Jim Gambrell, Director of Economic Development, City of Columbia

MidlandsBiz:
Where were you born and raised?  What is your educational background?

Jim Gambrell:
I was born into a banking family in Greenwood, SC.  My father worked for what was then the Bank of Greenwood (now Bank of America), the bank where Hootie Johnson started his career. When the Bank of Greenwood opened its first branch, in Aiken, SC, our family moved there for a time.  My father then bought a little bank in Chester County, Great Falls, so most of my elementary and high school/ football memories are from the little town of Great Falls and Chester, where I went to high school.

I went to college at the Citadel in Charleston and served in the US Army. I also have degrees in Banking from LSU and in Economic Development from the Economic Development Institute at The University of Oklahoma.

MidlandsBiz:
Talk about your career and how you came to work for the City as head of economic development.

Jim Gambrell:
I started my career in the industry that seemed to be the most natural fit for me – banking.   My travels took me to stints in Charleston, Charlotte, High Point, and Pinehurst, North Carolina. 

In 1976, I partnered with the former Governor and the former Secretary of Commerce of North Carolina to open a stock–owned Savings and Loan bank in Southern Pines, North Carolina.  After a disagreement with the Board over lending polices, I ended up back in South Carolina in 1979 working for Southern Bank & Trust at the corner of Lady and Main Street in downtown Columbia.  I worked there until after First Union bought them in 1986. 

I left the banking business and got into the construction business, first on my own and later for a company called RPR & Associates.  I built in the Woodland’s Country Club area and did work for Dave Thomas (of Wendy’s fame) to build his house, remodeled the clubhouse and built Wendy’s house (his daughter) at The Woodlands! 

But I was working harder than I ever had in my life and the construction process drove me absolutely crazy.  I found myself constantly chasing subcontractors, trying to find out where they were in terms of getting MY jobs done.  After five years with RPR, doing marketing and business development, I left and came to work for the City in January, 1993 as the head of economic development.

MidlandsBiz:
What is the mission of the City of Columbia Economic Development? 

Jim Gambrell:
We are a coordinating organization that helps people get things done by putting them in touch with the right resources and providing good information.  We are all about creating good paying jobs, growing the tax base, and encouraging people to invest in the business community here in Columbia. 

Our job is to also help foster a positive business environment.  We have partnered with the Columbia Chamber of Commerce to form Business in Motion an existing business and expansion program where we go out into the business community, and call on our existing companies. If they are having problems, we look for ways to help them overcome any difficulties they are experiencing. 

We have also been actively involved since 1993 in the management and marketing of the Columbia Industrial Park out on Bluff Road, near I-77.  We expanded the park, added water and sewer, and now the property is completely sold out.  It has been such a success that we are currently putting together a package to take to City Council to develop another business park in the City.

MidlandsBiz:
How do you improve the tax base when so many downtown businesses are tax exempt?

Jim Gambrell:
In the mid 1990’s, we conducted a study that revealed that 47% of the property in Columbia was not taxed.  The university, state government, federal government, churches, as well as large non-profit hospitals were all tax exempt.  This is not unusual for a State Capital City, but we still must provide services for the whole area.

Another challenge we have is something we refer to as the non-tax creep.  Hardly a month goes by that we don’t hear about a non-taxed entity that has bought a piece of property or that is looking to expand an existing location.  For example, the site where the Colonial Center is located used to be in private hands.  When the university bought it, it dropped from the tax rolls. 

It’s always a challenge, but things can also work in reverse.  In 1996 the City bought the old prison site (CCI) which had never been taxed; now, with the development going on downtown at what is now known as CanalSide, those 26 acres are on the tax roll.

MidlandsBiz:
We have many economic development agencies – City of Columbia, Lexington County, Richland County, Central SC Alliance, and SC Commerce.  How do you avoid overlapping or competing interests?

Jim Gambrell:
Economic development is a team sport and a rising tide floats all boats.  The big player of course is the South Carolina Department of Commerce.  They have the resources to promote South Carolina both nationally and internationally.  Much of their effort is focused on the less developed counties because this is where an economic development project can have the greatest impact.  Fully developed counties like Richland, Greenville and Charleston are at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak, when it comes to the value of incentives that Commerce is able to provide to attract development. We have to overcome this by making our community a more valuable place to do business.

The Central SC Alliance is a regional economic development organization that exists primarily to create, jobs and investment in all of the counties that comprise the Midlands and the City of Columbia.  Their focus is primarily on manufacturing companies.  We belong to that organization; and in fact, when the Alliance was formed back in the early 1990’s it only represented Richland County, Lexington County and the City of Columbia.  The SC Alliance has now expanded to encompass 12 counties throughout the Midlands area and, of course the City of Columbia.

It is unlikely that we will be able to attract a big manufacturing company to locate here in Columbia, but we do try to promote company locations in Richland and Lexington, because we serve parts of these areas with our water and sewer systems.  If the counties do well, then the City is going to benefit too.

The City has to do something different.  We don’t have cheap land, or cheap labor.  We have made huge strides over the past 15 years in creating a successful and viable downtown area where companies will want to locate their corporate headquarters and we concentrate on companies in  the knowledge economy.  That’s our job. 

MidlandsBiz:
What is your relationship with City Center Partnership?

Jim Gambrell:
We helped form the City Center Partnership and work closely with them. We are currently working with Matt Kennell on a retail strategy for not only Main Street but also other retail corridors in the City:  the Vista (Lady Street), Devine Street, Five Points, Two Notch Road, and North Main Street.  We now have demographic information on all of these areas and the CCP has hired Amy Stone as Vice President of Retail Recruitment to work to attract additional retail business to the area.

MidlandsBiz:
How successful have you been at enticing retailers to these areas?

Jim Gambrell:
We have around 70,000 people who work in the downtown area every day.  That’
s a pretty big market, but it’s hard to compete with the malls.  We would love to have a Gap, and everybody would do back flips if a Barnes & Noble would locate downtown, but realistically, they don’t need to be recruited.  They make their own decisions based on formulas and demographics.

Our emphasis is on the unique, destination type retail that has a good chance of succeeding in an urban location. We are now working with several prospects and expect to have an announcement, or two, in the very near future.

MidlandsBiz:
What are the roadblocks to future success?  What strategies do we have in place to overcome them?

Jim Gambrell:
The biggest challenge is euphemistically referred to here as the P word – parking!  It’s always a challenge when we look at a business that wants to locate in City Center. 

A commercial office building normally requires three or more parking spaces per thousand sq. ft. in the building to work financially and sometimes to meet minimal zoning requirements. The Palmetto Center, for example, is a 400,000 (+) square foot building in downtown Columbia looking for a new tenant. The new owner will need a minimum of 1, 200 parking spaces to make it work.  The challenge is that there are only 1,000 parking spaces in the adjacent city garage and 300 of them are reserved for the Marriott. Well, you have to find more parking to make it work.

How do we overcome the parking obstacle?  We have to constantly look for ways to make it work, including building more parking facilities. Thank goodness we have a great city staff that works with us to help solve these problems.

Workforce readiness is also a challenge, but here again, we have made big strides. We are working with Richland School District One and  MEBA (Midlands Education and Business Alliance) trying to help create curricula that will help  train the type of workers that have the skills to fit the jobs that we are trying to attract to this region. Midlands Tech, for example, now has a fuel cell technician program to match our efforts to attract fuel cell companies to Columbia. 

MidlandsBiz:
How are you involved in the push to promote a knowledge-based economy?

Jim Gambrell:
We have been directly involved with the movement towards the knowledge-based economy right from the beginning.  In the late 1990’s we started focusing on technology businesses and put together a technology plan called The Columbia Regional Technology Plan.  City Council adopted that plan in 1999, and we formed a technology council that eventually became EngenuitySC under the leadership of Neil McLean. 

We also worked with USC and helped create and support the USC Columbia Technology Incubator.  Then, Dr. Sorensen came along and strongly supported the vision of creating new companies based on the research and development taking place at the University, and his vision of Innovista was launched. Together, all of these efforts will have more impact on economic development in Columbia than anything that we have ever done in the past.  In 10 to 15 years from now, we will look back and recognize that this was a very smart thing to do. 

The announcement last week about Trulite, our first fuel cell company, is a great start towards our goal of making Columbia the fuel cell capital of the country.

MidlandsBiz:
What is your leadership style?  What local leaders do you admire?

Jim Gambrell:
My style is to put the right people together to overcome obstacles and look for solutions to problems.  I am not an out-front kind of a guy; I’d rather coach from the sidelines.

Despite a couple of downturns in the economy and shifting political climates, Columbia has done very well as far as economic development is concerned over the past 10-15 years.  If it weren’t for Mayor Bob Coble and the support that he gets from our City Council and the City Manager, we would not be able to do the things that we have done. 

The Columbia Development Corporation has also been a great partner and catalyst for development in the Vista, as has the Eau Claire Development Corporation and the South Columbia Development Corporation in their respective areas.

It’s been a real team effort and that’s what it takes.

MidlandsBiz:
Are there any other trends that you have seen in the city over the past several years?

Jim Gambrell:
While it may not yet be an overwhelming number, more and more people are embracing the idea of living downtown.  We have several hundred people now living right on Main Street and in the Vista and its growing fast. This adds incredible vitality to our City Center.  Residential development downtown is also important because you don’t want City Center streets to be deserted when people go home at the end of the work day. It’s also much more economical to develop where you already have the supporting infrastructure, water, sewer and streets, to make things happen.

MidlandsBiz:
Define economic development. 

Jim Gambrell:
Economic Development is doing anything you can do, to make what you want, happen. Some would say that we don’t need to spend money or effort to promote economic development.  If you just leave the city, the county, the state alone, you will get development, it will occur naturally. I like to use the example of growing roses to counter this argument. If you want a beautiful supply of roses – you can put in the plants, and if you leave them alone; eventually, you will have a nice crop of roses. That’s one approach. But, if you really want beautiful flowers and to maximize the potential, you must take the time and expense to plan, cultivate and fertilize the garden. Then you must water, prune and take care of the plants. It’s when you do all this, that you will start to produce beautiful and award-winning roses.  That’s the way I feel about economic development.