In his annual State of the City address on Tuesday, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said, "Our first priority is to bring more jobs to the region." Riley recounted ongoing projects that he said are key to economic growth and highlighted others that are moving.

Continuing a theme from recent years, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley made job growth a focus in his annual State of the City address Tuesday night.

"Our first priority is to bring more jobs to the region," Riley said at the beginning of his speech.

Riley highlighted several projects and business deals –- all announced previously, and some of which are moving forward in 2011 –- that he said would spur job growth.

Among them were increased cruise business at the Port of Charleston, which Riley called an economic driver and job creator, and the start of Southwest Airlines' service at Charleston International Airport in March.

"This will produce an immediate reduction in the cost of air travel in and out of Charleston," Riley said about the low-cost airline, "which is very beneficial to every citizen who travels by air, but also a very significant tool in recruiting new business to our community."

Riley pointed to the planned July opening of The Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner final assembly facility, which over several years is expected to create 3,800 jobs.

He voiced support for deepening Charleston's harbor to accommodate larger ships that will soon start passing through the expanded Panama Canal. He said dredging the harbor is key to maintaining the 17% growth in volume that the S.C. State Ports Authority saw in 2010.

The harbor deepening issue, he said, is "all about jobs."

"When the harbor deepening is assured, the port will be the most attractive and successful port in the Southeast, and we cannot rest until the harbor is deepened," Riley said.

The mayor said he met with President Barack Obama last week and urged him to support the project.

Riley also noted some of the city's success on the jobs front in the past year.

The Charleston Digital Corridor, a public-private partnership that works to attract and foster high-wage, knowledge-based jobs in the city, grew by 20 companies last year, Riley said.

Businesses based at the Flagship, the downtown incubator space that the Charleston Digital Corridor and the city partnered to create in 2009, have added 76 jobs to the community, Riley said. Now the city is working on a second incubator space.

"And last year in a recovering economy, 1,209 new city business licenses were issued," Riley said.

The city is working to get the first phase of the Horizon District underway in 2011, Riley said. The project is one he highlighted in last year's State of the City address as well.

The Horizon District includes the area between Lockwood Boulevard and Hagood Avenue on the city's west side. City Council designated the area as a tax-increment financing district in late 2008 as a way to fund future improvements.

The mayor's vision is to make the area a regional center for biotech research.

"The Horizon District would be a new live-work community; that in itself will be a substantial new job generator," Riley said.

Other projects that Riley said are in the works for 2011 include the first phase of a drainage project on the Septima Clark Expressway.

In the first phase, the city will rebuild the road and water collection systems and beautify "this harsh scar placed throughout our community in the '60s," Riley said. Trees will be added to the median and pedestrian crossings will be improved.

Bids will be opened in February on the $12.3 million phase, which is funded in part by a federal stimulus grant. Riley said the work will create more than 120 jobs.

The mayor called the drainage work a federal project and said he is working with state and federal officials to find the rest of the money needed. The price tag previously has been set at about $150 million for the full project.

Another area to receive drainage work this year is the City Market, Riley said. A 4,000-foot tunnel located 80 feet below Market Street will collect storm water from the market area and direct it to a pump station on Concord Street.

Because the work will mostly be underground, it won't impact the market, he said.

Riley highlighted several road, trail and park improvements in the works for 2011. And he emphasized the need to move forward with an extension of Interstate 526 to improve traffic flow and avoid losing money the state has earmarked for the project.

"The completion of I-526 is much needed now and will be desperately needed in the future to connect parts of our region to each other," Riley said.

Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129.