MARCH 3, 2017 | VOL. 6 ISSUE 9
CLEMSON
GROWS UP
Keeping businesses in town is the drive behind ERIC NEWTON’S THINK TANK, as the city and university try to find the space to put them
The Ronald McDonald House presents the 4th annual
Join us for a light-hearted event where we roast Greenville Community Leaders! Our 2017 Roastee is
bob howard
Past President, Greenville Tech Foundation Inc.
Thursday, March 16, 2017 6:00-7:00PM / COCKTAILS 7:00-8:30PM / DINNER & ROAST Poinsett Club, Downtown Greenville EMCEE
JDew, Owner at Dew Productions
ROASTING PANEL
Marion Crawford, President at Crawford Strategy Alan Ethridge, Executive Director at Metropolitan Arts Council Butler Mullins, Foundation Manager at Greenville Tech Foundation Knox White, Mayor of Greenville
This fundraiser benefits an organization that makes a tremendous impact on our community
bob howard 2017 Roastee
RESERVE YOUR SPONSORSHIP TODAY PRESENTING
$5,000
• One table for 10 with dinner, open bar, cocktail reception • Exclusive naming rights for event • Opening remarks at event • Corporate recognition on stage • Corporate full page ad in event program • Corporate logo on website • Corporate logo on all media advertisements • Champagne Reception with Roastee prior to cocktail hour
ROAST MASTER $2,000
• One table for 10 with dinner, open bar, cocktail reception • Corporate full page ad in event program • Corporate logo on website • Corporate logo on all media advertisements
GUESTS OF HONOR $1,000
• One table for 10 with dinner, open bar, cocktail reception • Corporate full page ad in event program • Corporate logo on website
AD ROASTER $500
• Four tickets with dinner, open bar, cocktail reception • Corporate half page ad in event program
INDIVIDUAL TICKET $100
• One ticket with dinner, open bar
YOUNG PROFESSIONAL TICKET $60 • One ticket with dinner, open bar
FOR ADDITIONAL SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION please call 864-235-0506 or email Samantha Bauer at: sbauer@rmhcarolinas.com.
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TOP-OF-MIND AND IN THE MIX THIS WEEK
| THE RUNDOWN | 3
VOLUME 6, ISSUE 9 Featured this issue: GE exec: The ‘brilliant factory’ is on the way...............................................................6 Sencorables puts high tech underfoot..........................................................................12 Cultivating a culture of giving credit where it’s due.............................................21
Last weekend, workers installed a special floor at Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena in preparation for the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament, which began this week. The tournament is predicted to bring in as much as $1.2 million. Photo by Leland Outz
WORTH REPEATING “The thing that we will do always is kind of eat our own dog food. We’re going to use it first and test it and burn it into our own factories.” Page 6
“He has been learning and has helped in numerous ventures. Creatively, he’s as good as I’ve ever been. He’s a hell of a chef.” Page 7
“When we started out, we thought we were going to change the world. But we’ve learned our lesson.” Page 14
TBA Look for Marvelous Market, a yearround indoor farmers market, to open in mid-March at Hampton Station in Greenville.
VERBATIM
On the business license bills “This is a major attack on local governments and small business in South Carolina.” Columbia City Councilman Howard Duvall, as reported by the State newspaper, on legislation being considered by the S.C. House of Representatives which would overhaul how cities can collect business license fees. H. 3650 and H. 3651 could lead cities to lose millions in business tax revenue, critics warn.
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SEEKING APPRENTICES Tim Scott, Cory Booker’s plan to create more jobs for young Americans
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md. Photo by Gage Skidmore, Flickr Creative Commons. ANDREW MOORE | STAFF
amoore@communityjournals.com U.S. Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have partnered once again to reintroduce a piece of legislation designed to create thousands of paid apprenticeships across various industries, including construction and manufacturing. Scott and Booker’s LEAP Act (Leveraging and Energizing America’s Apprenticeship Programs) is designed to create jobs for younger Americans, especially minorities struggling to find work. The legislation, if successful, would provide tax credits to employers who offer apprenticeships to younger job applicants. Companies that offer apprenticeships to people under age 25 would receive a $1,500 tax credit and a $1,000 credit for apprentices above age 25. According to Scott, the legislation would create 400,000 apprenticeships and fill some of the 4 million technical jobs available in the U.S. The bill could
also potentially attract more women into traditionally male-dominated industries. “Apprenticeships allow folks to earn while they learn, providing a level of job certainty for the present and opening new doors in the future,” Scott said. Unlike internships, apprenticeships offer a combination of on-the-job training and instruction. They can be sponsored and paid for by individual employers, labor groups, or employer associations, according to the Labor Department. However, only 0.2 percent, or 358,000 of the nation’s workforce, is in the 21,000 registered apprenticeship programs in the U.S., according to data from the senators’ offices. Booker and Scott said many employers complain that they can’t fill jobs because applicants lack necessary training. “We can also better sync the needs of employers with the skills of our workforce,” Scott said. Companies in highly skilled fields
face a shortage of 4 million workers with necessary training and education. That number is expected to climb to 5 million workers by 2020, according to a study by researchers at Georgetown University. About 16 percent of 16-to-24-yearolds looking for work are currently employed, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment figures lag even further behind for younger minorities and those without college degrees. Scott and Booker, who are two of only three African-Americans in the Senate, said that while they belong to different political parties, they found common ground on some issues. That includes the high rates of minority unemployment, which inspired their bipartisan legislation. The unemployment rate for African-Americans is more than 12 percent, which is double the national unemployment rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hispanic unemployment is nearly 8 percent.
“Apprenticeships are a proven, cost-effective way to equip workers, especially younger workers, with onthe-job skills they need to find a good-paying job in today’s knowledge-based economy,” Booker said. Several European nations, including England and Germany, sponsor apprenticeship programs. Nearly half of all young people in Germany are involved in apprenticeship programs, according to global graduate business school INSEAD. Apprenticeships can provide various benefits. People who complete apprenticeships typically earn an additional $240,000 throughout their careers than those who don’t, according to the Center for American Progress. “By creating an employer tax credit to offset some of the costs associated with training an apprentice, the LEAP Act will encourage more businesses to start new apprenticeship programs,” said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress. “Senators Booker and Scott are
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taking an important step towards expanding the use of this highly successful training model,” she added. Scott and Booker’s proposed apprenticeship program could be the first model for collaboration between the private and public sectors. In fact, the LEAP Act was modeled after South Carolina’s apprenticeship program, which includes public and private partnerships for students and tax credit for job creators, according to the senators’ offices. “I’m proud to again join with Sen. Scott to reintroduce our bill to incentivize employers to make key investments in workforce development while tackling our unacceptably high youth unemployment rate,” Booker said. In 2015, Booker and Scott introduced their legislation to the Senate.
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It was eventually referred to the Senate Finance Committee, where it sat through last year’s legislative session. The companion bill, H.3993, advanced to the House Ways and Means Committee. As way to ensure their proposal garners support from fiscal conservatives, the senators are proposing that the program be financed by curtailing the printing of government publications that are already available online. That measure would save an estimated $450 million. Information for seniors, Medicare recipients, and people in communities with limited internet access would be exempt. The tax credits paid from the program would be capped so the cost would not exceed the total savings, according to Booker.
| POLITICS / BANKING | 5
䴀䈀䄀 䌀伀刀倀伀刀䄀吀䔀
Federal regulators levy fines against CertusBank founders DAVID DYKES | STAFF
ddykes@communityjournals.com Three founders and former executives of the now-defunct CertusBank have been fined more than $55,000 for what federal regulators said were excessive spending and "reckless unsafe or unsound practices" that resulted in bank financial losses. Greenville native Walter Davis, Milton Jones, and Angela Webb, all bank founders, agreed to pay the civil penalties to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency without admitting any wrongdoing. None could be reached for comment. In May 2011, Certus executives joined then Gov. Nikki Haley and other state and city officials in Greenville to announce they were locating the bank’s corporate headquarters at the ONE project downtown and creating 350 jobs. The bank ultimately sustained continuous financial losses and sold off its assets. Jones, Davis, and Webb, who were executive chairman, chief executive officer, and president, respectively, eventually were terminated by the
financial institution. Webb agreed to pay a penalty of $27,000, according to OCC records. Davis agreed to pay $25,000, and Jones $3,500, the records show. A fourth Certus founder, Charles Williams, wasn’t fined. All four entered into cease-and-desist orders with the OCC that stipulate certain conditions for employment at an insured depository institution. According to OCC documents, Webb and Davis incurred excessive expenses related to the purchase, improvement, furnishing, and decoration of three condominiums in Greenville for executive officer use. Also, according to the documents, Webb facilitated improper bank payments of $230,000 to a privately held company that provided management services for CertusBank. And all three failed to present to the bank board for a decision “strategically important” contracts that exceeded management’s authority to bind the bank without board approval before the contracts were executed. Included was the build out of the bank's executive and administrative offices in Greenville, OCC officials said.
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GE exec: The ‘brilliant factory’ is coming RUDOLPH BELL | STAFF
rbell@communityjournals.com
Paul Boris, vice president of manufacturing industries for GE Digital, speaks during the South Carolina Automotive Summit at the downtown Greenville Hyatt on Feb. 21. Photo by Jack Robert Photography.
P
aul Boris was an executive at General Motors and SAP before becoming vice president of manufacturing industries for GE Digital, General Electric’s industrial software and services business — “essentially all of GE’s software assets combined into one focused group,” he says. According to his bio, his job is to drive GE’s “brilliant factory” strategy “by using big data, software, sensors, controllers, and robotics to increase productivity and deliver asset and operations optimization.” UBJ talked to Boris at the downtown Greenville Hyatt, where he was keynote speaker for the S.C. Automotive Summit on Feb. 21.
What technologies are changing manufacturing? I would put it into a couple of classes of things. I would put it into a class of things that listen, things that calculate, and things that expose data. So we can attach to a machine and get signals from a machine much more effectively. We can watch material flow around the plant much more effectively. That data can be consumed into a system that allows us to start to run some [calculations]. How long did it take for these things to get from A to B, B to C? Is that good, is that bad? How to improve that? We’ve now got the
tablets on the plant floor. Now we’re starting to put wearable devices — eyepieces, basically — on operators to bring that information back. Now it’s almost like operators can get X-ray vision. They can look at a particular machine. And not because they’re superhuman, but because we’ve complemented them with additional data and analytics, they know, "This is not running great, but I’m going to let it limp because I’ve got an objective." Or, "It’s time to shut this down and fix it." Or anything in between.
GE has begun to use the term "brilliant factory." What does that mean? The brilliant factory is kind of this self-learning ecosystem of machines and people and materials where everything keeps getting better and better as you learn more from it, as you run more math against it, as you make it more available. … One of our engineers in Greenville turned me on to the term "the serendipitous factory," which is where our engineers and managers are actually solving problems before they even manifest themselves down at the operation. So that’s a couple of different ways of looking at it.
Is GE making its own factories brilliant? We are. We’ve got a number of showcase sites where we invest a lot of concentrated effort. ... The thing that we will do always is kind of eat our own dog food. We’re going to use it first and test it and burn it into our own factories. … We’ve got four or five hundred different facilities to impact. There’s a lot of ground we can cover, but we’re moving very quickly.
And GE’s gas turbine factory in Greenville was one of the pilot sites? Yeah, it was one of the pilots. … I started just about two and a half years ago, and I got a chance to get introduced to that facility and that leadership team very early on. I got to tell you, I love spending time there because of the quality of the people, their inquisitive nature, and how they drive it. And they’ve actually been one of the key sites in the early work that helped us craft an entire product set that we’re taking to the marketplace now. So they were and are absolutely key.
South Carolina has focused on manufacturing in its jobs-recruitment efforts. But now some are wondering whether new technology will displace a lot of manufacturing jobs. I have a different opinion on these things. … What I see happening, and I’m actually pretty excited about it, is we’re elevating the skill and the capability and the impact of a front-line operator. So what that actually means is, if you’re delivering more value in the business, you’ve got the opportunity to earn more in that role. Now, will we see simple roles that are rote-type things going away? That’s inevitable. I think in general manufacturing as a place to work — the safety, the quality, the quality of life are all improving dramatically and have for decades. I think the skills of an operator are going to be in high demand. It’s going to create a new set of opportunities the same way it creates a new set of challenges, so I’m very optimistic.
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Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday - Friday Brunch & Dinner - Saturday Sunday Brunch
The Kennedy, located at the former home of Renato's, will serve a seasonal menu with local ingredients.
Cribb’s empire grows with another Spartanburg eatery TREVOR ANDERSON | STAFF
tanderson@communityjournals.com William Cribb’s restaurant portfolio has expanded during the past few years. But the Spartanburg chef always smiles when he thinks about where his food journey began — a 30-seat eatery he opened in 2010 at 121 N. Spring St. in downtown. With the help of his business partner Raj Patel, Cribb is going back to his roots with a new venture, The Kennedy, that is expected to open this summer in the 2,200-square-foot building at 221 E. Kennedy St., the former home of Renato’s. “It feels great,” said Cribb, co-owner of Cribb’s Kitchen on Main, Cribb’s Catering, two Willy Taco locations in Spartanburg and Greenville, and FR8 Yard, a beer garden concept planned for a vacant lot at 125 E. Main St. in downtown Spartanburg. “It’s good to get back to our roots. We’re going to have a lot of fun.” Patel said he and Cribb have been discussing the concept for several months, but were just looking for the right building. “We wanted it to be something small, something intimate,” Patel said. “It’s not going to be a ‘center of the plate’ kind of restaurant. We’ll have seasonal, simple, great dishes. If radishes are in season, then we're going to serve something with radishes. If tomatoes are in season, we'll do something with tomatoes.” The owners said the eatery will be open for dinner seven days a week.
They’re still deciding what hours it will operate. Patel said dishes will range from about $8 to $20 and include a variety of options crafted from fresh, local ingredients. The menu will be innovative and constantly updated depending on what is in season. Cribb said his younger brother, Jamie Cribb, who has been cutting his teeth at the Wild Olive on Johns Island near Charleston, will move back to Spartanburg to serve as chef de cuisine at The Kennedy. “He has been learning and has helped in numerous ventures,” the elder Cribb said. “Creatively, he’s as good as I’ve ever been. He’s a hell of a chef.” Patel and Cribb said they hope to hire 20 to 25 employees for the venture. The building is in the process of being renovated. They said The Kennedy’s food will be complemented by a selection of wines, craft beers, and cocktails. Tyger River Smart Farm and a few other local sources will supply most of the eatery’s ingredients. Craig Jacobs, a broker for Spartanburg-based Spencer Hines Properties and a partner in JIM LLC, the group that owns the building across from Spartanburg Community College’s downtown campus, brokered the lease agreement with Cribb and Patel.
| RESTAURANTS | 7
601 South Main Street 864.509.0142 PasserelleinthePark.com
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Coast Apparel opening flagship store in downtown Greenville RUDOLPH BELL | STAFF
rbell@communityjournals.com Greenville-based Coast Apparel hopes to grow into a national brand now that it’s got the backing of a new parent company. Coast is starting its hoped-for conquest of the U.S. fashion market by opening a flagship store in downtown Greenville sometime in the next few weeks. Kerry McLeod, Coast’s new president, said she wasn’t ready to discuss details of the outlet that she and her team are preparing at 324 S. Main St. They’re putting it right next to the headquarters of Delta Apparel, which bought Coast in August, bringing to four the number of clothing brands in its portfolio. McLeod did say the new store near the Peace Center will have about 2,000 square feet of shopping. That’s roughly double the retail space at Coast’s other two brick-and-mortar outlets, one on Augusta Street in Greenville and one on Pawleys Island.
The brand — founded in 2009 by Greenville entrepreneur Chad Odom and business partner Blayne Henderson — also markets its shirts, shorts, and headwear with a crab logo via e-commerce and in about 30 boutiques mostly in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. McLeod is also Delta’s vice president for digital marketing and became Coast president when Delta bought the brand. She said Coast is small now but has a loyal following. “I really think we can grow that nationwide, and globally, if that’s something we choose to do,” McLeod said. In a news release announcing the Coast acquisition, Delta CEO Robert W. Humphreys said Delta planned to “immediately add more Coast retail stores.” And in a Feb. 6 quarterly report, publicly traded Delta said it looked forward to “new opportunities to expand Coast’s wholesale distribution.”
The Coast Apparel store will be located next to the headquarters of Delta Apparel, which bought Coast in August 2016. Photo by Will Crooks.
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| INFRASTRUCTURE | 9
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Alternative to Woodruff Road moves forward RUDOLPH BELL | STAFF
rbell@communityjournals.com City of Greenville officials say they’re almost ready to start building a new road that’s expected to cut traffic on Woodruff Road by more than 20 percent. The half-mile, two-lane connector would run parallel to Woodruff Road from Verdae Boulevard to Woodruff Industrial Lane and use roundabouts to connect with two dead ends along the way, Ketron Court and Green Heron Road. It would give motorists new ways of getting to popular destinations along Woodruff Road without having to drive on the notoriously congested retail corridor itself. For example, motorists could take the proposed route from Verdae Boulevard and drive behind the Nutra Manufacturing plant to get to Target or Trader Joe’s. If they wanted to shop at Costco or Cabela’s, they’d have to cross Woodruff Road but wouldn’t have to spend any other time driving on it.
AECOM, a consultant hired by the city, estimated the proposed route would cut traffic on Woodruff Road by more than 20 percent. “I think it’s going to be a lot safer for our guests,” said Michael Heater, general manager of the Candlewood Suites hotel on Green Heron Road next to the Nutra plant. Right now, the hotel’s guests have no choice but to drive on Woodruff Road, and several guests have had accidents, Heater said. The proposed route would allow them to get back and forth between Interstate 85 via Verdae Boulevard without having to drive on Woodruff Road. If it gets built, “We will change directions on our website,” Heater said. The idea for the improvement surfaced last year when Piedmont Natural Gas told city officials it was planning to build a private road so trucks from its operations center behind Target would have an alternative way of getting out in an
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“We could have just held up our hands and said, ‘Ah, we can’t do anything about Woodruff Road,’ but the city and the county decided, ‘No, we’re going to take some effective, smart steps to relieve the congestion.’” Greenville Mayor Knox White City officials hope to collect the final $400,000 from Woodruff Road businesses in the area of the proposed improvement. Murphy said he doesn’t think that will be a problem. “We hope to be under construction before the end of the year,” he said. Greenville Mayor Knox White said the public-private cooperation to build a public road is very unusual. “We could have just held up our hands and said, ‘Ah, we can’t do anything about Woodruff Road,’ but the city and the county decided, ‘No, we’re going to take some effective, smart steps to relieve the congestion,’” White said.
emergency. When Piedmont asked if there was any interest in expanding the route and making it a public road, city officials jumped at the chance, said Mike Murphy, the city’s director of public works. Piedmont and Verdae Properties, which owns undeveloped land along the proposed route, together agreed to contribute $1.6 million, and Verdae also chipped in right of way valued at another $500,000. Greenville city and county each agreed to contribute $400,000. The project moved forward again on Feb. 23, when the Greenville Legislative Delegation Transportation Committee agreed to add $400,000 toward the $3.7 million cost.
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S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster spoke at the S.C. Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel, held this year at the Spartanburg Marriott.
TOURISM
Officials: SC Tourism grew to $20.2 billion in 2015 South Carolina’s tourism sector continues to boom. For the fourth consecutive year, the industry experienced record growth in
2015, officials announced last week at the S.C. Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel held this year in downtown Spartanburg.
with 2014. One out of every 10 jobs was supported by tourism, and the industry generated $1.5 billion in state and local tax revenues.
Officials said tourism was worth $20.2 billion to the Palmetto State during the year, a 6.1 percent increase compared
While domestic visitor spending grew modestly in 2015, international visitor spending grew by 12.5 percent, and capital investments increased 25 percent. Duane Parrish, director of the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism (SCPRT), said despite the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew, early calculations suggest 2016 could be another banner year for the industry. “This growth was the result of increased consumer confidence boosted by a favorable economy, including lower gas prices,” Parrish said during a ceremony at the Spartanburg Marriott. “Add to that the enormous appeal of South Carolina’s destinations and a tourism industry that promotes these places, and you have a formula for significant economic impact.” The state’s RevPAR, or revenue per available hotel room, increased 7.1 percent in 2016, compared with the previous year. The number reflected a 3.2 percent increase in hotel occupancy and 3.9 percent growth in average daily rates, according to SCPRT. Although the number of hotel rooms in South Carolina has continued to increase steadily every year, the state’s RevPAR for 2016 was 54 percent higher than it was in 2010. “If Boeing will come to South Carolina, if Michelin will come to South Carolina, Mercedes, Volvo... if they will all come to South Carolina, that must be telling us something,” said Gov. Henry McMaster
during the ceremony. “Maybe we’ve got something that we ought to be very proud of and understand it’s very precious.”. — Trevor Anderson
MANUFACTURING
KEMET to acquire Japanese electronics manufacturer Simpsonville-based KEMET Corp., a global supplier of passive electronic components, announced last week that it has signed a definitive agreement to complete the acquisition of NEC Tokin from the NEC Corporation. The acquisition will occur through KEMET's subsidiary KEMET Electronics Corporation (KEC). NEC Tokin, a manufacturer of electronic components, is headquartered in Shendai-Shi, Japan. KEC will pay NEC 6 billion yen (approximately $52.5 million), plus half of the "excess amount" of net cash proceeds from the sale of a division of NEC Tokin, said KEMET officials. KEMET is targeting an April 10 closing date, after which NEC Tokin will change its name to Tokin Corporation and become a wholly owned subsidiary of KEMET. As part of the transaction, NEC Tokin plans to sell its electromechanical devices (EMD) division to NTJ Holdings for approximately 48.2 billion yen (approximately $422 million). The proceeds of the sale will be used to repay an NEC intercompany debt, “resulting in an essentially debt-free balance sheet of NEC Tokin once it is acquired by KEMET,” according to KEMET officials. KEMET will pay one-half of the remaining
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“excess” amount from the sale of the EMD business to NEC.
� A community shred day by Shred Away.
NTJ Holdings is owned by funds managed by Japan Industrial Partners Inc.
� The Brown, Caldwell & Haskell firm held an education session with fifth-grade students in Spartanburg County School District 6.
“Our improved balance sheet position, combined EBITDA, and leverage statistics should enable us to refinance our existing debt at improved interest rates, resulting in less cash interest expense and providing additional earnings per share for our shareholders,” said KEMET CEO Per Loof in a statement. NEC Tokin has manufacturing facilities and offices throughout Japan, as well as in Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Shanghai, Germany, and France, and in the U.S. in Chicago; Austin, Texas; and San Jose, Calif., according to its website. —Staff Report
UTILITIES
Spartanburg Water's Community Benefit Program picking up steam Spartanburg Water hopes to unleash a flood of support for local charities and schools. The utility, headquartered in downtown Spartanburg, introduced its Community Benefit Program as part of its procurement policy in April 2015. Under the initiative, Spartanburg Water’s suppliers are encouraged to create their own programs aimed at improving the community as part of their participation in projects for and contracts with the utility. Sue Schneider, CEO of Spartanburg Water, said during the past year 14 vendors participated in the program and gave $45,000 in donations and volunteer hours to a variety of organizations across the county. She hopes to see the program continue to pick up steam. “We’re so excited about the impact it has made during the past year,” said Schneider, who developed the program after seeing one implemented by a utility on the West Coast. “We weren’t sure how it would go… It has been well received.” The list of projects that have resulted from the program so far include:
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� Cintas pledged to increase employee contributions to the United Way of the Piedmont by 15 percent per year during the life of its contract with Spartanburg Water. � The accounting firm McAbee, Schwartz, Halliday & Co. provided a monetary donation to the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg, the Walker Foundation, and the Charles Lea Center. For more information on Spartanburg Water’s Community Benefit Program, call Schneider at 864-580-5647 or visit www.spartanburgwater.org /spartanburgwater-org-community-benefit-program. — Trevor Anderson
Josh Dodson, co-owner of New Groove Artisan Brewery
BEER
taught percussion at Dorman High School. He “got the bug” for making beer after he entered one of his brews in a contest and won.
walk-in cooler. They expect the interior of the brewery to start to take shape in the coming weeks when the renovations kick into high gear.
The owners of a new craft beer brewery in Spartanburg County said they expect to open April 15.
Dodson recently sold his kitchen hood cleaning business, Greasepro LLC, in order to pursue brewing full-time.
Dodson said he anticipates New Groove’s “brewhouse” will arrive the first week of March. —Trevor Anderson
New Groove Artisan Brewery set for spring opening
Josh Dodson and Jonathan Duke, owners of New Groove Artisan Brewery, are busy renovating a 4,100-squarefoot space at 4078 Highway 9 in Boiling Springs that previously housed a Tornados convenience store.
The owners have received some of their equipment, including tanks and a
Dodson and Duke, a couple of hobby brewers who met and became friends through the Spartanburg Brew Club, said they received their federal permit on Valentine’s Day. They hope to receive their state licenses soon and begin hiring for four new jobs at the beginning of April. Dodson said the owners kicked off a 30-day capital campaign via the crowdfunding website Indigogo in early February. That campaign ended March 2, but they have the option to continue it.
Downtown Market
He said people who give to the campaign will be eligible to receive perks, including merchandise deals and special rates on group membership packages.
Join the ever-growing roster of local vendors for our market in the heart of the Upstate.
“There seems to be a pretty good buzz out there in the community,” Dodson said. “We welcome donations. We have great plans for this space, but additional funding will go a long way.”
gspairport.com
Duke, a native of Carrolton, Ga., previously
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COMPANIES BLAZING A TRAIL IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
‘Black Gold’ Rolls of innocuous black plastic are laid out on a worktable. It doesn’t look like much. You might think the material was destined to become a lawn and leaf bag. But it is what the partners in Sencorables call “The Black Gold.” The film is really a pressure-sensitive polymer infused with an average of 340 sensing points per square foot, the invention of Dr. Andrew Clark, and it is poised to disrupt the IoT landscape. Sencorables, a Greenville startup, is fueled by the innovation of Clark, the financial resources and vision of CEO Willem Biesheuvel, and the operational experience of COO Robert Fields. Sencorables’ polymer is the result of more than a decade of research, testing, and revision that has also received four U.S. patents with a fifth pending. It is ultra-thin, light, indestructible, and strong — capable of withstanding 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. According to Fields, it is “the second strongest polymer in the world.” But its malleability can enable it to be used in any product from shoes to beds to baseball bats. The near-endless array of potential uses can turn a conversation with Biesheuvel into a rapid-fire litany of “think about this,” “what if you could” ideas. “We have so many possibilities, but we needed to focus,” so Biesheuvel explains, “We said, ‘Let’s focus on the flooring industry.’” Sencorables’ customer is not the consumer, but flooring manufacturers and software companies and integrators. The first flooring products the company is focusing on are standalone mats. By April 1, they plan to have 2,500 square yards of material to be used in 5,000 mats.
THE FIRST STEP A Dutch national who has lived and worked in the Middle East since the early 2000s, Biesheuvel had been a partner in Libel Sun Control & Façade Solutions, providing exterior wrapping solutions for commercial and residential buildings in Dubai. “I always thought if I could create a tablet I could walk on, that could send signals to the building management system … that would be a lot easier,” says Biesheuvel, noting that some Dubai buildings utilize as many as 40,000 sensors in different automation systems just to determine presence. “But I never knew how to build it.” In early 2015, he learned he didn’t have to build it. Maybe Clark, who was seeking funding for a Kickstarter campaign, already had. By February, the two were talking; by July, they had samples.
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Sencorables is disrupting the internet of things one step at a time, with a high-tech polymer that can sense footsteps Words Laura Haight | Photos Will Crooks
Fields, a turnaround expert whose Charleston company helped more than 20 businesses develop and manufacture products in textile, automotive, and chemical industries, was already partnered with Clark’s Sensor Tech Corp., a precursor to Sencorables. Fields was used to getting phone calls about the sensors, but the people on the other end of the line were less interested in investing in the company. Biesheuvel was different. When he didn’t balk at putting money on the table, Fields thought, “Whoa, maybe this is real.” For his part, Biesheuvel was so convinced that they had something that could “change the world” that he sold his shares of Libel, invested significantly, and moved his family to Greenville so he could actively help direct the development of the product.
APPLICATIONS FROM THE HOME TO HOMELAND SECURITY Ideas come fast and furious and there seems to be no limit to the partners’ view of what can be done to improve automation technology, optimize building management, and enhance safety and security. What becomes reality? Well, that remains to be seen. But here are some realistic applications Biesheuvel ticked off as examples. • Home automation products utilize Wi-Fi and apps to connect with smartphones. But they can be more useful. For example, the hardwood flooring in your kitchen with an underlayment of the Sencorables’ polymer can talk to your internet-connected stove and let it know that there has been no movement in the house for more than 30 minutes. That could trigger a text that tells you a burner might still be on in the kitchen. • Children not living nearby need better ways to stay in touch with their senior parents. Connected through an application, sensors embedded in the bedding could send a message if it’s 10 a.m. and your elderly mom hasn’t gotten up yet. Flooring sensors can detect when someone is “down” on the floor as opposed to standing, so a life-alert type of service could be notified that a parent is apparently down and EMTs could be dispatched more quickly. • Airports have serious security issues related to employees. Authorized employees may need badges to access secure areas. But an authorized employee can let in others who do not have badges. The sensors in the floor can signal the badge security system that while one badge was presented, three people entered the area. That could trigger a video link or a text to security.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
Where does Sencorables sit in the internet of things (IoT)? “We have developed a technology that allows us to detect the presence, movement, and direction of people in real time,” says Biesheuvel. “Everyone is trying to do this with motion and detection sensors and video cameras that feed data to algorithms and ultimately calculate the probability that a certain number of people are in a particular place.” Sencorables embraces the principle that the floor is the most natural place to learn how many people are in a place, what they are or aren’t doing, and where they have been or are going. The sensors can determine not only that someone is in the room, but whether they are sitting or standing, whether they are a child or an adult, and whether they are lying down or may have fallen. They can track your movements because footprints are as unique as fingerprints. With the multi-touch polymer embedded in or under the flooring, Sencorables gathers massive numbers of data points, which it can translate into usable information and send it to other home automation or building management systems. These could be heating and air conditioning, home appliances, emergency services, health care, or the manufacturing floor. The key to applications like this is finding the right partners. Being selected as a Microsoft BizSpark Plus partner has opened a lot of doors. For starters, the company received $120,000 worth of cloud services, giving them a lot more flexibility for testing and experimentation, according to Biesheuvel. But they have also consulted on the business model, offered advice on software, and provided introductions to important contacts and potential customers. “I never thought they would do what they have done,” says Biesheuvel. “When we started out, we thought we were going to change the world,” recalls Biesheuvel. “But we’ve learned our lesson. We are just part of the total solution. We focus on giving you valuable data and with that data you, as a system integrator or software designer, can choose to do anything you want with it. “You can make beautiful combinations.”
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COMPANIES BLAZING A TRAIL IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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The Partners Willem Biesheuvel, CEO. Educated in The Netherlands, where he received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a Master of Business Administration with majors in international finance and marketing. Worked in managerial roles for Hunter Douglas in Europe and the Middle East before joining Libel Sun Control & Façade Solutions as a partner in 2005.
Dr. Andrew Clark, CTO. Clark holds four U.S. patents for the sensor design and polymer development. Clark received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. from Clemson. Joris Vreeburg (not pictured). Vreeburg, a Dubai resident, is a managing director at Kokomo Capital Management. He is an investor and has also contributed advice on strategic and financial plans.
Robert Fields, COO. A graduate of Duke University with a bachelor’s in economics, Fields has been a real estate developer and a partner or advisor to dozens of businesses. He’s been a guest lecturer in the bioengineering department at Clemson University on patents.
SENCORABLES: STEPS IN TIME May 2007: Dr. Andrew Clark receives his Ph.D. in bioengineering from Clemson and establishes SensorTech to continue his research into sensors and polymers.
May 2012: Robert Fields joins SensorTech as interim CEO. September 2013: Fields and Clark leave SensorTech and launch Sensor Film Kit.
February 2015: Willem Biesheuvel gets involved with Sensor Film Kit after coming across a Kickstarter campaign.
July 2015: Sencorables is founded. August 2016: Selected as a “high potential” BizSpark partner by Microsoft. February 2017: Announces $3.5 million expansion and planned hiring of 25 engineers by 2020.
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CLEMSON BUSINESS GROWTH
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CLEMSON 2.0 Not just a college town anymore, the city is nurturing a startup culture, attracting and keeping entrepreneurs — and feeling its growing pains
Words David Dykes | Photos Will Crooks
Eric Newton, broker-in-charge and owner of Tiger Properties, a real estate agency and management company, is a Clemson University graduate and lifelong Clemson resident. “One of the things that always amazed me is more businesses didn’t want to stay here in town and continue to do business,” he said. Startup ventures wouldn’t stay in Clemson because they couldn’t find affordable space in a collaborative environment, Newton said. So the finance major with a concentration in real estate came up with a solution: think tanks, where startup businesses can locate and people can work and collaborate in shared space. The Think Tank on Sloan was Newton’s first. The office space, in what once was a floral shop just off College Avenue, is in the center of downtown Clemson and close to the university campus. It has 10 offices and shared amenities such as a copier, Wi-Fi, conference room, and restrooms. Newton, who holds the master lease on the property, spent $80,000 on the building upfit. The Think Tank on McCollum was his second. It’s also close to downtown Clemson and the university’s campus. Coming soon is his third, Issaqueena, located in a 9,000-square-foot former bingo parlor in east Clemson. It will
have 10 office spaces, event space for 350 people, and a members-only social club. Newton bought the property with two partners last year and they plan commercial/wet-dry lab space and possibly a residential component at the 4-acre site. “Part of my vision for the Think Tank spaces is to create unique but affordable collaborative spaces for companies to cultivate their ideas, with the expectation of growing their businesses in the Clemson market,” Newton said. “Over time, there have been a lot of people that have felt like they wanted to make it feel more like a small town,” he said. “Now the pressures, with the university growing, enrollment and everything, that’s going to be difficult.” TIGERS AND TOWNIES COLLABORATE One of McCollum’s tenants is Aptus Bioreactors, whose team supports researchers creating the next generation of heart-valve replacements. Lee Sierad and Michael Cater work in a cramped, 150-square-foot corner office that they say is just fine. On a recent weekday, Sierad explained he was filling out paperwork for a subaward on a $400,000 grant with Clemson, “so I need to be close to the university.”
“We’re producing equipment that they’re using, collaborating really closely with them, and there wasn’t really anything like this space here in Clemson,” he said. Tom Winkopp, a Clemson developer, said Newton “has done a great job” capturing smaller users with his thinktank space approach. Much of the future of Clemson’s business environment, for now, will depend on the university’s growth, Winkopp said. The incubators and startup companies will come as students and others stay in the area. “In a small market like Clemson, so much of the business demand is going to be at the university,” he said. “They’ve got plenty of room on campus to build all the office space they need. From the private sector’s standpoint, there’s some risk involved in just speculating on building a bunch of office space.” In the meantime, large users in Clemson are tough to find, he said. His 25,000 square feet of office space downtown is filled mainly with two users, and “I don’t have a lot of people banging on my door asking for large spaces,” Winkopp said. The university has grown significantly in the last five to seven years, while enrollment is projected to reach 30,000 in the next few years. A lot of stu-
dent-housing developers, including Winkopp, have targeted the area and downtown in particular. “All things being equal, students want to walk to campus, they want to walk to the bars,” Winkopp said. “The issue is when you build downtown, the land, the type of construction, it is so expensive. There’s only so much demand for that.” With the enrollment growth, though, goods and services will be needed, which will mean more opportunity for retail that is shared by students and nonstudents, Winkopp said. “At some point, there will be clear demand for some of the larger office spaces,” he said. Large office users “have yet to reveal themselves here.” That’s partly because those users can choose the attractiveness of Greenville, Charlotte, or Atlanta, he said. “We’re still kind of a sleepy college town,” he said. “Somebody would make the argument ‘we’re just going to go to Greenville’ for a big office-type user and/or they’re going to locate in partnership with the university on campus.” The city and university have “as good a relationship as you’ll find in the country,” Winkopp said. Growth has brought more people and traffic, and many people resist the change, he said. CLEMSON continued on PAGE 16
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“If we could keep them here and they could develop their business here … it’ll just make this whole community a much better place for everyone.” Eric Newton
Eric Newton, broker-in-charge and owner, Tiger Properties
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CLEMSON BUSINESS GROWTH
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“It’s a much different place than it was in the ’90s, the ’80s, and the ’70s, and people still say it’s better than ever,” he said. “Bigger isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you live here and you’ve lived here your whole life, some of the changes probably don’t sit well with you, which I completely understand. That’s human nature.” LANDLOCKED AND LOOKING FOR ROOM TO BUILD Since the city essentially is landlocked, much of the future development will have to be infill within the existing community, “which means you’ve got to tear down stuff that’s there to make room for the new,” Winkopp said. “And that’s always painful for people that live in the community.” “It may be a blighted area or something that doesn’t look great, but it’s what they’re used to.” Combine that with the need for affordable housing — under $200,000 — and a huge development challenge looms, he said. “If you have to go in and pay an enormous price for property, and then tear down what’s there and then build, you can’t get in that $200,000 range,” Winkopp said. “You crowd out a lot of the people that would love to experience Clemson.” Todd Steadman, the city’s planning and codes director, said commercial development space is currently tight but there is going to be commensurate space available as development occurs. “The fact remains that the commercial clientele will always reflect the dominant customer base, which is 18–25 year olds,” he said. The nonstudent population inside the Clemson city limits is about 8,000, he said. The on-campus student enrollment is about 23,000, he said. “Would many of our citizens love to see a specialty bakery, wine and cheese shop, high-end boutiques, gourmet dining, and a Whole Foods? Absolutely,” Steadman said. “But the nonstudent population base is, in most cases, inadequate to make such places financially viable. Until and unless student desires change, student bars, pizza and sub shops, and other collegiately trendy shops will prevail. It’s a matter of metrics.” Steadman said that based on the projected enrollment and increase in on-campus student housing at Clemson, the majority of the new students will
The Think Tank on McCollum was Newton's second think tank space. It’s close to downtown Clemson and the university’s campus. not be living in the city. “This is a concern in regard to the student life experience,” he said. “While no doubt there will be more student housing built in Clemson, most of the new student housing will occur elsewhere, and most likely it will occur in what is currently unincorporated Pickens, Anderson, or Oconee County.” Meanwhile, the city has reached its sewer capacity for the campus side of town, so some project developers are being told they cannot build now, Steadman said. Another quality of life concern is commuting, he said. “Absent advanced planning, student housing projects are going to spring up around the periphery of town, and there’s a good chance CAT [the local transit system] will not be servicing them,” Steadman said. “As a result, commute times will be much longer than what the current student population experiences and will require more commuter parking on campus. This will also create problems for the citizenry due to vehicular arteries becoming more clogged. Let's call it carteriosclerosis. This will manifest via time, money, and frustration.” CLEMSON IS ‘DIFFERENT — BUT BETTER’ NOW Steadman’s hope is that the city and university find a way to work together to direct — or at least strongly influence — where this necessary growth will occur. In addition, there is a clear need for non-undergraduate student housing, Steadman said. Married students, postgraduates, young faculty, staff, and many others working in and serving the Clemson area find it difficult to find affordable housing for rent or sale, he said. “Studies and models show that this
is a difficult conundrum as the market usually dictates pricing,” Steadman said. But the city and university are committed to finding solutions, he said. A recent survey showed that “affordable
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Clemson many of us knew and loved is gone. It is. In many ways, we are better today than 10, 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Different for sure — but better. That goes for both sides of Bowman Field.” “Regardless, we are still one Clemson,” he said. “And we are at a juncture. The city and the university have worked together to make some very good decisions over the decades. But we have also missed some opportunities — individually and collectively — to manage our growth and common objectives. The good news is we are all committed to making the Clemson experience the best it can be now and for future generations.” For his part, Newton witnessed a growth spurt in Clemson between 2003–2005, which led to the birth of Tiger Properties. He had been working in single-family residential development and the new business helped bail
Newton founded Tiger Properties following Clemson's growth spurt between 2003–2005. housing” is considered as move-in ready in the $150,000 range, he said. “This is difficult to achieve in Clemson with land costs being what they are,” Steadman said. The city “is in no way second-guessing” the need for the university to grow, he said. “But the two are symbiotic and have a wonderful opportunity to entrench our Town and Gown status. To that mutually beneficial end, if we can agree on a location or locations for a ‘student village or villages’ and work out the services through either annexation or an intergovernmental agreement, the key to success will be providing transit to move these students in a reliable, timely, and efficient manner.” “Let's face it,” Steadman said. “The
him out of the recession as student housing boomed, Newton said. He acts as a third-party management company. He talks excitedly about his thinktank spaces because he believes more startup and entrepreneurial companies are coming to Clemson and that will be a boon to the region. “You just never know how they could evolve,” he said. “They could end up being the next best thing. They could be the next biggest thing out there… If we could keep them here and they could develop their businesses here, then they’re more likely to contribute to the community. They’re more likely to contribute to the university, and it’ll just make this whole community a much better place for everyone.”
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CLEMSON BUSINESS GROWTH
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s the former head of claims and
operations at New York’s American Insurance Group, Eric Martinez has seen countless cases of unnecessary workplace injuries and fatalities. Now he’s developing wearable technology that could prevent both. It began when Martinez became disenchanted with the insurance industry last year. “When you have a job in claims, you see a lot of bad stuff happen. I just needed to get away,” Martinez said. “I spent about a month hiking through South America to really clear my head and figure out my next move.” While hiking through the mountains of Patagonia in Argentina, that move came to him. “When you’re hiking, all you can do is think. I thought of a wearable belt that could use sensors to prevent workplace injuries, especially back strains,” he said. Martinez returned home that spring and established a company, Modjoul, in downtown Clemson. “I decided to come back to Clemson because rent is cheap, labor is in demand, and the university is nearby,” said Martinez, a Clemson University graduate. While Martinez had a rough sketch of his idea, he didn’t have the skills to actually build the belt. He recruited more than 10 graduate students from Clemson University and Dr. Goutam Koley, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also hired Jen Thorson, AIG’s former strategic planning director, as CEO. Now, Modjoul has developed a connected, wearable belt that uses more than 20 sensors to track the safety and performance of employees in various industries, including health care, construction, manufacturing, and more. “We’re targeting blue-collar industries, because their employees are lifting stuff during the day and always moving,” Martinez said.
SENSORS WORKING OVERTIME Eric Martinez, founder, Modjoul Photo by Will Crooks
Safety First, Last, and Always How Modjoul plans to reduce workplace injuries with wearable technology
Modjoul’s connected, wearable belt can sense: • • • • • • • • • • •
Running, walking, sitting, lifting, and climbing Body position Upper and lower body movements Back strain Pressure, speed, and angle Idle time Effective pay percentage Time to exit a vehicle Work location Floor movements and driver telematics Near-real-time record of safety events (from basic slips to auto accidents)
ANDREW MOORE | STAFF
amoore@communityjournals.com MODJOUL continued on PAGE 18
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MODJOUL continued from PAGE 17
The sensors, which range from an accelerometer to GPS, are capable of measuring how many times, how high, and how long an employee works from heights; identifying a slip, trip, or fall as it happens; and measuring aggressive driving behaviors, such as hard braking, speeding, acceleration, texting, cornering, and more. “Every movement has a digital signature that can be modeled,” Martinez said. “Our belt essentially improves employee safety, while providing revolutionary new insights to the employer about its operations.” The data, which is encrypted to protect an employee’s personal information, is sent to the cloud, where a set of formulas calculate and present readable metrics on a mobile device or web browser, where it can be viewed by the employee, supervisor, or risk manager, according to Martinez. That could save companies billions of dollars, Martinez said. In fact, workplace injuries cost U.S. companies roughly $62 billion per year, according to the 2016 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index. “We’re providing management advanced insights into potential workplace safety issues by providing predictive data analytics and modeling that allow them to correct possible workplace safety issues,” Martinez said. According to Martinez, the belt will be capable of recording whether an event actually happened, which will eliminate reporting fraud; detail the severity of an event, which will combat injury exaggeration; and create new data for management to prevent repeatable injuries in the workplace. FROM STARTUP TO TECH GIANT Modjoul plans to begin preordering and production sometime this spring. Despite that, the company has already sold an estimated $1.4 million in belts and cloud subscriptions to eight insurance companies and three corporate companies, which includes the Spangler Candy Company, best known for its Dum Dum lollipops. “Any employee has the potential for workplace injuries if they’re not careful. We’re using this belt to look for the health issues that appear later down the road. Those are the ones that cost us the most,” said Spangler Candy Company’s Health, Safety,
and Environmental Director Nathan Barry. Spangler and other companies plan to test 100 belts each in March, allowing Modjoul to remedy any problems before final production. Martinez has big plans for his new company. “Ultimately, you have to scale and grow pretty quickly,” he said. “Insurance companies offer the best route for that to happen, because they have a vested interest.” He added that insurance companies will purchase the belts on behalf of their customers to see if they can improve their safety record. “Insurance companies are faced with a decision of raising rates, dropping them completely, or leaving the status quo. They would rather just leave items to the status quo.”
Bee A BETTER
As the company continues to garner more customers and employees, Martinez hopes to expand to Greenville. “There’s just a lack of space and connectivity in Clemson. It’s not the easiest place to start a business, because it’s been developed for selling T-shirts and beer,” Martinez said. “Our location in downtown Clemson will remain the quirky research and development space.” The company’s expansion could bring more than 100 jobs to the Upstate if it establishes a new headquarters in Greenville, according to Martinez, who is going to begin searching for new spaces later this year.
A spelling competition among corporate teams of 4 featuring emcee JDew. Bring your enthusiasm!
GREENVILLE A D U L T
S P E L L I N G
B E E
Details & Registration Information: GreenvilleLiteracy.org/bee
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Thursday, March 30 from 6-9 pm at Larkin’s Sawmill To BEE involved, contact Eleanor Vaughn at (864) 467-3458 or vaughn@greenvilleliteracy.org.
Sponsored by Greenville Journal
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CLEMSON BUSINESS GROWTH
| COVER | 19
Recovr Inc. founders Austen Hayes, left, and Larry Hodges, right, demonstrate how “Duck, Duck, Punch” works. Photo by Clemson University.
Duck and Recover The Clemson entrepreneurs behind Recovr help stroke survivors with video game ANDREW MOORE | STAFF
amoore@communityjournals.com For stroke victims, therapy can be physically and mentally exhausting as they repeat the same workouts day in and day out just to regain their ability to complete the simplest of tasks, such as picking up a pencil. But Clemson’s Recovr Inc. is turning physical therapy into a game, not a chore. Five years ago, Austen Hayes, then a graduate student at Clemson University’s College of Engineering and Science, and Larry Hodges, a computing professor, teamed up and created the computer game “Duck, Duck, Punch.” The game aims to improve the arm mobility of stroke patients, who sit or stand in front of a television or computer and hit rubber ducks as they go by on the screen. When patients reach out, a virtual arm on the screen knocks down the ducks, earning them points. “We’re on the cusp of something big,” says Hayes, the company’s CEO. “There is a $17-billion stroke rehabilitation market in the U.S. alone. The need
for this kind of therapy is expected to more than double by 2030, according to the National Stroke Association.” About 800,000 strokes happen each year in the United States, with more than 7 million survivors suffering a long-term stroke disability. In many cases, stroke patients become discouraged when they can’t perform the tasks they once completed easily and discontinue their treatment after leaving therapy. Patients usually do only 10 percent of the recommended daily therapy exercises, Hayes says. “Duck, Duck, Punch,” which can be played in hospitals and homes, has increased their exercise repetitions during pilot studies. “It has just blown away therapists that patients are following up on their own between therapy sessions,” Hayes says. Some studies have revealed at least a 15 percent improvement in arm mobility in one week of using the game. When Greenville resident Nancy Bunch suffered a stroke, she spent weeks in recovery, unable to move her arm. Then her therapist had her play the game, and one year later, she was able to drive herself to the grocery store.
“This really needs to be in hospitals all around the country,” Bunch says. “For me, it represented hope, hope for the hopeless. I am so thankful.” The company recently received approval from the FDA to market the game as a medical device, now called the Recovr Rehabilitation System. It allows therapists to use the game to record patient progress and provide analytic data. Recovr has received thousands of dollars in startup capital from Greenville’s Concepts to Companies, a firm that focuses on transforming academic ideas into commercial enterprise by investing capital and offering business expertise. “It shows that South Carolina has high-quality intellectual capital. There is a huge need for this kind of product, and it’s growing. We’re expecting big things from Recovr,” says John Warner, Concepts to Companies founder and Recovr Inc. director. The game is currently used by the Medical University of South Carolina and various other facilities throughout the country. Hayes says Recovr plans to expand by creating new games that could help patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and more.
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REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION
TREVOR ANDERSON | STAFF tanderson@communityjournals.com |
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@AndersonTrev
In addition to the Villas, Hamilton Point Investment owns more than 20 apartment communities in the Carolinas, Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, Connecticut, and Indiana.
Connecticut firm buys Boiling Springs’ Villas at Lawson Creek The Villas at Lawson Creek, a 202-unit apartment community in Boiling Springs, was recently sold for $19 million. Spartanburg County property records showed Connecticut-based Hamilton Point Investments purchased the multifamily complex at 9159 Asheville Highway from Greenville-based Graycliff Capital Partners on Jan. 12. Built in 2009, the Villas at Lawson Creek has a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, a cardio fitness center, movie theater, tropical pool, two-story clubhouse, business center, community pavilion, patio, sunrooms, car care facility, and a 24-hour laundry facility, according to Graycliff Capital Partners. Chris Yeagle and Kyle Chase with On Eleven Partners, headquartered in Mt. Pleasant, brokered the deal. “There has been over $15 billion in capital investments in the Greenville-Spartanburg market in the last nine years and $400 million in announcements during the last quarter of 2016,” Yeagle said in a statement. “These capital investments in the Upstate will continue to bring strong job and population growth to the area.” Graycliff Capital Partners said it
owns about 4,000 units and has completed more than $500 million in acquisition and development transactions since 2009. Hamilton Point Investments, founded in 2009 by Matt Sharp and David Kelsey, owns 23 apartment communities in the Carolinas, Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, Connecticut, and Indiana, according to the company’s website. The Villas at Lawson Creek is the only facility the company owns in the Greenville-Spartanburg area.
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MOVERS, SHAKERS, AND DISRUP TORS SHAPING OUR FUTURE
| INNOVATE | 21
Giving credit: The fertilizer of innovation By BRENT WARWICK Partner, ipsoCreative
There is a distinctive hallmark of innovative cultures: Credit is freely given to those who have led or contributed to innovation. Innovation is largely an organic process. It’s difficult to force an innovative outcome through a process. As in gardening, you can follow a process perfectly and yet your yield is still utterly dependent on many factors outside of the process that you hope to control. So it’s worth noting that one of the things that is within our control is cultivating a culture of giving credit where credit is due. This simple idea is the fertilizer of innovation. Without it, innovation may still grow, but it will not flourish to its fullest potential.
OUR ESTIMATIONS ARE BIASED At root level, the challenge we all face in giving credit where credit is due is the fact that we overestimate our contributions to innovation and we underestimate contributions made by others. It’s doubtful that anyone would argue a counterpoint to this, but it’s astonishing to see how blind we are to our own biases in this regard. When you stop to consider it, it’s easy to understand why our blindness exists. We are the curators of our own thoughts, and we have a tendency to protect our notions of self-worth by oftentimes ascribing more value to our own efforts (real or just perceived) than what is warranted. Couple this with the fact that socially we are interacting with others who are doing the same, and that causes the “algebraic” equation of credit to be unbalanced. With multiple people vying for credit, it becomes impossible for all parties to receive the credit that they believe is due to them. That then can cause us to perceive that we are in a credit-deficit, which compels us to more actively seek our own credit in the future. In a sense, this cycle can become the opposite of a pay-it-forward philosophy and we therefore collectively carry a credit-deficit forward, which inhibits more than just innovation.
OPPORTUNISTS: THE GARDEN PESTS OF INNOVATION It’s one thing to stifle a culture of innovation through your own bias (at least you can change that once you are aware of it), but it’s another thing for innovation to flourish when invaded by opportunists. I think we often view charismatic, take-charge individuals as key components to organizational success (and they can be). But when those individuals exploit circumstances to gain short-term advantage, they are essentially the garden pests of innovation. This seems to be especially true among organizational middle management. Sure, there are opportunists among all strata of organizations, but middle management often has the most pressure to perform in order to justify their role and they have the most tempting circumstances to claim credit in ways that won’t send up noticeable red flags within the organization (much like when top-level management attempts to claim credit and everyone in the organization notices). The net result is that these small credit land-grabs demoralize the individuals and teams of people who truly contribute to the small innovations that take place on any given day. Eventually, a spirit of innovation dies on the vine. Weeding out opportunists may seem painful in the short term, but the longterm cultural gain is exponentially more impactful.
When we free ourselves from the tyranny of receiving credit to our name, we can then be free to give credit where credit is due. knowledge this and when we free ourselves from the tyranny of receiving credit to our name, we can then be free to give credit where credit is due. That is the fertilizer of innovation, and that is how we can effectively cultivate a
culture of innovation that reseeds itself perennially. If innovation matters, then freedom matters.
FREEDOM IS THE KEY If we truly want to create, preserve, or foster a culture of innovation, it fundamentally starts with a collective freedom from the outcome. When we get tied up in the result, we will inevitably make choices that we think will lead to the intended result and we will want to ensure that we receive credit for those choices. The irony in this, especially in terms of innovation, is that truly innovative actions do not have a guaranteed result. We cannot definitively know the outcome. So it is foolish to scramble for credit for an outcome we cannot truly expect. When we ac-
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Bo Matheny | 864.616.4081 | Bo@MarchantCo.com
22 | SOCIAL SNAPSHOT |
INSIDE THE UPSTATE’S NETWORKING AND SOCIAL SCENE
SPARTANBURG CHAMBER FYI FRIDAY Last Friday, the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce hosted FYI Friday at the Spartanburg Marriott. Tara Sherbert and a panel of specialists discussed how they transformed the old Drayton Mill into the mixed-use community space that it is today. Photos provided.
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INSIDE THE UPSTATE’S NETWORKING AND SOCIAL SCENE
| SOCIAL SNAPSHOT | 23
BUSINESS POWER PLAY Last week, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits hosted the second annual Business Power Play event at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Photos provided.
24 | ON THE MOVE |
UBJ
PLAY-BY-PLAY OF UPSTATE CAREERS
HIRED
LAURA TWOMEY Joined LS3P’s Greenville office as an interior designer. Twomey earned a Bachelor of Science in interior design from High Point University and a Master of Business Administration from Weber University in Greenville. Twomey’s professional and community outreach includes membership in the Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society in Business and the National Society of Leadership and Success. She also founded a student chapter of ASID at High Point University and volunteers for the junior Diabetes Research Foundation.
AWARDED
HONORED
KIMBERLY WITHERSPOON Received the Young Professional of the Year Award at the Greenville Chamber’s 128th Annual Meeting. Awarded to an individual between the ages of 22 and 39, the Young Professional of the Year Award recognizes his or her exemplary involvement in the community. A shareholder in Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd’s Greenville office, Witherspoon is a part of the firm’s public finance group, where she serves as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, borrower’s counsel, and corporate counsel in various financing structures.
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HIRED
FRANK DEANGELO
SHERRY TATE
LORAIN CROWL
Named 2016 Person of the Year by SCORE International Off-Road Racing. DeAngelo, the executive director of motorsports and client relations for Jackson Marketing, Motorsports & Events, is the fourth person in SCORE history to twice be honored as Person of the Year. DeAngelo also helped develop the trophy truck division in off-road desert racing and the FORDBFGoodrich Rough Riders Off-Road Racing Team. In 2016, after 38 years of involvement with SCORE Baja races, DeAngelo won the stock full class in the SCORE International Baja 1000 as a member of the legendary Rod Hall Racing Team.
Joined Coldwell Banker Caine as a residential sales agent in its Greenville office. A longtime Greenville resident, Tate moved to the area in 1985. She attended the University of Georgia and is involved in several Upstate organizations as a volunteer, including Greenville High School, Westminster Presbyterian Church, and Junior League.
Named chief development officer for United Housing Connections. Crowl is a native of Greenville and a graduate of Lander University. She has been a development officer for nearly 20 years, raising funds for nonprofit organizations across the Upstate. At Upstate Housing Connections, her primary role is to develop an annual fundraising program for the organization that will diversify funding and develop additional community and individual support. In addition, she assists other nonprofit organizations in strategic planning and board development through seminars and one-on-one consultations.
VIP JAMES P. CLEMENTS The Clemson University board of trustees approved an extension of president James P. Clements’ contract through Feb. 2, 2022. The original contract for Clements, who became Clemson’s 15th president on Dec. 31, 2013, was set to expire at the end of 2018. During Clements’ tenure, the university completed a major academic restructuring that led to Clemson’s academic programs being organized into seven colleges. In addition, the university launched its ClemsonForward 10-year strategic plan and has made a significant commitment to upgrading academic, student life, and athletics facilities under Clements’ leadership. Clements also has led the effort to fill nearly three-dozen academic and administrative leadership positions since arriving at Clemson.
BIOTECHNOLOGY Erin Ford, an experienced life science executive and economic development professional, has been named chair of the board of directors for South Carolina Biotechnology Industry Organization (SCBIO) for 2017. Ford is director of sales at Poly-Med Inc. of Anderson, a global innovation company developing leading-edge absorbable polymers and constructs for the medical device industry. Prior to her role at Poly-Med Inc., Ford was a life science business recruitment officer at Upstate SC Alliance. She formerly served as an ex-officio SCBIO board member
from 2013 to 2015 and led a regional biosciences task force comprised of industry executives from the Upstate. Other new executive officers for 2017 are Craig Walker, vice chair and CEO of VidiStar LLC of Greenville; Michael Rusnak, treasurer and executive director of MUSC’s Foundation for Research Development; and Terrell Mills, executive committee and attorney at Wyche of Greenville.
REAL ESTATE BlackStream Christie’s International Real Estate Greenville office announces
two additions to the team. Holly May joins BlackStream with more than 14 years of experience in the real estate industry. Steven DeLisle also joins the office with a background in graphic design and real estate.
LAW Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart P.C. announces that Lucas Asper and Ellis Fisher have been elected to the position of shareholder. Asper and Fisher practice in the firm’s Greenville office.
CONTRIBUTE: New hires, promotions, & award winners may be featured in On the Move. Send information and photos to onthemove@ upstatebusinessjournal. com.
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PLAY-BY-PLAY OF UPSTATE CAREERS
| NEW TO THE STREET / THE FINE PRINT | 25
Open for business 1
Photo provided
1. BenchMark Physical Therapy celebrated the opening of their new location at 2603 North Pleasantburg Drive, Unit D, in Greenville. Learn more at bmrp.com/ benchmarkpt. 2. South & West recently opened at 109 S. First St. in downtown Easley. Learn more about the new event venue at thesouthandwest.com.
CONTRIBUTE: Know of a business opening soon? Email information to aturner @communityjournals.com.
Laurens Electric Cooperative expands community solar program
This summer, Laurens Electric Cooperative (LEC) plans to add 150 kilowatts (kW) of capacity to its community solar program. The company’s Mauldin solar farm will add 60 kW, and a 90 kW solar array will be built at its Laurens headquarters. The community solar program allows members to use solar power without having panels installed on their property. LEC is preselling 150 kW to members on a first-come, firstserved basis. Members can subscribe to a maximum of 5 kW units at the program site for a 20-year period. For the average LEC member, 1 kW will cover 12.5 percent of a home’s energy use. Members pay a one-time $20 administrative fee for participating in the program, an upfront charge of $50 per kW unit, and a $14 monthly charge per kW unit. Members receive a monthly credit of 10 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) produced. For more information, visit communitysolar.laurenselectric.com or call 1-800942-3141.
Don’t Miss Out!
To feature your own business or to suggest a busin ess you would like to se e in Behind The Counter, call today 864-679-1 205.
Coming April ’17 View the 2016 book at: bit.ly/2016BTC
26 | #TRENDING |
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INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW
OVERHEARD @ THE WATERCOOLER RE: SPARTANBURG RESTAURATEURS WILL OPEN NEW EATERY IN DOWNTOWN
> Janice Camp Jennings “So happy for my family and friends in Spartanburg, but so wish Columbia would get some more great restaurants!”
RE: FORMER LOCAL TACO GETS NEW LIFE AS THE COMMON CURE, A NEIGHBORHOOD BAR AND GRILL > Jill McCreight “So glad to have a new place.” > Thomas Cheves “Augusta Road residents have complained about a lack of competitors to The Blockhouse for a decade. Local Taco fell off after initial popularity. Can Common Cure hang? We hope so!”
FEBRUARY 17, 2017
Smith, Chris Merritt, Matthew le’s Greenvil and Matt Cook of cultivating ATLAS LOCAL are ing community, not co-work
3.3.2017
BIZ BUZZ
Distilled commentary from UBJ readers
> Chris Horn “Woohoo! Three of these spots are walking distance.”
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| VOL. 6 ISSUE 7
DIGITAL FLIPBOOK ARCHIVE >>
CONNECTORS THE
From left to right: Cook Merritt, Smith, Photo by Will Crooks.
The layout of print meets the convenience of the Web. Flip through the digital editions of any of our print issues, and see them all in one place. >> upstatebusinessjournal. com/past-issues
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The Top 5 stories from the past week ranked by shareability score
>> 540
1. Spartanburg restaurateurs will open new eatery in downtown
>> 359 2. Former Local Taco gets new life as The Common Cure, a neighborhood bar and grill
>> 243 3. The Man at the Hub
>>134 4. Roof with a View: Avenue, new downtown rooftop event space, to open in April
>> 128
RE: OUTSIDE DEVELOPERS VIE TO SHAPE DOWNTOWN GREENVILLE IN LEAGUE WITH THE COUNTY
5. 10 Startups to Watch in 2017
> John Arn Cenedella Real Estate “Lots of outside developers looking to invest in Greenville. I believe this trend will continue.”
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> Sally Eastman “I hope the high-rise idea for county offices does not freak out the city planners, because I love the idea of a high-rise there! More six-story brick buildings would be oh so boring! Let’s think big and tall with posh shops on the street level and elevated walkways to the rear end of the Governor’s School and the entrance to the park by the Rose Chihuly Tower! Go big!”
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DATE
EVENTS YOU SHOULD HAVE ON YOUR CALENDAR
EVENT INFO
WHERE DO I GO?
HOW DO I GO?
Spartanburg Chamber's Business After Hours
GreenHouse Business Incubator at The George 60 E. St. John St., Spartanburg 4:30–6:30 p.m.
Cost: Free to Chamber members and guests. For more info: bit.ly/2mnecGZ
Innovision presents Healthcare Innovation: A New Catalyst for Economic Development
McNair Law Firm 104 S. Main St. #700 3:45–6 p.m.
Cost: Free For more info: bit.ly/2lZstbS
Multicultural Open House
Greenville Chamber 24 Cleveland St. 5:30–8 p.m.
Cost: Free; registration requested For more info: bit.ly/2lZxhhs
March Madness & St. Patrick’s Day
Local Cue Game and Sports Bar 30 Orchard Park Drive, Suite 7 2–5 p.m.
For more info: 864-288-6873
Clemson University's Men of Color Summit: TIckets available now
TD Convention Center 1 Exposition Drive 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Cost: $329 (thru 4/15) For more info: clemson.edu/inclusion/ summit, menofcolorsummit@clemson.edu
Tuesday
3/7 Wednesday
3/8 Tuesday
3/14 Friday
3/17 Thursday-Friday
4/27-4/28
| PLANNER | 27
CONTRIBUTE: Got a hot date? Submit event information for consideration to events@upstatebusinessjournal.com.
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IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE OF UBJ? WANT A COPY FOR YOUR LOBBY?
MARCH 24 THE INNOVATION ISSUE What’s the big idea(s)?
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
UBJ milestone
UBJ milestone jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years 1988 Jackson Dawson opens in Greenville at Downtown Airport
1988
1997 Jackson Dawson launches motorsports Division 1993
1990 Jackson Dawson
acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont office Center on Villa.
>>
with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a “corporate gateway to the city.” In 1997, Jackson and his son, Darrell, launched Jackson Motorsports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.” Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate planning. The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an auditorium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motorsports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet. Jackson said JMG has expanded into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s
Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff
Jackson Marketing Group celebrates 25 years By sherry Jackson | staff | sjackson@communityjournals.com
Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and according to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.
Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during
Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood. He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Marketing Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto industry in 1980. In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he
learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage. In fact, when he started the Greenville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar. “Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back upstairs to the meeting,” Jackson said. Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders
>>
2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space
1998 1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court
also one of the few marketing companies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design. Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile application for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series. “In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.” Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept
2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson marketing Group when larry sells his partnership in Detroit and lA 2003
2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by BtoB magazine 4 years running
him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-prof non-profits. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award. The company reaffirmed its commitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th anniversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family. As Jackson inches towards retirement, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business. “From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son, Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.” Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”
2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports Group employee base reaches 100 people
2008 2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation with Creative spirit Award
APRIL 7 THE PERSONAL FINANCE ISSUE Keeping your bottom line top of mind.
pro-bono/non-proFit / Clients lients American Red Cross of Western Carolinas Metropolitan Arts Council Artisphere Big League World Series The Wilds Advance SC South Carolina Charities, Inc. Aloft Hidden Treasure Christian School
CoMMUnitY nit inVolVeMent nitY in olV inV olVe VeMent & boarD positions lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn): Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member, Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board,
Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board
eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist): Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board
November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21
20 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal November 1, 2013
AS SEEN IN
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NOVEMBER 1, 2013
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APRIL 28 THE DIVERSITY ISSUE There’s room for the whole spectrum of backgrounds, ideas, and talents.
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