Florence

The Class A industrial park at Interstate 95 and State Highway 327 is aptly named.

Commerce City encompasses more than 700 acres, with more than a mile of frontage on the East Coast’s main transportation route. With manufacturing, distribution centers,  call center operations,  restaurants and a hotel, Commerce City is a busy hub.

It is much like other big industrial parks with one significant difference – the developer is a utility company.

Pee Dee Touchstone Energy Commerce City came about after regional leaders realized expanding the economy one parcel at a time not only was inefficient, but costly for companies wanting to relocate.

Since it opened in 2001, Commerce City has created 2,000 jobs and $450 million in direct construction spending, says Tom Kinard, manager of business development at Pee Dee Electric Cooperative.

“It’s been a great investment,” he says.

By law, though, co-ops are not allowed to make profits, so a subsidiary that had been in the satellite dish business sold its assets and in turn bought the land. Pee Dee Touchstone installed the infrastructure, including electricity, roads, water, sewer, fiber-optic lines and natural gas, and took care of early environmental studies. The “shovel-ready” development is now almost full, and Pee Dee Touchstone may be looking to develop a second park, Kinard says.

The site also is home to a volunteer fire department, space that Commerce City gave the organization; its proximity helps reduce insurance costs for businesses in the park and homeowners in nearby residential areas.

Utility companies are active partners in economic development. Progress Energy has an economic development team, with county representatives who help steer prospects to available land. The company’s grant program covers economic development initiatives.

Progress Energy’s many economic development initiatives included partnering with Florence County and the private sector to develop the 194-acre Godley Morris Commerce Center in Lake City and construct a speculative building within the park.

Economic development can be as big as an industrial park or as modest as a light bulb, and utility companies in the Pee Dee region have the spectrum covered.

Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility, in September 2009 announced a $113 million campaign to educate customers on ways to reduce their energy costs. The first four pieces of “Reduce the Use” involve cash rebates for more efficient refrigerators and free compact fluorescent lights for residential and commercial customers.

“We are serious about energy efficiency and serious about helping our customers save money for the long term,” says Marc Tye, vice president of conservation and renewable energy for the utility.