(CRDA's Chris Fraser and Amy Holloway of Ernst & Young speak at a meeting of CDRA. Photo provided by Sophie Drager, Cove Creative/CRDA)

Austin, Seattle — Charleston?

Getting the Holy City on that list of innovation and tech hubs is the goal of a new strategic plan introduced by the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, a public-private partnership group that since 1995 has worked to diversify the Lowcountry economy. That effort has been immensely successful in the advanced manufacturing sector, thanks to the arrival of companies like Boeing, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz.

Now, staring at a future that could be dominated by technological advances like generative AI and autonomous vehicles, the CRDA is urging the Charleston area to take the next step.

“The economy is changing dramatically. We have a traditional economy in large part, which will be transformed by the change in the larger economy. We have to make sure we’re a part of that,” Chris Fraser, CRDA board chair, said after the plan was introduced Wednesday to 500 business and municipal leaders at Trident Technical College in North Charleston.

Commissioned by the CRDA and created by the consulting firm Ernst & Young, the five-year plan calls for continuing to support the current economic drivers in the Charleston area like Boeing, Bosch, and Volvo, while also fostering a culture of innovation. The strategy aims to provide a foothold for the region in emerging sectors like systems automation, AI, cybersecurity, machine learning, biopharma, energy storage, and grid resilience.

“This is doable,” said Amy Holloway, Ernst & Young principal and senior adviser. “I think the pieces are here.”

A $13 billion difference?

The plan begins with Charleston building “visibility and perception as an innovative region” — which has long been the case for places like Seattle (which gave birth to the likes of Amazon and Microsoft) and Austin, Texas (a hub for both startups and established computer companies like Dell). The strategy also calls for Charleston to develop, attract and retain top innovation talent, and reduce resource gaps by improving the availability of capital.

Adding an innovation focus to the region’s economy could increase its gross regional product growth from the currently projected 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent — a difference of $13 billion more in GRP, and $10 billion in earnings for the region by 2040, according the CRDA. “That would make a huge difference in the size of our economy over the next 10, 15 years,” Holloway said. “It’s not so farfetched to think we can grow our economy by doing more through innovation and technology.”

But what does that actually look like? Talk to 200 people, Holloway said, and you can get 200 different definitions of what “innovation” is. Roger Park, global innovation leader at Ernst & Young, said innovation means finding new ways to create value. For the Charleston area, that could mean embracing tools like generative AI, which Young said will soon become as indispensable as smartphones and the internet are now.

“It’s not going to be AI that takes your job,” said Park, the event’s keynote speaker. “It’s probably going to be a human who’s using AI to do your job better than you.”

A similar rise is happening in the area of autonomous vehicles — 10 years from now, Park said, it’s likely accidents will only occur in cars driven by humans. And computers are growing so savvy they can communicate with one another with no humans involved. “In 10 years, your company’s chatbot is not going to be talking to your customer. Your chatbot will be talking to your customer’s chatbot,” he said.

Forecasts like that fueled urgency within the CRDA to further diversity the Charleston area’s economy. “We’re like a competitive sports team that can play at the next level, but we’ve kind of plateaued,” said Fraser, also principal and southeast managing director for the commercial real estate firm Avison Young. “We’re at an inflection point in our economy. I would argue that the world is about to change dramatically, and now is the time to break through.”

Volvo, Boeing and beyond

Fraser and Holloway repeatedly stressed the importance of community buy-in. “Those communities that tend to punch above their weight class have that level of trust, that willingness to work together that I see in this room,” Holloway told the crowd. The CRDA’s new vision calls for proactive investment to help innovators succeed, as well as educational opportunities that align with the region’s future economy.

Fraser has seen that in action. “Part of it is, everybody's speaking from the same sheet music,” he said after the event. “We went to Austin 15 years ago for a Chamber event, and it didn't matter who you talked to — from the cab driver to the mayor to the economic development people, they were all on the same train. So when you left, you believed, ‘They've got it.’”

The Charleston region has transformed its economy once before. The CRDA was formed in 1995, two years after the U.S. Navy announced that its massive base and shipyard in North Charleston — the area’s largest employer, with nearly 40,000 workers at its height — would be closed. The pivot toward manufacturing landed heavyweights like Boeing in 2008, Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans in 2015, numerous expansions by Bosch, and a $3.5 billion investment from Redwood Materials (a lithium-ion battery recycler) in 2022.

The Lowcountry has also long had a tech presence — the Charleston Digital Corridor incubator was launched in 2001, the software company Blackbaud relocated to the area in 1989, Google opened a data center in Berkeley County in 2007, and Dig South has been working to foster a tech culture in the area since 2013. Now the CRDA wants the region to embrace what’s coming, and help to transform the Lowcountry economy once again.

“You think of innovation, you think of Austin and Seattle,” Fraser said. “We believe Charleston has what it takes to be on that list.”