Charleston County News Release

Release Number: 3444

Date: May 23, 2012

County’s Economic Development Department Launches New Website

North Charleston, S.C.: Charleston County Government announces that its Economic Development Department’s new website, www.charlestoncountydevelopment.com, is live. Economic Development Department staff worked closely with Atlas Advertising, a nationally recognized internet and marketing firm for nearly a year on a branding campaign and the creation of a state-of-the-art website.

Benefiting from 18 years of experience and insights gained by the Charleston County Economic Development staff, the website was designed to address a full range of informational needs for:

• Site location consultants and corporate executives relocating a business to Charleston

• Commercial realtors marketing their business sites or buildings

• Existing businesses seeking assistance with problems or help in expanding

• Businesses seeking to do business with other local businesses

Website capabilities include:

• Virtual Familiarization Tour -- allows busy site consultants and corporate executives to quickly identify the location of Charleston County along with its key transportation features, including highways, rail service, ports and airports, business parks, and higher education institutions.

• InSite: Sites and Buildings Database -- enables browsing of all available business sites and buildings within Charleston County based upon parameters such as building type, square footage, ceiling height, acreage, distance from the airport and other variables. In addition to the basic property information, the user is able to view owner and broker information, building photos on Google Maps and other key GIS layers. Statistics about the surrounding workforce, income levels and other key demographics are possible with the polygon tool.  Users may email a specific page or export their findings to PDF, Excel or Word.

• Companies Search -- expedites searches to identify all existing Charleston County-based businesses by general category (e.g., manufacturing), and by more specific sub-sectors according to the Standard Industrial Code (SIC), North American Industrial Code (NAICS) classification.

Reaction to the website:

• “I am very proud of the statement this website makes about Charleston County as a partner to business. Our public service leadership in fiscal management, environmental stewardship, public safety and economic development greatly enhances the local business climate and quality of life and creates a unique value proposition for our business community.” - Teddie E. Pryor, Sr., Chairman of Charleston County Council

• “The data content, property mapping and demographic analysis features of this site are simply amazing. This site offers a fantastic platform for any local owner or broker marketing their property for business, or for out-of-towners seeking such property to relocate a retail, corporate office, distribution or industrial business to Charleston, and seeking to understand the workforce, income and other key demographics surrounding them.” - Elliott Summey, Vice Chairman of Charleston County Council, and a commercial realtor and developer

• “We are very proud of the statement this makes about Charleston County. My staff and the Atlas Advertising team created a vision, set ambitious goals, and worked tirelessly until they were realized. My staff members, Janel Spencer, our project leader, and Reggie Fuller, in particular deserve a shout-out for their invaluable contributions”. - J. Steven Dykes, Charleston County Economic Development Director

• “Steve and his team have a great product (the community) and it was a pleasure to really tell the story of Charleston in a way it’d never been done before. They now have some marketing tools that are as world class as the staff.”  - Ben Wright, President and CEO of Atlas Advertising

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