Business Facilities magazine has awarded the SC Department of Commerce with second place in the 2011 Economic Development Deal of the Year competition.
Commerce won the Silver Award for landing the Continental Tire of the Americas new plant in Sumter County. The $500 million investment is expected to generate 1,700 new jobs, including 80 new jobs in the German firm’s American headquarters in Lancaster County, according to the magazine.
“This world-class, $500 million tire manufacturing facility is the largest industrial investment ever made in Sumter County,” magazine editor-in-chief Jack Rogers said in a release. “It will be a huge shot in the arm for the growth potential of the entire region.”
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It is the second year in a row that Commerce has drawn high honors from the magazine. It was awarded first place in the 2010 Deal of the Year awards for Boeing. The company’s 787 Dreamliner passenger jet assembly plant promises 3,800 jobs.
The award is also another boost to the reputations of Gov. Nikki Haley and Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt as job creators.
On Tuesday, unemployment in South Carolina dropped for the fourth month in a row to 9.5 percent. And with Continental and other big hitters such as Boeing, Amazon.com and Bridgestone yet to come fully online, manufacturing promises to continue to lead the state’s economic recovery, experts said.
The Economic Development Deal of the Year competition was open to any organization with an economic development mission limited to a city, state or region. The magazine said submissions were scored based on their projected economic impact statistics as well as narratives describing the project’s challenges, originality and likely impact on the local community.
The awards were announced in December and have appeared in the January issue of Business Facilities. The winners were chosen by a judging panel of industry experts who reviewed 23 submissions from across the U.S.
The first place Gold Award winner was the Kentucky-Ford Partnership for a $1.2 billion investment that uses incentives to spur growth at Ford Motor Co.’s Louisville facilities.
The third place prize went to the City of Mesa, Ariz., for bringing the First Solar manufacturing facility to the Greater Phoenix area.
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