Double R Flo-Town

Florence Is Booming: Inside the Master Plan for SC’s Fastest-Growing County w/ Gregg Robinson

• Robert Thomas & Reeves Cannon • Episode 16

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In this episode we sit down with Gregg Robinson, CEO of Florence County Economic Development, for one of the most important conversations we’ve ever had about the future of Florence, SC.

Greg breaks down the master plan behind Florence’s explosive growth, including:

The 11 new industrial parks across the county

Why Florence is now officially classified as a developed county

How the I-95/I-20 logistics advantage is reshaping the region

The truth about housing demand and population growth

What’s happening with the battery gigafactory

How companies secretly “shop” Florence before locating here

The biggest challenges facing long-term growth

Why beautification, infrastructure, and community involvement matter

And where Florence is headed over the next decade

If you’ve ever wondered why so many homes are being built, where jobs are coming from, or how Florence is positioning itself to compete with Greenville, Charleston, and Charlotte, this is your must-watch episode.

Robert:

Double R Flow Town. We have Mr. Greg Robinson, the CEO Florence County Economic Development. You finished that partnership.

Greg:

You got it. You nailed it.

Robert:

So what what I like to say is demand is making the magic happen in the PD.

Greg:

Wow.

Robert:

Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. This is so cool to kind of finish the year with you because what you're doing is what everybody wants to talk about. Sure. So thank you so much. So right before we got started, we had a really interesting conversation about I didn't know your grandfather was from King Street. Yep. And on the radio.

Greg:

So I actually have family that is from Florence and Williamsburg. The Robinsons and McElveans and the Brown family are all tied. So I have deep roots. I was born in in uh Williamsburg County. Um before I came over, you know, three and three and a half years ago now. Um, you know, I've I've had family in this area region for a long time. And the PD is very special to me. Um being born here, it's um it's always been underserved. And I think that our timing is is now. And when I had the opportunity to come, when Joe, who's a friend of mine, um retired after a long stand as economic developer, takes years to develop these things. I just felt it was a great opportunity for us to move forward. But you're correct. Uh my grandfather, Ed, his name was Edward G. Robinson Jr., and uh he owned the radio station in King Street W D K D.

Robert:

Wow. Wow. So is is destiny for you to be back into PD and to be back on our new version of the city.

Greg:

Divine intervention is certainly I I do have a passion for raising the standard of living for South Carolina. And when I was at the Department of Commerce, and I've been doing economic development now for coming up on 33 years. Wow. So um, but I was at this, you know, in the local level in the Midlands, uh, was at the State Department of Commerce in the international division. So I've recruited, God, almost a hundred plus companies to South Carolina. I was in Orangeburg for a number of years, built uh five different industrial parks down there. And when and when Florence um passed in 2020, when the the leadership said we want to be in the economic development business, uh they passed a bond. And it was a $22 million bond to build new industrial parks. And that was what was exciting to me. That's the the fun part of the job is actually building the industrial parks. And then you fill them, and the hardest part is to fill them. Yeah. But the but the point is that you have to build it at speed to market. Uh, given our logistics, uh, we have such an inherent advantage. Uh, logistics, our workforce, our people, uh, we're a loyal workforce, we like to work, uh, we're a right-to-work state. You've got all of those elements that come into that. So those are the two big ones because they're constant cost, right? Logistics is a constant cost with raw materials coming in, finished goods going out. And then, of course, labor is a is a constant. Um, so if we stick to the plan of building these industrial parks, none the same. So some with rail, some without rail, some adjacent to the interstates, some in the southern portion of the county, where you spread it around, we're gonna elevate the overall, I guess, wealth by having better jobs, and then that generates more commercial activity.

Reeves:

So, so Greg, 2020, this county decides we want to get in the industrial growth game. What 2022-ish? They hire you. Yes, you come in, and how many industrial parks are are we now working to develop and where are those located?

Greg:

Right. So we have we're gonna end up having about 11 industrial parks. We're building five new ones. Okay. Now, a lot of times people I'll give you an example the Buckeys exit, right? Exit 170, everybody knows that one. That was a partnership, but that was the utility. That's Marlboro PD Electric that has built that park. They actually own it, right? They own both sides of that. Now, in partnership with the county, the county owns the roads, city owns the water and the sewer. So that's a that's a joint venture in a way, but still ultimately the electrical cooperative owns the park. So, what the county was like, let's own our parks and let's develop those parks around the county to distribute the opportunities. So we have uh in what's called Florence County South, located in the town, right outside of the town of Scranton and Lake City. That's in Santee Electric Cooperatives area. So we're building in a park down there, and we have a 100,000 square foot speculative building that is owned by a joint venture between Darlamore Foundation, Greg Thompson Construction, and then also uh Sante Electric. County doesn't own that building. We own the dirt. So there's all kinds of creative ways of looking at it. We own the roads. So the idea is when, again, speed to market, when a company comes in, we have a building that is ready to go. Uh if you uh look at the north side of the county, which is exit 170 on that west side, uh, what we're doing is we're building a new industrial park over there with MPD uh and with um uh MDT, which is the development arm, so that that that's where Amazon went. That's the 100,000 that we built, they owned, but we assisted in bringing Amazon in. Now, Florence Global Technology Park, which is on 327, is the new thousand acres where the battery plant is going, and they're our anchor tenant. We'll go into that a little bit later. Uh, and then Florence East, which is the the site that people see down from Francis Mary and that's 400 acres. That has rail on the backhand side, very unique feature. Okay, because that's mainline rail on the back of the park, so you don't have to cross over rail to get to it. Nice, yeah, big, big important feature. And it's 400 acres and we have a 100,000 square foot pad. Now that's county-owned, and we're building a new one million-gallon water tank at that location that'll be done in in 2026.

Reeves:

So it would be fair to say that that is the master plan for economic development.

Greg:

And I'll toss in another one over in Timminsville. We bought another 400 acres over in Timminsville across from Honda. So the idea is that you have West, you have North, you have South, you have the middle. Uh, so I mean, the idea is that we are been then working with private partners. I mean, High Hill Commerce Park, where Otis is located, where ABB is. We're working with a private developer right now on looking at another speculative building in that location, looking at a speculative building in the at exit 170, looking at a speculative building at East. So the idea is that we're creating this, not to get overbuilt. So you don't want to have too much part product, but you want to have some. So the idea of the demand is still there.

Robert:

It feels to me like the master plan has been really thought out well. Because like we were just talking about Charleston, you go into Charleston and you see tons of buildings, and it's almost like a flurry happened and there wasn't the right master plan. I feel like we've got that. And and have you seen other areas that where all of these different entities work so well together?

Greg:

Well, I mean, as a state, we work well. We're a small state. Yeah. Uh what a Secretary Hitt called us a bucket of crab, right? As soon as one gets to top, we'll pull that other one down. Yeah, yeah. Uh, but the the point is that we do communicate. We're a smaller state, conversely to uh North Carolina, which is very it's so across from east to west, it's so different. And in Georgia, Atlanta just pulls all of those resources significantly away from the southern portion. We're more balanced. So you don't have one massive city that takes over uh like Atlanta does in Georgia. We have a balanced breakdown, and that's why the regions are important. So we're in the Northeastern Strategic Alliance region, PD and Grand Strand, and I think that's important because that that regional growth where Florence is the hub, as we grow, the rest grow. And I know one of the things you wanted me to talk about was kind of the biggest things that happened this year, just this year for the first time uh that I I think in the history of Florence, we are considered a developed county. So the Department of Revenue ranks us every year. And you have the top 11, then you have the next 11, you know, that goes all the way down to 46, and we move from the lower tier to the number one tier in the last two years. So that means that because of the growth that we have experienced, they chart our per capita income, they chart our unemployment rates, they chart our construction, they chart everything at the Department of Revenue, and then they rank every county. Now, why do they do that? Is because there's incentives tied to each one. It's great that we moved up, and I need to yell from the rooftops that we finally hit developed, but it does hurt us on our incentives. So so it it we're it'll be a little bit harder for us to sell, but um the fact is that companies that are not here, you know, we're getting the new publics. That's great. You know, the Trader Joes of the world and the other things that um all of our significant others want. Um life just perked up when you said Trader Joe's. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Did he say Trader Joes? I get that, I get that church, grocery store, wherever I go. Yeah. Uh and we don't, you know, again, industrial builds the wealth. Yep, they follow the wealth. So that's the reason why our medical is so important with McLeod and MUSC and Hope Health. We are a hub. And because of that, we're gonna see more come to us as a result. And I know we have a lot of chain restaurants. I mean, that's that's part of it. Why? Because they see the revenue that they can potentially make. We're a targeted market, but we'll cultivate that when we see more of our homegrown, like Victor's and others that can capture and be a little bit more unique. And that's what everybody wants is that more boutiquey, yeah, uh, less chain. Or coming. It's coming. Yeah, yeah, it's coming.

Reeves:

When when so we've got this master plan and we've got these industrial sites and strategic locations throughout the northeast uh counties. What uh goes into recruiting a prospective company? The crystal ball.

Greg:

Yeah, how do you see the crystal ball? Um so again, we target what we've got. All right. So if we look at Florence as a whole, we look at the region too, we do chemicals and plastics well, uh pharmaceuticals well, we do food exceedingly well because of our location. Um you look at what we've got, we do good metal fabrication, Otis. Uh GE healthcare is is on the medical side. So when you look at those clusters, those are what we're gonna target. Distribution. Clearly, we have that with I-20, I-95. So when we're looking to fill these parks, that is the targeted market. So when we go to area development conferences, we're targeting uh the location. Why did ThermoFisher choose us, which was Roche Carolina before, right? So when Thermo Fisher took over for Roche, they have the ability to onshore a number of pharmaceutical opportunities. What has Trump said he wants to do? Onshore pharmaceuticals. So now we're ready. So we actually have 400 acres over there next to uh ThermoFisher, and we also have Florence County East. So you got another 400 acres. You have 800 acres over there that could literally serve pharmaceutical or nutraceutical right now. All right, that's one cluster. All right, let's look at a different park. Look at exit 170. Amazon just came in. Transportation, distribution, final mile, that is a target market for us too. So obviously adjacent to the interstate. So you not only have the PD Commerce City, but you also have the 400 acres down in Timminsville across from Honda. Great distribution. Uh, if if you want to be just 20 miles off the interstate, you got Florence County South. So the idea is that we're creating the avenue. We now have a car on the lot that somebody wants. You got a truck, you got a mid-size, and you got a sports car.

Reeves:

That's cool.

Greg:

So the idea is that depending on the customer, you have something in your quiver.

Robert:

Wow.

Greg:

And before we didn't have it.

Robert:

Reeze, we're gonna be able to sell a bunch of houses.

Greg:

Yeah. Well, that's a very important point because when they come here, that's one of the first questions. Where are my people going to live? Yes. And I will say this because it was a, I mean, I was brand new on the job. We're selling the location for the new battery plant or the gigafactory. In the best way, the turning point when I knew that we were going to potentially win that project. And they evaluated over a hundred communities. Wow. I mean, let people realize that you have to kind of just finally get there. But when we get there, what do we have to do to showcase? You can't show all the residential at one time. You don't have enough time. We had a helicopter. So we literally took them up with Duke. Duke provided their helicopter, and we were able to show the entire metro area in the region, really, in less than an hour. We look good in the air, we look great in the air. And I will say this Bucky's has a beaver on the top of his. That's what I've heard. Yeah. So, so you know, when it was, you know, but we charted it.

Robert:

So you saw it click when y'all hit.

Greg:

And believe it or not, before we even took them up, I did a I did a discovery flight too. I had a friend with a golf cart in the air, and we went up and I said, All right, I want it charted here, here, here. But we saw the new construction. We saw the growth in the west, we saw the growth in the south, we saw the new construction opportunities, they saw the internet, interstate connectivity. And that's when it just kind of I could see it in the in the prospect. I could all of a sudden the interest shifted. And the decision wasn't made there. But if I were to say, where was the turning point of where you can start, you know that you're getting into the final decision, that was it. Wow. And we show very well from the air.

Reeves:

I I'm sure you get this question. Robert and I get this question all the time from people who've been in Florence a number of years, and they're like, why are we building all these houses? Where are all these people coming from? Who's gonna buy these houses? If I'm hearing you correctly, and everybody who listens to us, industry's coming. Yes, people are coming, people need houses, and we've got it's it's coming, right?

Robert:

We're gonna have more affordable houses than any other city this size in the state, I think. In the pipeline.

Greg:

It it is again look at several major national uh indicators. We have a realignment that's coming out of the northeast and midwest. All right, we know that. Ory County, Grand Stram, we're an hour away, hour and a half with the traffic. You're two hours to Charleston. You know, we have a lot of that element that folks that want to relocate but don't want to pay a premium but just want to be close enough, we check that box. Now throw in the second piece of that is the job creation off of the manufacturing. So our state is consistently kind of hit above our weight, you know, the weight class because we're a small state, but we have done a really good job on a lot of the tier ones and tier twos of automotive and aerospace. And as a result of that, we've seen more growth per capita than any of the other southern states. Wow. So that means that we're gonna now it comes down to now location. Some of these areas that have been very desirable are are kind of full, and it's difficult, and the price points are gonna squeeze them out, and that's where we come back into play. Toss in excellent schools, great health care, affordability, and you've got a little recipe that is really appealing to a lot of people.

Robert:

Absolutely.

Reeves:

I mean, I think we've seen that because that's a big reason why we've started the podcast is we believe in Florence and we wanted other people to see the good things that are happening in Florence. And it's always just super encouraging, Greg. You as the chief economic development officer here for what's happening, to come in and kind of reaffirm, guys, this is happening and we've got the infrastructure in place.

Greg:

We have the ability, we have the the we've got the infrastructure. I mean, fortunately, another thing that I want to stress because it's decades of leadership is the water and sewer capacity. We've got, I mean, if I were to say, all right, if somebody were asked me, what is the Achilles heel of South Carolina? It's wastewater. We do not have adequate wastewater and a regional delivery of water and sewer in general to a lot of our rural areas. And municipal areas we do, but rural areas we don't. If we truly want to grow, we have got to address the inadequate wastewater and water delivery in rural areas.

Reeves:

So that is interesting because that was the next the flip side of this corner. What are the challenges that we're experiencing or that are inhibiting the growth?

Greg:

And so you know, the the one thing that uh uh again, you you when you do it every day, it's the perception of education. Uh I had prospects literally this morning um that are from the Northeast. It is the perception once they get down here, and you know, I don't know what they think about South Carolina. But you know, we do have shoes. Uh yeah, yeah. You know, we we don't wear overalls. Exactly. You know, but but once they get down and they see what the continuum has to offer and what the technical college has to offer and what the various school districts are doing, and then they stay downtown. You know, I love when they stay with the group, stay downtown last night. Those little elements, all of a sudden, they're like, man, you guys really have a lot going on. And that's when, again, I don't even have to sell that. We let the community sell that. And I also tell, and I'll tell your listeners too, people are gonna ask, they may ask you, you might be at the target. You could be down at the grocery store. They're gonna say, Hey, tell me about the crime, or is the crime bad around here? Is the schools good? Those are secret shoppers. Yeah, and I mean every single one of our clients, they prospects, they're they're coming in, they're sending in a team. Uh, scary as it is, they won't even tell us. They just give them this, go down to Florence and here's here's a per diem, here's your deal. Take a group and then come back and we're gonna report out. And they'll do it in the say the top three communities they're evaluating. And they're coming because that's where their workers are gonna be. And and the incentive package is one piece. The element of community is what's gonna have to overcome the decision making factors when they're choosing Statesboro, Georgia versus Florence. South Carolina or Greensboro, North Carolina. So it's great that the incentives can help, but that doesn't change the cake. That's just the coloring of the icing. So on crime.

Robert:

Yeah. Have you seen crime stop some deals from happening here?

Greg:

I wouldn't say stop, but it's but what it does is it it creates a cloud in the decision making. It's never one thing that turns them away. It's probably four or five. Yeah. And it tips the scale. That's what I say. It's it's a it's a tipping of the scale that just and a lot of it is perception. Uh when you think about clients that are coming in, even with your clients, um, you know, when they're choosing a neighborhood when they've never been to South Carolina before, you know, what is that driving point? Is it the school? Is it the location to work? Is it things to do? Do they love to be in the woods? Do they want to have equestrian? You know, all those elements that come into it. Same thing.

Robert:

You're right. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, the we've got an awesome sheriff. I'll tell you that. We've got the sheriff's office. I sent I sent TJ Joy a little text yesterday about something I thought would be a good idea. He answered the phone and had a sheriff's officer follow me up today. Yeah. I mean, that's the that's what we've got in place here.

Greg:

We do I wish I wish we had more of that in the state.

Robert:

Yeah.

Greg:

Um the the uh we need that. I mean, that is a major element. Um and when you say state level, I say state wide with 46 counties. Yeah. I mean of the Sheriff's Association, TJ's at the top. Absolutely hands down, twice on Sunday, right? Yeah. Um, but the the bottom line is that we still have vagrancy. We still have major challenges. It's and a lot of it is not our county. I mean, you go out to 164, my office happens to be the SIMT, and when I have prospects in the car and I come down and I see the panhandling, I've got to fix that.

Robert:

Yeah.

Greg:

Um when we see dilapidated buildings, we've got to fix it. Yes. We have got to say enough is enough. And in Florence, as a developed county, we have got to tear down these old buildings and put together a package that allows for new investment.

Robert:

Absolutely.

Greg:

Um I I can't stress it enough. Our nodes of transportation, all right, exit 150, really. 153 is where you've got the new industrial park, 157 is where the new the ball fields and the new that's getting there. That one's getting away. QT made a major difference. Yes. Um, but again, when you get those investments, that little $7 million gas station, believe it or not. Yeah, uh, it might even be more than that. Um, but those things add up. We have got to take the string lights and take them underground, make them mast arms. We've got to clean up the landscaping. We have got to do those things to be proactive, to do what? To grab that 40,000 people that are driving on the interstate, comfortable, safe, easy, buckies, 33 plus million dollars in prepared food sales. Unbelievable. We can do that at Exit 170, we can do it at 169, we can do it at 164, you can do it at 157. Every single one of our nodes has to be addressed.

Robert:

Yes.

Reeves:

Well, and I don't think people fully the average person who's living around here fully understands the enormous traffic flow north-south on I-95, and that Florence is the only city in South Carolina sitting on 95. That's three lanes. It's easy to stop at. We are where people former senator there. The Leatherman had a lot to do with that.

Greg:

But you know, I will say our delegation is solid. Absolutely. And and I really do think that we're gonna have the ability to deliver some of that infrastructure like you're talking about, but you're exactly right. How do we clean up I-2995? That should be a premier exit. Yes. And I'm talking landscaped exit where when you arrive into Florence, you know it. And we're working, a matter of fact, I don't know if you've seen the new signage with GE Healthcare. Shout out to Scott Tolson and team. Um, they did a great job with signage. A lot of times people don't know that that's GE Healthcare. You're right. And so we need to do a better job of highlighting what the Florence Center has to offer, working with the city and the county to create an identity, a self-of-place.

Robert:

What do we do? What do we do and our audience? What can we do to help you push that narrative?

Greg:

Tell uh leadership. We have got that's what progress, our private sector arm, 250 plus members. People need to be involved, engaged in that. If you want to be aware of what's going on, we have everything from retirees all to $25,000 members. But the point is that anyone can be part of the private sector uh progress side. Get involved to learn how if your neighborhood has crooked signs, report it. If you see trash, report it.

Robert:

Yes.

Greg:

Um, one of the most proudest things that we've done, and we even picked up trash ourselves at our office, is keep Forest Beautiful. We have got to make sure that trash, when I'm driving around, believe it or not, guys, I will literally drive the track that morning. You you don't want to have any kind of dead animal, you don't want to have any kind of sofa that had been thrown out the night before. I mean, there's literally so many things that can turn a prospect, and you know this, if you go into a house and it's not staged right, oh yeah, and it it something is askew, it's first impression. And it's it's they're evaluating 15 different houses and they got to choose one.

Robert:

Yeah.

Reeves:

Hundred communities, they have to choose one. But some of the landscaping infrastructure and things to beautification, is that a bond that we might need to put forward, you know, vote on?

Greg:

Capital sales tax initiatives are a great way of doing that, but also working with the accommodations committees of a county and the city. So again, tell leadership, you know, that you think this is a high priority. Leadership's listening, especially in church or in the grocery store or wherever they are, how we need to improve our gateways.

Reeves:

Yes.

Greg:

And we did an excellent job. Shout out to McLeod on cleaning up airport, you know, I call that airport boulevard, but it's 30176. Um, but it cleaning that up, taking down that blighted um hotel. That helped. Perfect timing, guys. I mean, that without that being done, we probably wouldn't have won the gigafactory, wouldn't have had the $100 million worth of infrastructure. So those are all those things. Uh the road had been resurfaced, the trash had been collected. We got to get graffiti off the walls. There's so many little simple things, but a thousand points alike, use the old Bush analogy, but that's where the thousand points alike come together where everybody's pulling the rope in the same direction.

Robert:

We're gonna preach that message because I fully believe it. Yeah, it needs to happen. And that that airport corridors got a lot more work to do. And they say they're gonna beautify it. I mean, I hear there's a plan, but we need to see it happen.

Greg:

But all of those elements are very important the aesthetics, yeah, um, the lighting, uh, the trash, all of those things go into it as our first impression when these companies are coming in from internationally as well as nationally, because they're they're making multiple millions of dollars worth of decisions. And if and if a community, when they go out on their own, and they will, they're gonna take my, you know, I can show them once or twice, they're gonna Google it on their own and they're gonna come check it out. Absolutely. And and that is the that's today. I mean, that is just the the our phones, just just what happens. You can put the best lipstick on it, they're gonna come back on a Sunday and test it themselves.

Reeves:

So before we finish, yeah, tell us what you can about the anchor tenant, sure, the battery plant, as you know it.

Greg:

For for the listeners out there, um we when when the battery gigafactory came in, it was the former White Hawk site. So it was a site that had been marketed. It has a special uh interception of water, sewer, electrical, and it's a very unique rail. Um, and it's we were able to take down close to a thousand acres at that location. It is a joint venture between your county and city. It is working together. That is what we did. They became the anchor tenant, and as a result of that, the state has provided close to 80, almost 90 million dollars worth of infrastructure that includes the new training center, the boulevard road, water sewer upgrades, all of those things. It's a no-brainer for County and City. We created a brand new industrial park. We're calling it the Florence uh Global Technology Park. We've never had a tech park. So that's a big deal for the region of technology.

Robert:

I think that's what most people don't understand. We all think that that's just for that battery plant. It's that's a bigger play.

Greg:

Right. And we're gonna build a new building out there across from the training center very soon. So the idea is that we're we're again suppliers to them andor companies that are looking to. We're creating the the basically the pads, and then they can come in and they can do what private sector does. We don't wanna, I mean, we're not doing their business, right? We want to we want to recruit them so that they can hire quality jobs, and that's where we work with the state and the county to get that done. City too. Um, but ultimately, get back to your question. Um, we are on a pause. It's global uncertainty. That is my number one issue. It comes up. It came up this morning at breakfast. Um, global uncertainty on supply chain, global uncertainty on tariffs. Uh, the Supreme Court is getting ready to make a decision very soon. I don't know if y'all have been following any of that on whether the legality of the tariffs in general and are there going to be paybacks. There's a lot of things that are just in flux. Regardless of what happens, we've got to get that cleared up in the first quarter of 26 in order for a lot of this pinned up demand to make a decision.

Robert:

Yes.

Greg:

And that's kind of where we are. Back to the battery. Um, they are currently in a pause. Now, that doesn't mean that they have stopped. They have not stopped. Uh, they have over 3,000 containers inside that building of equipment. Um, it is 1.8 million square feet. They have invested $1.25 billion to date. Actually, it's more than that, but that's what I can prove in the ground. That doesn't include all your payroll and all your engineering and professional services and everything that that is associated with that. That's the that's the brick and mortar. So that asset's not going away. So the idea is that we are investing in building a park and partnering with them. They have time. They have already hit 70% of their commitment to the state and to the county. They've already hit it on the capital investment side. The jobs are less than 100. So we've got to get that up to the 1600 number that they've committed. They have not backed off of any of their commitments to us. It's going to take a little time. The global restructuring is going to be required. They're going to have to look at satisfying the Trump administration with the foreign ownership piece. And we're looking at their facility in Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina to kind of be an Americas portion of the AESC. Now, all of that we know. Timing is very important. So recently there was an article about it. That's a little premature. We don't know exactly when that immediacy of the hiring is going to happen, but the commitment has not changed. So it's still on pause, but the point is that we have a path forward, and we will have clarity of this path within that eight to twelve months. Again, this is a decade project. We're in year two. Be patient. It was moving fast. I mean, this it it moved faster than most. It was it was exceedingly fast. Again, you change in administration, changes a lot of things. Uh, but I will say this electric vehicles are not going away. The capacity for batteries is not going away with AI and the technology associated. And we know that power consumption is going to be a major issue in the next 10 years. Yes. And battery supply is going to solve a lot of that inconsistency. So we know that that's coming. We have Clarios here that is doing battery uh recycling already. There's a huge project that we're working with, a number of entities on how do we make sure that we have from redwood to Clarios to the battery manufacturers, all of those elements that are there because it's very important.

Reeves:

One one final question, just for my own interest, and maybe it'll interest other people. You mentioned the Supreme Court and and their upcoming pending decision on the legality of the tariffs. Is it that we simply need them to make a decision so we have clarity?

Greg:

No, that's that it's it that's what that's one piece. Okay. Uh so again, the the the legality of the tariffs from the president to begin with.

Reeves:

Okay.

Greg:

All right, that's that's one piece, right? But there are multiple, I mean, I'm all for reducing our deficit. We've got a massive problem. Uh, and for the future of our country, we have got to diminish or start to cut uh that we can't sustain that. So whether we end up having to do a restructuring of the tax revenue streams and how it's generated, or we build it through tariffs in order to knock it down. Whatever we do, we have to reduce the deficit. Um getting back to your question on legality of, I mean, the Supreme Court has got to determine, because this is the first time we've ever done this in a long time. Um the the way the tariffs are being used almost changing daily. So we've got to have some more certainty. And that is that is a decision that is in front of them right now.

Reeves:

But but does if they if they rule on President Trump's side and say, yeah, okay, the president can enact tariffs, let's hope let's hope he stabilizes his own plan. And says, okay, China, it's gonna be 25 and it's not changing tomorrow or the next day. Is it better long term, you think, from from an industrial growth standpoint, for tariffs to be in place, but to be stabilized and for the companies to know what they are, or for us to go away from them?

Greg:

No, I want I want it doesn't matter what they are. Okay. It's it's the stability of knowing what you have in front of you and as you're developing your your global infrastructure. Yeah, right. And and I I do understand what he's trying to do in the sense of bringing it back on shore where it's more you know, attractive to be here. I want it to be more attractive to be here. That's the whole point of the incentive. Um, but at the same time, you can't have it where it's it changes. We have to have consistency in in the tariff, either annual number or every five years, or something where we can structure it where companies know what their liabilities are.

Reeves:

Makes perfect sense.

Greg:

Because they they will, I mean, there's there's ways around certain tariffs. I mean, there are projects out there, guys, right now, that are, you know, European and other comp uh countries that are looking at kitting their product, meaning putting it in a box, totally unassembled, bringing it over, reassemble it. But is that manufacturing? That's, you know, I mean, great, we're getting it, but we still have to leverage the fact that we are the number one consumer engine in the world. And that is not going to change. And as a result, we've got to figure out how do we capture majority of that incoming um product, but also adding value to that product so that it can go to the to our base, which is us, of course. United States. And we are inherently at a great advantage by being on the East Coast. And because of that, we want to make sure that Florence County and our region is the number one location for new and incoming opportunities. Greenville's getting full, Charleston's getting full. The point is, Midlands is getting full. There's a labor shortage, is what I mean by full, not necessarily full by land, but it's labor. We have capacity to grow, and we have the ability to bring in from affordability standpoint, housing standpoint, school standpoint, you know, quality of life standpoint. We really do have an excellent recipe.

Robert:

We sure do. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks for all you're doing. We we will anytime you want to come back, we're here. Well, I'd my my I'd love for us to be you you text, say, All right, boys, I got something we need to talk about. All right, let's meet downtown and talk. Yeah, thank you for everything.

Greg:

I I'll just commend you for what you're doing. We have so many platforms, and everybody's getting their information and so many, then that's why you you you see some of this misleading information that gets kind of out there. And I and I think we've got to do a better job of communication. And I just thank you for the opportunity.

Robert:

Thank you. Thank you. Come back soon. Yeah, absolutely.