City to host area business leaders at Beaufort Commerce Park

Beaufort City leaders will host area business leaders Thursday at the Beaufort Commerce Park as part of the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce’s monthly Business After Hours event.  “This is a great opportunity to showcase the Commerce Park to our ‘ambassadors,’ the business community of northern Beaufort County,” said Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling.  “Our goal is to place a spotlight on the fact that the Commerce Park is open for business, that companies are doing business out there and that we have plans to help existing businesses grow and for new ones locate to the park,” he said.

Admission to the After Hours is $10 for Chamber members and invited guests and $20 for non-members. It is scheduled from 5:30-7 p.m. in the conference room at Parker-Hannifin. The location is off Highway 21 at the corner of Parker Drive and Schork Road.

Beaufort recently completed purchase of the 167-acre Commerce Park located off U.S. 21 near the Highway 21 Drive-In Theater and across from the Marine Corps Air Station and its soon-to-arrive F-35 Joint Strike Fighter squadrons and high-tech training center.  Tying into that, the Commerce Park is within 75 minutes of Boeing’s new Charleston facility and 45 minutes from Gulfstream’s Savannah operations. The Commerce Park  has all utilities available on site.

“This is one more way we are approaching ‘City-building,’ by seeking ways to expand Beaufort’s economic base,” Beaufort City Manager Scott Dadson said earlier this year.

“If we want to thrive, not just survive, we must find ways to bring more and better-paying jobs to the Beaufort area. Having this Commerce Park will open a lot of opportunities for residents and for children growing up who’d like to find good jobs right here in Beaufort,” he said.

Part of Beaufort’s comprehensive plan includes expanding the city’s economic base while growing and grooming its core areas through infill development. The City Council uses the comp plan to guide its decisions.

Kershaw and Sumter, SC, both own their own industrial parks, and Rock Hill and Clinton own three industrial parks each. Cheraw, Chesterfield and Orangeburg own partial stakes in commerce parks, according to the Municipal Association of South Carolina.