Trailing other areas, Columbia economic development leaders look to boost tech job growth
Columbia often trails competing cities in attracting and retaining tech and knowledge-based jobs and companies, according to a recent study commissioned by a number of area stakeholders.
Now those groups are in the midst of a plan to help close those gaps.
A number of partners — including the economic development offices of Richland County, Lexington County, and the City of Columbia; the CentralSC Alliance; the University of South Carolina; Midlands Technical College; the South Carolina Research Authority; and the I-77 Economic Development Alliance — came together to fund a $250,000 study on how the Columbia area could become more competitive in attracting high-paying tech and knowledge economy jobs.
The study — conducted by global consulting firm Deloitte — will be used to help guide economic development efforts in the Columbia area, especially as it relates to luring technology firms and other knowledge-based jobs. The plan was discussed at a Dec. 17 meeting of Columbia City Council’s economic and community development committee.
The consultants identified a number of challenges Columbia faces in landing the kind of innovative jobs that help infuse wealth into the local economy. For instance, it found that Columbia is simply not known for attracting and retaining knowledge-based talent.
“When a site consultant goes and does a project for a company that is locating, they have this matrix where they go, without a community even knowing about it, and they’ll do an assessment,” Garry Powers, who is helping shepherd the plan for Richland County, recently told the city committee. “They said that we always ranked poorly compared to our competitors on our knowledge base, the 25-to-54-year-old folks who are in the job categories that any prospect would want to be interested in.”
Another major hurdle the Deloitte study found is that Columbia lacks an “identity or brand” as it relates to economic development. The Capital City area also is hampered by a “weak entrepreneurial ecosystem” and a lack of direct air travel service to many major markets, the study found.
And the Deloitte study pointed to elevated property tax rates as a challenge for attracting tech and other companies. That conclusion runs alongside another recent analysis, commissioned by the city, that showed combined taxes — city, county and schools — were higher in Columbia than in any other large metro area in South Carolina.
That city-backed tax analysis also bolstered the idea that the Columbia area has trouble retaining the 25 to 54 age demographic. It showed that age group grew in the Columbia metro area by 2.5% from 2010 to 2018. Over the same period, that demographic ballooned by 15% in the Charleston area and 33% in Greenville.
Competition between Columbia and Greenville came up during the recent city economic development committee meeting.
Jeff Ruble, director of Richland County’s Office of Economic Development, recalled a conversation he had with a top-level economic development site consultant who had advised Prisma Health on where to locate its corporate headquarters following the merger of the Greenville Health and Palmetto Health systems. The decision was between Columbia and Greenville, and Greenville was ultimately selected.
“I said, ‘Why did you pick Greenville?’” Ruble said in the meeting. “And (the consultant) said, ‘The (Prisma) leadership and us all thought that was a better place to recruit and retain talent.’ So, Greenville won and Columbia lost.”
Ruble said there is a “death match” going on across the country as mid-sized cities, like Columbia, compete with other areas to see who can create the type of environment that attracts white collar and technology-based jobs, as well as corporate headquarters.
Local economic development officials outlined a number of initiatives they are undertaking to help ramp up the area’s ability to attract and retain tech jobs. That includes working with the state Department of Commerce, federal Veterans Affairs and others to build a system to attract transitioning military information technology workers to take hard-to-fill IT jobs in Columbia.
Officials also are working to align USC’s research priorities with the region’s economic development activities, and is in the early stages of identifying specific geographic areas in Columbia that could be hubs of information technology, including financial tech and cybersecurity options.
Powers said a collaboration with USC will be critical in bolstering the knowledge-based economy.
“On the innovation side, we are talking about building a relationship with the university that we never have had before,” Powers told The State on Monday. “The university always has been a tremendous partner when we’ve had a prospect in town coming to talk to them. But the economic development community in Columbia has never asked the university to become strategically engaged with the community in developing capacity.”
Deloitte gave Columbia a total of 68 recommendations on how to expand its ability to attract knowledge-based industries. Powers said those recommendations are in the process of being implemented.
The CentralSC Alliance is working on an economic development branding strategy for the Columbia area, according to Powers. Ruble told the council committee that Columbia needs to raise its profile to attract innovative companies and talented workers.
“One thing that we’ll probably end up doing, at the regional level, but specifically with Richland and Lexington counties and the City of Columbia, is doing more place marketing,” Ruble said. “That is, trying to raise the visibility of Columbia nationally and even internationally. With that, we are hoping we can become a more attractive place for talent, so that people want to move here.”
Ruble pointed to Charleston’s success in attracting people.
“Smart people are moving to Charleston without a job, just thinking they are going to find one,” he said. “That’s helped spur a lot of their growth. … We are trying to raise the visibility level of Columbia.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 3:46 PM.
