Economic development is a complex endeavor that requires successfully aligning the interests and requirements of multiple public and private stakeholders. It can be a dizzying dance, and the steady hand of experienced legal counsel is vital to the process.
Sam Moses, a Partner with the Columbia office of Charlotte-based Parker Poe, is such a hand. After a decade of working in Columbia and Germany for the S.C. Department of Commerce, Moses joined Parker Poe in 2007. Since then, he has been deeply involved in such major projects in the I-77 Corridor including one involving the conversion of the old Mack Truck plant in Fairfield County to a mattress factory operated by international manufacturer Healthcare Co. Ltd.
That’s just two from an extensive, growing, and diverse list of engagements for his firm’s Business Expansion and Location Solutions team. “The vast majority of our team’s work involves corporate economic development, representing manufacturing businesses, large and small, with their expansions,” Moses said. “We help them nationwide with site evaluation and selection, incentives and real estate negotiations, and all legal aspects to get such projects done.”
Parker Poe is representing industrial and commercial developers as well as local governments in economic development matters as well, including structuring incentive packages and coordinating bond and other financing transactions to fund critical infrastructure improvements in the I-77 Corridor. Parker Poe, for instance, has a lead economic development counsel for Richland County, where Volkswagen’s Scout Motors is building a $2 billion electric vehicle assembly plant.
Parker Poe also is one of the few law firms in the country that has an affiliated site selection company with consultants who provide national site selection and incentives negotiation services. The consultants team together with the attorneys in the law firm to provide a comprehensive suite of legal and law related business services to industrial developers and companies to right location and site for expansion or relocation.
The team supports projects nationwide with a primary focus on the Carolinas and Georgia. That combination of legal and on-the-ground business development expertise also helps fuel the firm’s support for the S.C. I-77 Alliance as an investing partner.
Alliance Engagement is a Natural Fit
Moses says his association with the I-77 Alliance is a natural fit to Parker Poe’s commitment to supporting and engaging with the primary economic development organizations in the communities and markets where his firm’s clients work and live.
“There are so many disciplines involved in the process, from real estate to permitting to infrastructure development and workforce and just a lot more,” Moses said. “The Alliance helps bring together the public and private sectors, all those local resources and skill sets to match a company’s needs.”
It’s also good for business. “The Alliance is a great networking platform for all of us locally to share and information and our individual capabilities to better engage companies unfamiliar with the region, and for companies already here that may not be aware of all that’s available to them,” Moses said.
That includes the Alliance’s strategic planning, workforce assessment, and research services, and its data platforms that provide vital information that helps attract new corporate investment to the five-county corridor.
Moses concluded that engaging with the Alliance “a critical way we can all contribute to creating jobs, growing tax revenue, and helping our region continue to grow and prosper.”
Investor Spotlight is a series that focuses on investors in the S.C. I-77 Alliance, organizations that include the range of stakeholders, including utilities, law firms, educational institutions, developers, and more. For more information, contact us here.
