Skip to main content

Greenville Business Magazine

The Business Narrative: Investing in Energy

Jan 30, 2025 08:43AM ● By Donna Walker

GE Vernova to Invest $160 Million in Greenville

(Photo provided by GE Vernova)

 

GE Vernova, America’s leading energy manufacturing company, announced on Jan. 29, 2025, plans to invest nearly $600 million in U.S. factories and facilities, including $160 million in Greenville, over the next two years.

 

The investments will help drive U.S. energy affordability, security, resilience, and competitiveness and enable the American manufacturing footprint to support global exports.

 

With global energy needs forecasted to double, the investments will help meet soaring customer demand, strengthen domestic supply chains, and continue developing cutting-edge technology that helps power the world.

 

The investments will create approximately 1,500 GE Vernova jobs in the U.S., including 650 in the Greenville facility, and will enhance the domestic manufacturing footprint and further support G.E.’s 16,000+ direct and indirect U.S. suppliers.

 

Nearly $100 million of the investment will assist in the expansion of GE Vernova’s Advanced Research Center to keep the U.S. at the cutting edge of energy and push forward innovative technologies including direct air capture, alternative fuels for power generation, the grid of the future, critical infrastructure security and more.

GSP President and CEO David N. Edwards Jr. Announces Retirement

(Photo provided by GSP Airport District)

 

The Greenville-Spartanburg Airport District has announced that President and CEO David N. Edwards Jr., A.A.E., will retire on January 9, 2026.

 

Edwards, who has spent 38 years in the aviation industry, has served as president and CEO of the GSP Airport District since July 2009.

 

He began his career in aviation with the Dade County Aviation Department in Miami, Florida. During the course of his career, Edwards has served as airport director for Asheville Regional Airport and executive director of the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority, and has held leadership positions with the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.

 

Edwards has been actively involved in the community throughout his long career, including stints as chairman of the board of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), a board member for ACI World, and as chairman of the Small Airports Committee for ACI-NA.

 

He has served as president of the North Carolina Airports Association and is a past president of the Southeast Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). He has also served on boards of the Greer Development Corporation, Gibbs Cancer Center, Upstate SC Alliance, Greenville Chamber, VisitGreenvilleSC, and One Spartanburg. He is an Accredited Airport Executive by AAAE.

 

“Dave has dedicated 16 years and countless hours to GSP, and his achievements will not be forgotten,” said Minor Shaw, chair of the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission.

 

“He has assembled a dedicated team of aviation professionals and has been an exceptional leader for the Airport District. Together, we have navigated numerous challenges, celebrated countless successes and worked diligently to enhance the travel experience for all who pass through our facility. Dave has laid a solid foundation for the future of our organization.”

Modernizing Tax Code, Addressing Energy Needs Among Topics of 2025 Competitiveness Agenda

By C. Grant Jackson

 

Reducing business taxes, lawsuit reform and addressing South Carolina’s energy needs top the 2025 Competitiveness Agenda of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce as the legislative session gets underway.

 

Seven areas, enumerated in the Competitiveness Agenda, that the chamber would like legislators to focus on this year are:

 

  • “Reducing Business Tax Burdens & Modernizing the Tax Code
  • Bringing Fairness to an Unfair Tort System
  • Addressing South Carolina’s Future Energy Needs
  • Addressing Barriers to Workforce Participation
  • Ensuring Continued Economic Growth & Prosperity
  • Establishing a Flourishing & Resilient Talent Pipeline
  • Letting Businesses Do Business”

“South Carolina continues to be on the receiving end of unprecedented economic and population growth, thanks in no small part to the efforts of our state’s leaders who have worked closely with the business community in recent years to enact pro-growth policies including significant tax relief, transformative investments in all facets of the state’s critical infrastructure, and initiatives to transform the state’s workforce of the future,” said SC Chamber President and CEO Mike Brenan in releasing  the 2025 agenda.

 

“However, we cannot rest on our laurels if we want South Carolina’s economy to be the envy of every other state in the country. As we enter the 2025 session of the South Carolina General Assembly, the SC Chamber has again defined and will advocate for a pro-business agenda that, if enacted, will make South Carolina’s economy even stronger and unleash our state’s full economic potential.”

 

The annual competitiveness agenda is developed through a grassroots outreach effort with business leaders across South Carolina. The SC Chamber team engaged with nearly 800 local business leaders from more than 30 local chambers during a statewide 22-stop Grassroots Tour.

 

The agenda was then approved by the chamber’s board. Details of the agenda are available on the chamber’s website at www.scchamber.net.

 

The Competitiveness Agenda is unveiled as part of the chamber’s annual Business Speaks event attended by state business leaders and legislators. This year the event, a dinner at the Pastides Alumni Center at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, was held Jan 15, just two days after the opening of the legislature and was attended by an overflow crowd of nearly 300 business people, state officials and legislators. 

Colliers Report Finds Supplier Demand, Inventory Challenges in Commercial Real Estate Market

The Columbia market saw 376,265 square feet of new Class A leases in Q4, a testament to the mounting pressure on the market’s limited Class A availability as the pipeline remains devoid of speculative construction, according to a report by Colliers.

 

With Scout Motors on track to begin production in 2027, supplier demand is exacerbating the market’s inventory challenges.

 

New vacancies were heavily concentrated in functionally obsolete buildings in outlying submarkets, while well-located and modernized properties continue to experience minimal vacancy.

 

The Q4 delivery of the 519,792 SF Sandy Run spec building has been met by intense interest as the market’s largest available cross-dock property comprises 15 percent of all vacancy. Investors continue to seek value-add opportunities in an inventory-limited market, highlighted by $45.5 million of investment sales focused on warehouses in the market’s core.

 

Key takeaways from the report include:

 

  • New construction starts are needed in the first half of 2025 to meet Scout Motors supplier demand
  • Users seeking 100,000+ square foot or more of Class A space have few remaining options
  • Class A rents continue to rise due to demand pressure against limited supply.

Allow us to tell your company's Business Narrative. Send your press release to David Dykes or for more information email [email protected]