Need 10 good reasons to relocate my companies to Columbia (Charleston: credit, new home)

[GreenOne]

I am considering Columbia as a potential new location for my two new GREEN BUILDING services related companies and relocating from Dallas. We are a full service GREEN BUILDING company and offer brokerage, development management, architecture, engineering, and construction management, LEED AP services, tenant improvements, Rehab, Remodel, Retrofit, and Rehab of existing buildings to make them GREEN, and develop GREEN business parks. We will only get involved in projects where through our efforts the buildings will be LEED certified when completed. Future plans call for a E-Commerce/Retail division. Our brokerage deals only in GREEN certified properties, both commercial and residential. I need some insight as to why Columbia may be a good choice. I have my ideas, but need the local inside perspective on what would make Columbia a good choice.

[Charlestondata]

The University of South Carolina and Columbia have a close town-gown relationship and both are obsessed with developing a GREEN economy. Contact either or both and they will bend over backwards to do anything they can to bring you and your businesses here and help you once you get here. LEED is getting to be a big acronym here, more for what the city and area want than for what has been done in that area already, but there are already several LEED success stories in new construction around town. The state is also all about growing its GREEN economy; lately our leaders are loving their photo ops in announcing significant GREEN economic developments.

[Akhenaton06]

Even though Dallas is a low-cost location, Columbia is probably a lower cost location. The biggest advantage, as Columbiadata mentioned, would be USC, which is seeking to capitalize on the green movement. Office space is plentiful in the urban core and in the suburbs. You'd have great access to the port of Charleston and the interstate network in Columbia is pretty extensive (I-26, I-20, and I-77 all intersect in the city).

[Brandon Hoffman]

You won't have much competition locally.

[T L Edwards]

[CENTER]Columbia SC --- Who We Are[/CENTER]
I have been looking over some reports about our city recently and here is what I have learned about who we are and what others think about us.

According to a Forbes.com report of the most affordable cities in the U.S. for 2009, Columbia ranked No. 12 in the bang-for-your-buck column. This isn't surprising, considering the median home price is just over $150,000.
In an Urban Environment report of 72 cities conducted by the Earth Day Network we landed the No. 1 spot in the nation for parks and recreation opportunities. Again, this isn't surprising considering the number of ball fields, golf courses, soccer complexes and tennis facilities that we have around town. Add in the rivers and lakes and all the city, county and national parks within a 20 minute drive of Main Street and Columbia has a lot to offer the outdoor enthusiast.
Our drinking and surface water ranking is 11th in the country. Even with traffic congestion coming into town on the interstates our air quality ranked 28th of the 72 cities. Metromark Market Research reports in a recent survey that 18 minutes is the average commute time. Hmmm.
Metromark also reports that the median income for Columbians is now over $37,000 and that 85% have a high school diploma or higher. Our population has increased almost 30% since 1990. A lot of the new residents attended the University of South Carolina and found they liked Columbia and now call it home.
[CENTER]What We Like Best
The survey of Columbia states the top 3 reasons people listed for living here:
#1 the weather #2 the people #3 the location
After 40+ years of being a Columbian I agree.[/CENTER]

[sunstate]

I have only lived here two years but I have not gotten the impression that people here concern themselves very much with preservation and living green. For the most part, the people I have been exposed to are not forward thinking. As a matter of fact, I feel like I am trapped in the mid 80s. Folks here seem to like the status quo and god help you if you have to deal with the County governments. It is all very much who you know when it comes to getting anything done.

[steelblue]

rosewood hills subdivision newly done off of rosewood is a prime example of what u are considering they were recognized for green construction Rosewood Hills New homes | Facebook Columbia is just starting to get its feet wet with trying to be green but at least the effort is there and yes the city is all for it but with budgeting concerns they can only help with certain things such as creating an environment suitable for green construction but dont think or know if they have any tax incentives or anything in the way of housing credits for building green u would have to check on that. The interest is definitely there just need people to show us the way. They have been trying hard to push a project to get a hydrogen fuel cell technology park but it's been hung up for a while due to some issues with the developer. with a new liberal mayor elect u should be ok with city government still backing these issues. + plus considering the size of columbia they put an impressive effort towards their recycling program.

So the interest is definitely there just implementation has a bit to go still but considering the rosewood hills project we are heading in the right direction......
as far a retrofitting existing buildings to be green u have to do a chart to show people the benefit of redoing there buildings to be green since generally it always takes an initial larger sum investment to go green but the long term savings is what is always attractive. existing residential homes u may have a slighlty harder time with unless they are old wooden homes where electric bills can run upwards of 350$ so for those homes there would be a huge incentive. The newer homes from the late 70's and up tend to have be a lil better insulated but with sce&g always trying to get our rates increased to be par with the national average for utilities prices u should be able to get more business within 3-7 years as our rates continually get increased. Obviously the money is in the commercial side as larger companies can handle some of the initial cost of retrofitting but it just depends on who u are trying to convince. MONEY always talks and charts and diagrams with realistic figures definitely help drive your point home

[Charlestondata]

Here's another example of Columbia's becoming green. The Bank of America Plaza building downtown is the first building in South Carolina to receive LEED certification as a result of a renovation.

Columbia Regional Business Report | Columbia, SC

[gsupstate]

oops

[Charlestondata]

oops what?