#YeahTHATAgenda: Top Real Estate Agents and Teams Ranked, Vegan Thai Fare in Greer, Greenville Triumph Gets an App, The End of the VW Bug, Tariffs May Cause Bible Shortage
Jul 11, 2019 05:00PM ● By Chris Haire
For starters, teams and individuals in the coastal areas of the state routinely rank in the Top 5 in the two team and two individual categories, with the Charleston and Myrtle Beach areas standing out.
However, the Charlotte suburb of Rock Hill proved to be a strong area for one real estate team, while the unincorporated area of Sunset alongside Lake Keowee helped one individual agent land in the top two. Hilton Head also stood out as a fertile area for real estate teams.
Charleston routinely ranks as one of the most popular cities for American tourists -- in fact, it was just named the No. 1 Best City in the U.S. for the seventh year in a row by Travel + Leisure readers -- and has been in the midst of a massive influx of new residents over the last decade. And like Myrtle Beach, Sunset, and Hilton Head, Charleston benefits from big-money vacation home and retiree buyers, in addition to individuals who just want to experience life on the coast and those who've moved to the area because of Boeing and Volvo and the growing tech industry sector.
Rock Hill, meanwhile, is the beneficiary of the massive growth of the Charlotte area, which grew by 45,000 new residents from 2017 to 2018; the City of Charlotte grew by nearly 15,000 during that same period.
The Top 2 winners in both team categories include Jeff Cook Real Estate of North Charleston and The Stephen Cooley Real Estate Group of Rock Hill (Keller Williams), while North Myrtle Beach's Kevin Mills (Century 21/The Harrelson Group), Columbia's Matt Shealy (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Carolinas), Charleston's Charles Sullivan (Carriage Properties, LLC), and Sunset's Justin Winter (Justin Winter Sotheby's International Realty) placed high in the two different individual categories. You can find a more detailed list here.
The agents on the America’s Best Real Estate Professionals and Teams list are made up of "the top 1/2 of 1% of 1.4 million licensed real estate professionals in the United States," according to Real Trends.
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Greer's Trade Street Now Home to Vegan Thai Restaurant: When the Thai restaurant Chon closed its door months ago, Greer Station lost one its few international eateries. Not that there's anything wrong with the downtown dining scene -- between SELECT's everyday brunch bonanza to Wild Ace's pizza pies, Ira's fried chicken, Blue Ridge Brewing Co.'s gastropub munchies, and The Strip Club 104's steaks -- Greer Station has you covered. But having a Thai restaurant among the mix was nice.
If you're missing Chon, you're in luck. A new Thai joint has taken its place, and it's located in Chon's old 219 Trade Street location.Open approximately three weeks, Thai Vegan offers, you guessed it, vegan Thai fare, and they serve it up Monday-Saturday, 11 AM-9 PM. The menu features: Pad Thai, fried rice, tom yum soup, curries, and soy chicken offerings. You can reach them at 864-655-7779. (Greer Station)
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Greenville Professional Soccer Team The Triumph Launches App: The app allows users to buy tickets and get team news. It is available for free at the Apple and Google Play stores. The app is a joint venture between the United Soccer League and the sport-friendly developer FanThreeSixty.
"Fan experience is very important to us, and we plan to not only use this app to help fans stay connected to the team away from matches, but use it on match day to increase fan interaction with mobile ticketing, team lineups, and real-time stats," Triumph Vice Chairman and Chief Brand Officer Doug Erwin said in an announcement. "We're excited to get this app front of our fans and looking forward to building on to its foundation in the months and years to come."Charleston Sports Pub plans to open in Greenville's former Wild Wing Cafe spot (Greenville News)
The details on the opening of Wicked Tuna’s second location, this one in Myrtle Beach (Myrtle Beach Online)
SCRA business accelerator takes Charleston-based studio to court over late startup loans (Post and Courier)
South Carolina looks to weed its way into hemp farming boom (GoUpstate)
Bible shortage? Publishers say tariffs could cause it (WYFF)
Midlands Restaurants Wrangle with Hepatitis Outbreak (Free-Times)
Clemson alum confirmed to lead Trump’s US Space Force (The State)
Pavilion at Myrtle Beach: Here's why 13 years later 'special piece of land' still vacant (Greenville News)
Beaufort developer says VRBOs nixed downtown hotel plans. Could condos be coming instead? (Beaufort Gazette)
Rural communities seek ways to stop brain drain (SC Biz)
SC among top 20 states with most student debt (WIS-TV)
Sopakco expanding its Marion County operation (SC Now)
ZF secures deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (Upstate Business Journal)
Mount Pleasant moves to restrict and limit short-term rentals such as Airbnb, Vrbo (Post and Courier)
Greenville Swamp Rabbits hockey team sign affiliation with NHL's Hurricanes (Greer Today)
Give into temptation with these seven meaty sandwiches in Charleston (Charleston City Paper)
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New Hires and Honors
Greenville-based co-working space Endeavor has promoted Lindsay Odom to the role of communications manager. Odom initially joined the Endeavor team in May 2017 as an intern before later landing a full-time role as a communications coordinator that fall.
On June 28, EY named Lou Kennedy as Health Care Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast. Kennedy is the president and CEO of West Columbia-based Nephron Pharmaceuticals, as well as one of Columbia Business Monthly's 50 Most Influential. Nephron Pharmaceuticals is one of Greenville Business Magazine/Columbia Business Monthly/Charleston Business Magazine's 25 Fastest Growing Companies.
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A hospital introduced a robot to help nurses. They didn’t expect it to be so popular (Fast Company)
The Hard-Luck Texas Town That Bet on Bitcoin—and Lost (WIRED)
Opportunity Zones Update New Proposed Treasury Regulations (Part III) (National Law Review)
Don’t look now, but home equity delinquencies are rising (American Banker)
What is NoOps? The quest for fully automated IT operations (CIO Magazine)
China has slashed clean energy funding by 39%, leading a global decline (MIT Technology Review)
Federal Court Declares That a Ban on Mandatory Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Claims Is Inconsistent with Federal Law (National Law Review)
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Today's Read
"People break rules in high-trust societies, of course, but laws, regulations, and norms help to keep most abuses in check; if you have to go to court, you expect a reasonable process. In low-trust societies, you never know. You expect to be cheated, often without recourse. You expect things not to be what they seem and for promises to be broken, and you don’t expect a reasonable and transparent process for recourse. It’s harder for markets to function and economies to develop in low-trust societies. It’s harder to find or extend credit, and it’s risky to pay in advance.
The internet is increasingly a low-trust society—one where an assumption of pervasive fraud is simply built into the way many things function." Zeynep Tufekci, "The Internet Has Made Dupes of Us All" (WIRED)