters that try to paint another picture are junk because they are not based in reality.

As of late, Charleston is doing very well relative to the other metros especially when it comes to expanding the creative class, a key point in growing the income levels of metros. Charleston has the name recognition, amenities and growing creative class necessary to attract companies. I would expect to see Charleston lead the state for a while. However, Columbia, Greenville, Rock Hill & Myrtle Beach will also do well. Overall, it should be good for the state because none of the SC metros (Forget Charlotte for a minute) have the ability to lead SC by themselves, they simply are not large enough to do so. I am still puzzled as to why it seems to be Greenville folks who want to paint other areas of the state as backwater and hold Greenville up as the model.....it does not make sense.

[redcliffe]

And who are these posters? You are just as bad brother.