By Scott Miller
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Published Jan. 6, 2009
South Carolina’s recruitment of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner assembly plant to North Charleston continues to draw attention.
Citing Boeing’s site selection, Business Facilities magazine just named the S.C. Department of Commerce its 2009 Deal of the Year award winner. The Commerce Department is featured in the magazine’s January issue.
“The choice of North Charleston as a manufacturing site for Boeing’s best-selling commercial jet will have a seismic impact on South Carolina’s economic development,” noted Business Facilities Editor in Chief Jack Rogers.
Fifteen agencies nominated 19 “big-ticket projects” for the award, the magazine said. A panel of judges evaluated economic impact statistics, job creation estimates and project narratives submitted by the applicants. Each nomination carried a projected overall economic impact of more than $1 trillion.
South Carolina beat out the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development, which attracted Hemlock Semiconductor’s polycrystalline silicon plant in Clarksville, and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, which announced the Areva/Northrop Grumman project.
Honorable mentions in the 2009 awards included IBM’s new global technology services delivery center in Dubuque, Iowa, Louisiana’s V-Vehicle assembly plant; the San Antonio Medtronic project; and NCI@Riverside, from Frederick, Md.
In addition to the development deal award, the Commerce Department was also honored by Southern Business & Development magazine. The publication named Commerce Deputy Secretary Jack Ellenberg the 2010 Person of the Year, calling him the “man who landed the golden goose.”
“In his years as an economic development practitioner, he has worked many of the Palmetto State’s largest and most notable projects, including BMW, Michelin and Google,” the magazine said. “While BMW will likely remain South Carolina’s most important catch in its economic development history to date, the recent Boeing deal directed by Ellenberg will certainly advance to a close second when it is all said and done.”