REACHING ESCAPE VELOCITY! PART I – WILLKOMMEN MERCEDES BENZ VANS!

By: Mike White, SIOR, CCIM, Broker-in-Charge

   I’m no Rocket Scientist, but in the 6th grade I learned that Escape Velocity meant the speed an object must be traveling to “break free” from the object holding it down…for moon-shots that meant 25,000 miles per hour! (I once had the honor of attending a thrilling shuttle launch piloted by my West Point roommate, Astronaut Doug Wheelock).

Witnessing the ground-breaking this week at the massive Mercedes Benz Vans campus, it became clear that the Charleston Industrial market has achieved its own Escape Velocity…we are no longer bound by yesterday’s definitions as a small Southern market offering little more than a scattering of metal-sided buildings. We have officially shrugged off the older stereotype of a town that lost her way when the Navy base closed down.

We now find ourselves uniquely positioned to attract multiple suppliers and investors who can service, within the 40-mile radius of Charleston Industrial, the aerospace, automotive, and distribution markets of the future! Our tri-County region is now the only one in America that can boast producing world class Boeing Dreamliners, Mercedes Benz Sprinter and Metris vans and soon Volvo S-60 sedans! Our workers make all this possible while our business and political leaders provide an environment conducive to attracting more and more investment.

Reaching Escape Velocity signifies that some strangely invisible force no longer holds us down. Rather we are capable of achieving even greater heights! The opportunities that once appeared out of reach are now plentiful offerings that our children’s generation will enjoy and expand upon. Our challenge now is to manage this high speed we have reached, as the slightest error could throw us wildly off-course.

Our people make the difference, just as the white shirts and black ties sitting behind all those consoles at NASA got us to the moon and back….