Digital Corridor targets 4,000 software companies

Blackbaud, Cambar Software, CSS, Suncom, Pilot Therapeutics, Modulant...all technology firms. Daniel Island is becoming downright crowded.

The Digital Corridor's Cainhoy District is falling right into line with the goal of local business leaders to encourage ever more knowledge-based industry to settle in the area. The Charleston Digital Corridor's web site trumpets the Cainhoy District, including parts of Daniel Island, as "Charleston's new frontier," attributing the area's attraction to state-of-the-art infrastructure, location, public services, waterfront access, a master-planned town, and a beautiful corporate campus on Daniel Island. And the fact that several large technology companies call the Cainhoy District home can't hurt, either.

"We're starting to see the early formation of a cluster," says Ernest Andrade, director of the Charleston Digital Corridor. "The corridor attempts to put together the parts and pieces that can effectively serve clusters. At the end of the day, we quarterback and collaborate with diverse parties that have mutual interests."

Blackbaud helped pioneer the technology migration to the island. Attracted by a combination of space, benefits, location, and the interest of the Daniel Island community itself in recruiting companies, it began building its new headquarters there and moved in August of 2000. At the time, only Cigna Healthcare's office and the Charleston Battery's stadium had been built; Bishop England High School was under construction.

Rachel Hutchisson, Blackbaud's director of corporate communications, remembers working at the company during the headquarters' construction process. "Employees would get very curious about wanting to go see it," she says. "They sent out an e-mail asking [employees not to visit the site] because there were nests of poisonous snakes. This was wild land." A lot changes in three years. Now companies considering relocation to the area stop by Blackbaud's offices to seek information. "We always have people drop in to visit, and we're happy to tell them about our experiences," says Hutchisson.

Software support consulting company CSS Inc. became another pioneer when it moved to the Cainhoy District three years ago. After two years occupying part of the Evergreen Shipping Co. building, CSS will soon occupy its own corporate headquarters on River Landing Drive. Betsy Eubanks, CSS's human resources administrator, has seen rapid development of the area firsthand.

"The shopping center has gone up, the Hampton Inn, the new Suncom building and we watched the new tennis center going up," she says, noting that CSS originally selected Daniel Island because of its proximity to the airport and the homes of employees. An additional draw was Ernest Andrade of the Digital Corridor, she adds. "Ernest has really become our friend since we've met him–-he's that way to any of the companies that have come to Charleston. He really promotes the city."

In support of recruiting technology companies to the Charleston area, including the Cainhoy District, the Charleston Digital Corridor just launched a national marketing campaign, something it has not done since its own kickoff in 2001. Targeting small to medium-sized software companies in key cities in the Northeast, Southeast and on the West Coast, the campaign promotes Charleston as an ideal location for knowledge-based businesses. A press release notes the campaign should accomplish two goals: branding Charleston nationally as "fertile ground for knowledge-based enterprise" and recruiting companies already considering relocation.

The first postcard of the three-step mail campaign, themed "Relocate to Charleston–-it's easier than you think," went out in late May, with a second postcard to follow mid-June. Each of the three postcards feature a corridor company highlighting business perspectives important to them, including the ability to realize the potential of a business and Charleston's appeal in helping a business recruit and retain quality employees. The postcards will hit the mailboxes of "4,000 software manufacturers, development firms, small- to medium-sized software development firms that we think are compatible with all the companies in the Cainhoy District and the Digital Corridor in general," says Andrade. "We picked cities that we think are a good fit."