Orangeburg: A county that didn't give up

Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Page 3 of 3 More than Jafza Jafza isn’t the only entity developing a commercial park in the area. Five other public and private commerce and logistics parks are in various stages of development within a stone’s throw of the Jafza International site at the intersection of I-95 and Highway 301. Orangeburg and Dorchester counties also are in the process of determining where together they’ll build a joint county park. Orangeburg also is seeking suitable land on the western side of the county for establishing an additional commerce/logistics center there. What that means to Coleman is that there’s going to be a need for more infrastructure, not only for the movement of goods, but also for people moving back and forth through the community. “Given our proximity to the Port of Charleston, the Savannah River Site and Fort Jackson, we already have a number of people leaving Orangeburg County each morning to go to work, and given the county’s success in luring businesses here, we have a number of people who travel here to work from other places,” he said. “This project is only going to accelerate that activity, but I think there’s opportunity for infrastructure here.” Coleman said he sees one of those opportunities in the long-discussed new interchange at the intersection of I-95 and Highway 301. Prior to the interstate’s being cut through South Carolina, Highway 301 was a lively commercial area dominated by motels built in the 1950s and 1960s. Once the interstate went through, it cut the thoroughfare off from the main flow of traffic and the businesses died and property values along the roadway plummeted. “The current interchange only allows you to get off Interstate 95 and go south on 301,” Coleman said. “If we can improve the connection northbound, I believe it would lead to an immediate improvement of the area that would particularly benefit the residents of Santee in terms of tourism, in terms of retail and in terms of other commercial establishments.” A new perspective Coleman said the biggest change wrought by Jafza’s presence will be a reorientation in how Orangeburg sees its place in the state. “It used to be that we considered ourselves part of the Midlands and looked to Columbia, which is only 41 miles away, as the community we’d grow toward,” he said. “I think what Jafza has done is changed our perspective and made us begin to think of ourselves as more intrinsically tied to the Lowcountry and the Port of Charleston. “In fact, I think what we’re going to see over the next 20 to 25 years is a swath of development extending from Charleston all the way to here. The reality is we’re going to grow together with Charleston, which is 74 miles away, long before we see development linking us directly up to Columbia,” he added. Dean, for one, liked the sound of that. “Pretty soon, you’ll see Orangeburg competing with Greenville, Spartanburg and Charleston for a lot more than economic development,” said the haberdashery owner. “Pretty soon, we’ll be the community where all the company executives want to live.” << Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>