After all the political wrangling and disputed development of a Wal-Mart at Pelham Road and I-85, it looks like a Supercenter will indeed be part of the landscape in a little over a year.  The Pelham Corridor Property Owners Alliance finally relented from their attack when attorneys for the OBS Land Company threatened the "personal savings" of the surrounding landowners.  Wal-Mart has since purchased the land from OBS and plans an upscale version of its smallest Supercenter design and will include merchandise targeting the nearby upscale communities.  The development will probably fill the remaining land left from the demolition of the old Home Gold building where several other retailers have taken up residence in the past year.  You can expect more business to flock into the available space across Pelham where an old cinema building was recently removed. 

After receiving a tax credit from South Carolina, Michelin will continue is relationship with the state by investing $350 million on four of its seven plants here.  The tax credit could be as much as half of the corporation's withholding taxes; Michelin's taxes amounted to $23 million for this year.  Over the past 309 years, Michelin has invested $2.1 billion locally which has resulted in 7,850 current employees and 2,650 retirees in 37 of the South Carolina's 46 counties.

Greer based Advanced Composite Materials announced that it will launch an $18 million expansion to create a new headquarters, R&D lab, and state of the art manufacturing facility for a product that will revolutionize the microwave cooking industry.  Their new Silar technology is a composite material that reaches cooking temperature in about 5 seconds, which really excites microwave manufacturers.

General Electric is running out of office space at its 413 acre turbine engine campus in Greenville near I-85 and I-385.  With 3000 currently employed at the plant and increased demand from the Middle East, the company is looking for additional facilities. GE recently hit a milestone with the shipment of its 1000th F-class turbine engine and expects Saudi Arabia to solicit bids for 50 more units by the end of the year.

 Source Greenville News, GSA Business