GSA Daily Staff Report
Published August 4, 2009

Private companies have joined state and local agencies in marketing The South Financial Group’s unoccupied 60-acre corporate campus for sale off I-85.

The state Department of Commerce, the Upstate Alliance, the Greenville Area Development Corp. and the city of Greenville have launched a new Web site, www.HQGreenville.com, that features virtual tours and videos of the building.

Some Upstate technology firms donated products and services to the site for the exposure, said Michael Kerski, the city’s economic development manager.

“This Web site would have cost a fortune,” he said.

Any expenses associated with the site were paid by the bank, he said.

The site has been active for two weeks and has already garnered a couple hundred hits, Kerski said.

“There’s been a lot of foreign traffic,” he said.

The site, developed by Greenville-based Mediasation, pairs the campus information with videos and links to area attractions, workforce data, testimonials and demographics.

Other contributors to the site are King Searls Design, which developed the HQ Greenville logo and tag line, “more than a City…it’s a lifestyle; and Spinatour provided the three-dimensional online tour of the campus and its buildings. Another local firm called www.GreenvilleHD.com provided the HD videos of local attractions and events.

The Greenville-based South Financial Group, which has invested $85 million in the property, announced plans in June to sell the campus and remain in downtown Greenville.

Previous coverage
TSFG campus could be 'economy changer'

The community views the campus as a landing pad for a large company to use as a headquarters, though the site could be subdivided for several tenants, pending market need.

“The Carolina First Campus, as it’s currently known, is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a company to relocate to a world-class campus in Greenville with room for future expansion.  The state, county and city have partnered to offer attractive incentives for relocating companies.  We’re hopeful that this comprehensive community support will attract a new company to the region and the state,” commented South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Joe Taylor.

Jerry Howard, president and CEO of the GADC said, “The campus is one of probably a dozen in the country that can offer a company stylish new space, amazing visibility and location, state of the art technology along with access to one of the best workforces in the nation.  We needed to do something ’out of the box’ to get people’s attention and I think we have accomplished that.”

Designed by Cooper Cary of Atlanta, the current campus features interiors by Greenville’s Pazdan-Smith Group and consists of more than 200,000 square feet of Class A office space along with a 40,000-square-foot conference center. The entire campus could house as much as 1 million square feet of office space when completely built out.