February 9, 2003

Digital Corridor celebrates second year

Dennis Quick  /  CRBJ

When Ernest Andrade, assistant economic development officer for the city of Charleston, conceived an idea for luring knowledge-based industry to the Lowcountry, he needed the full support of Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. to turn that idea into reality.

He got it.

That was two years ago this month. The Digital Corridor–-Andrade's brainchild–-now has 28 knowledge-based companies among its membership. Andrade says more high-tech companies will reside in the Charleston peninsula, Daniel Island and the Cainhoy peninsula–-the areas comprising the Digital Corridor–-and that the mayor's support remains constant.

"I credit the mayor and City Council for understanding that attracting these companies here doesn't happen overnight," Andrade says. "You have to move in little, incremental steps."

Andrade believes that such small steps have helped Charleston take a giant leap toward diversifying its largely tourism-based economy to include businesses based on brainpower and offering high-paying jobs–-what economic developers consider the backbone of the 21st century economy.

Digital Corridor companies such as Blackbaud Inc., Quick Farm, Carolina Systems Solutions, SunCom Inc. and others have added to the Lowcountry a high-tech dimension that scarcely existed a decade ago.

According to Andrade, the Digital Corridor was a natural for Charleston."As I read through all of the various planning documents on economic development and talked with businessmen and development officials, I realized Charleston had all the pieces in place to attract knowledge-based firms to the city," Andrade told the Business Journal in March 2001. "We have a great quality of life, an abundance of higher education institutions, an excellent telecommunications infrastructure and perhaps, most important, the availability of real estate to house these high-tech firms."

Funded by the city, the Digital Corridor not only attracts knowledge-based enterprises through tax abatements and other incentives, but nurtures and promotes them once they arrive.

Andrade considers himself a facilitator and implementor. He finds out what corridor companies need and, through economic development allies–-including the Medical University of South Carolina, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce's ThinkTEC and the S.C. Department of Commerce–-and his position in city government, makes sure those needs are met.

"You don't want to disenfranchise companies that are already here by focusing strictly on attracting new companies," he says. "You want to provide existing companies resources to help them grow. Jobs are coming from existing companies rather than from companies relocating to the area."

Andrade himself doesn't make sales pitches to draw companies to the corridor. "The companies in the corridor make the pitches," he points out. "Companies that have been assisted by the corridor are the best marketing tools."

But privately funded, award winning marketing pieces, plus a recently revamped web site (www.charlestondigitalcorridor.com) also have helped promote the corridor. "We're getting great support from corporate citizens," says Andrade. "Our business partners funding our marketing efforts believe in us."

The corridor is far from being a group of homogenous companies, Andrade says, "We've found that bringing corridor members together for a group meeting doesn't work. Not only are the members too busy for that, but also group meetings have no value because each company is different. Individual problems are faced individually."

Andrade looks upon 2003 with an optimistic eye. "Last year we added eight companies to the corridor. We're already working on five companies this year. We're trying to attract more biotech and medical technology companies into the corridor."