BMW is spending $400 million to expand its Greer plant to produce the new Z4 roadster.

BMW is BMOC
In South Carolina

While South Carolina was "close, but no cigar" in its fight to land the DaimlerChrysler van project (which opted for neighboring Georgia), the state already had parked a nice auto expansion project with the announcement that BMW Manufacturing Corp. will invest an additional $400 million in its factory near Greer, creating 400 more jobs. The announcement came a decade after the company broke ground on its South Carolina plant.
        The company will also establish a $10-million endowment at Clemson University to establish a graduate engineering program that will offer masters and doctoral degrees in automotive engineering.

Dr. Helmut Leube

        "Our decision to place our only U.S. plant in South Carolina has proven to be a successful one as we strive to keep up with customer demand for our X5 sports activity vehicle and begin to build the new Z4 roadster," says Dr. Helmut Leube, president of BMW Manufacturing. The increased capacity will help achieve the BMW Group's goal of increasing worldwide production from about 900,000 to 1.3 million vehicles by 2005.
        A study by the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business, conducted a few months prior to the BMW expansion announcement, drives home the economic importance of BMW to the state. The study found that the German automaker supports 16,691 jobs and accounts for $691 million in annual salaries and wages. The jobs figure is the result of an economic multiplier effect of 3.9, according to Dr. Douglas P. Woodward, director of the Division of Research at the school and the study's lead economist. That means that for every direct job at the Upstate facility, almost three additional jobs are created elsewhere in the state.
        That potential came to the fore recently when Dana Corporation built an axle manufacturing plant in Orangeburg County to serve BMW's needs. The $30-million, 120,000-sq.-ft. (11,100-sq.-m.) facility will employ 100 and open for production during the first quarter of 2003.

Dana Corporation, a major BMW supplier, will open a new axle manufacturing plant in Orangeburg County early this year.

        Another example of spinoff is a planned $18-million expansion at Stankiewicz International, a Spartanburg company which supplies BMW with sound insulation parts for both the X5 sports activity vehicle and the Z4 roadster.

Lancaster Lands
Ambitious Media Firm

Lancaster, a small South Carolina community south of Charlotte, takes the prize for the biggest 2002 jobs promise in South Carolina: Front Door Communications plans to build a 980,000-sq.-ft. (91,000-sq.-m.) complex.
        Located on a 100-acre site, the project will include a corporate headquarters, printing plant, television and movie production facility, fulfillment operation and childcare center. Front Door, currently based in Charlotte, says it will invest $150 million and create 1,600 jobs within five years.
        Front Door is a magazine publisher and developer of original content for broadcast via cable, broadcast television and the Internet. It also produces television content distributed via the PAXTV Network.