The Central South Carolina Alliance, a 12-county regional public/private partnership that includes Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties, says it helped generate more than $560 million in investments and created 2,625 jobs in 2008.

But none of this investment was made in Orangeburg or Calhoun counties, according to CSCA’s 2008-09 annual report released in June.

The report reveals the only industrial project the alliance helped attract to The T&D Region in 2008 was the expansion of the Orangeburg-based ACO Distributing and Warehousing Inc..

ACO received a military installation contract in June 2008 to install armor on 500 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles.

There were no dollars invested in the expansion, though, ACO did add 52 new jobs as part of the subcontract by the London-based global defense and aerospace company BAE.

Beyond ACO’s expansion, the report notes the alliance helped bring the $5 million 150,000-square-foot speculative building into the Orangeburg County/City Industrial Park.

Columbia-based development company Miller-Valentine Group constructed the building.

The building, which is expandable to 300,000 square feet, is located on about 21 acres across the street from Allied Air and next door to H.T. Hackney.

The alliance’s report states it recruited a total of $560,549,000 in capital investment last year.

Capital investment numbers and job creation numbers are projected and may or may not be realized.

The 2008 numbers are below the record set in 1999 of $756,204,000 in investment. The most jobs were created in 2000 at 6,707.

In addition to 2008, the alliance thus far in 2009 said it recruited about $3.5 million in investment into The T&D Region.

Cold drawn aluminum tubing company Triumph Tube Inc. in January announced the dollar investment with 40 new jobs over the next five years at the Carolina Regional Park near U.S. 601 and Interstate 26.

Orangeburg will be the company’s flagship and U.S. headquarters. Operations are expected to begin by the end of the summer.

Also, Orangeburg-based Sun Printing in March announced it was expanding its Lexington County plant in West Columbia.

Sun Printing’s $6 million investment is expected to generate 50 new jobs.

The facility currently employs 25 and could expand to 40 by the end of the year.

The company is expanding into a state-of-the-art, 20,000-square-foot printing facility.

Thus far in 2009, the alliance has seen a $92,128,450 investment with the creation of 276 jobs.

Overall, the CSCA report states that in 2008 real estate developers developed in excess of 675,000 square feet of industrial space.

The report notes that the Central S.C. Alliance, which was formed in 1994, says that over the years the alliance’s geographic footprint has tripled in size and over 1365 private-sector investors have contributed.

The alliance also notes that it has announced over $7.5 billion in new capital investment and 47,000 jobs since its inception.

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551.

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