Copyright Live 5 News WCSC
COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - A rural Lowcountry county is expecting hundreds of new jobs and new homes after a California-based company bought its first building in South Carolina. This new kind of growth could help tackle the unemployment rate of 5.9%, which is a little more than the state average of 4.3%. This project will open up more than 230 new jobs. The building where this new water filtration system company will plant its southeastern roots is at the 150 block of Anderson Road. It’s been vacant for years, so Colleton County officials say they are ready to see change come this way. Executive Director of the Colleton County Economic Alliance, Brantley Strickland, said this is a benefit to the community because bigger than the unemployment rate is the 10,400 residents who drive out of the county for work. He says he hopes this will provide a livable wage for the current residents, but expects to have newcomers as well. With 400 new jobs in three different Colleton County companies over the last two years, there is also a need for housing, which Strickland said they are tracking activity and trends. “We definitely recognize the need for more housing, but the hesitancy on the part of some of those folks in the past has been our population growth. It’s kind of a chicken before the egg situation. You’ve got to grow the job base to generate the rooftops,” Strickland says. The county’s Project Manager, Donna Lamb, said they aren’t losing many funds with this, but there’s still a risk when a new business is coming to town. She said it’s worth the chance. “We need people to be employed in Colton County. When people are employed, that helps with everything else that goes down within the city and the county,” she said. Aside from the business investing $5.1 million into the new building, they are also set to receive over $200,000 grant from the State Department of Commerce and their coordinating council. When construction for this project starts up early next year, Strickland says he hopes it can bring other future developments to continue to grow Colleton County.
