Selling the Golden Corner

Why do businesses expand and relocate to Oconee County?  Oconee County combines a landscape of lakes with the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and together with hard-working people who take pride in their work and participate in the betterment of their communities is why Oconee County is the up and coming “sweet spot” for business expansions, relocations and start-ups, explains Oconee Economic Alliance executive director Richard Blackwell. “Oconee County is the geography of opportunity that has been our new slogan.  Whatever you are looking for, whatever your quality of life is, you can find that here in Oconee County.  If you want that second home, if you want to retire here, if you want to start a family here or whatever, we have it here in Oconee County.  That is what we kind of lead into when we talk about OconeeCounty.  If you want a rural landscape, we have that.  If you want to live on the side of a mountain, we have that.  Live on a lake, we got that too.  That is what is very unique about Oconee County is we have a very diversified economy that is like anywhere else in South Carolina.  In addition, our location, you can be in Greenville in one hour, you can be in Commerce doing some wonderful shopping in forty-five minutes to an hour, Anderson and Clemson are right next door.  Also, within Oconee County, there are a lot of special attributes that we are just trying to get out and tell the world.  For a long, long time I think this was the hidden gem of Upstate South Carolina.”  The Oconee Economic Alliance is a public-private nonprofit effort to accelerate job creation and capital investment, increase per capita income, diversify the local tax base and generate awareness of Oconee County as a business location.  The Oconee Economic Alliance promotes the county’s location, which on I-85 is half-way between Atlanta and Charlotte.  Oconee County has three county-owned industrial parks with over 700 buildable acres suitable for development.  The Golden Corner also touts close proximity to technical schools and universities.  In addition, the quality of life is unparallel with the third lowest taxes in the state and an affordable cost-of-living.