Greenville offers a waterfall of ideas for Columbus

About 140 business and community leaders recently returned from the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual intercity trip to Greenville, S.C., a city that hosts more than a dozen such trips each year.

The Columbus contingent was impressed by that fact, which begged the question, “How can we have the kind of city that makes other people want to be like us?”

The Ledger-Enquirer asked trip participants for ideas they got from Greenville that can be applied to Columbus. We also sifted through trip evaluations, made available by the chamber to the newspaper, for more pearls of wisdom.

Here are just a few lessons learned from Greenville:

1. HAVE A PLAN AND STICK WITH IT

Like most folks on the trip, Betsy Covington was impressed by Greenville’s peaceful environment — and its vibe.

“They’ve invested in public art, walking and biking trails, and parks that bring people together to make the city a ‘cool’ place to visit and live,” said Covington, president and CEO of Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley, Inc.

Anne King, executive director of MidTown Columbus, calls Greenville’s economic growth “remarkable,” but believes the South Carolina city’s planning is “scalable to Columbus.”

“Like Greenville, we have great districts and neighborhoods in place,” King said. “We need to continue building on what distinctively reflects our place, our community, and avoid ‘anyplace USA’ sprawl.”

For Covington, the trip was a glimpse into what Columbus is becoming. “The Greenville trip was, for me, a big affirmation of a lot of the core community work that Columbus is already doing. It was a bit like getting a glimpse of Uptown, MidTown and City Village 20 years from now. Greenville’s downtown is beautiful, walkable and human-scaled, and ours is definitely headed that way.”

Joel Ames, director of marketing, public relations and corporate communications at Columbus Regional Health, was impressed that Greenville leaders stayed committed for 20 years to a vision to “become something that it had never been before.”

“They identified what made them unique and stuck to a plan developed by an outside firm to leverage their uniqueness in an economically viable model of redevelopment,” Ames said. “They took an inclusive path to recreating themselves in the face of name-calling, bitter disagreement, naysayers, opposition and even threats so that their dream stayed alive and their city survived.”

2. CAPITALIZE ON THE CHATTAHOOCHEE

Like everyone on the trip, architect Jack Jenkins was impressed by the Liberty Bridge, which provides stunning views of the city’s waterfall and signature park.

“The pedestrian bridge was such a rock star that everything sort of spins off that,” Jenkins said. “… Our river is such a powerful and impressive force compared to their waterfall that one can’t help but think our possibilities are endless.”

Attorney Ken Henson Jr. noticed that Greenville’s bridge was pictured at the beginning of seemingly every PowerPoint presentation during the trip, and that people flocked to the bridge “all day and night.”

He also saw a lesson for Columbus. “We missed an opportunity at the 13th Street Bridge at the river 20 years ago and with reworking the existing 14th Street pedestrian bridge,” he said.

Henson points out that Greenville held a design competition for its pedestrian bridge. “This way you get to pick the best design idea from several firms instead of one design firm with a few ideas,” he said. “We should obtain multiple design ideas on projects and not just use one firm.”

Tripp Wade, president of the Wade Companies, agrees that the Chattahoochee is a plus for the community, but also believes it presents more challenges than Greenville’s Reedy River, which is practically a creek. “One (challenge) is the fact our community is on a much larger waterway which is used to define the border of two states,” Wade says. “This creates natural divides which we need to embrace as one.”

Russ Carreker, president of Day 6 Outdoors, noticed the amount of development along Greenville’s riverfront and thinks this is the “lowest hanging fruit” for Columbus.

“We are still a bit more removed from our river with a couple of exceptions,” he said of Columbus and the Chattahoochee River. “Wish we had a way to get more restaurants and activities on the river and within easy walking distance of each other.”

3. PUT MORE ART IN PUBLIC PLACES

Becca Zajac, vice president of marketing and community relations at Uptown Columbus Inc., noticed that Greenville has a wide variety of artwork “peppered” throughout its downtown, and that it also has an organization dedicated to identifying both the types of artwork needed downtown and the right place to put it.

Along the river, Zajac noticed about a dozen small art studios, which she thought was “a brilliant way to showcase local artists’ work, as well as bring more life into that area.”

Several trip participants wanted to see more statues of people important to Columbus, and Henson noted that such projects could be funded by Columbus families looking for a way to honor their ancestors.

One person wrote this comment on a chamber evaluation form: “We need to start now with a bronze statue of Bill Turner holding a Coke and maybe cooking on a Char-Broil grill.”

Leah Braxton, vice president for broker services with W.C. Bradley Company Real Estate, envisions large soda bottles. “Maybe play off of Coca-Cola, RC and other colas being invented here and put large, 6-foot durable bottles as they were designed back in those days and place them in areas of importance.” She also sees a Pemberton Drugstore on Broadway that sells fountain drinks.

4. PREPARE ALL OUR CHILDREN FOR THE WORKFORCE

For many, the highlight of the trip was touring the A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School of Engineering, zoned for a low-income neighborhood but so successful that parents from other zones enter their children in a lottery to attend.

Why an engineering school? Because Greenville has one of the highest concentrations of engineers in the nation, and the city is going to need more of them.

“Holy cow!” noted Rick McKnight, director of education with the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. “Talk about investing early in workforce development.”

Ingrid Rider-Owens, manager of business and industry training and economic development for Columbus Technical College, was impressed that a community was emphasizing engineering at “such an early age.”

“The leadership in Greenville understands that continued economic growth is greatly dependent on young people who have the skills and education to meet the needs of local employers,” she said.

While David Lewis, superintendent for the Muscogee County School District, was also impressed by the school’s facilities and mission, he was most inspired by the school’s commitment to “Own the Wow.”

“I greatly appreciated the commitment to excellence that was fostered through “WOW” and demonstrated by teachers, staff and students alike,” he said.

5. GROW BUSINESS FROM WITHIN

During the trip, while Greenville leaders talked about attracting companies such as Michelin North America to their city, they also stressed that the best chance to grow their next major headquarters was to start companies from within.

“Columbus may be disadvantaged when it comes to our ability of attracting outside businesses or talent to relocate to our community in comparison to a city like Greenville,” observed Justin Krieg, preservationist at Historic Columbus. “We can, however, cultivate and grow existing small businesses that are already in our community to become the future Synovus, TSYS, Aflac … our city needs.”

Carreker thought the best idea he saw on the Greenville trip was the city’s NEXT project, which provided flexible office space options and opportunities for collaboration for innovators, entrepreneurs and technology companies. NEXT facilities are developed with private money and run by a chamber employee.

“The idea of having somewhere that high growth-capable companies can co-locate was very interesting,” Carreker said. “…It really helps build an entrepreneur-centric ecosystem, which is much needed in Columbus.”

Twila Kirkland, business services development officer for Kinetic Credit Union, came away from the trip believing Columbus “has a tremendous need for angel investors to fund start-up companies.” She was intrigued by the Upstate Carolina Angel Network and the associated state tax credits available to investors.

Hans Gant, vice president of business development for Batson-Cook Company, envisions an innovation square in downtown Columbus “where the region's tech startups, entrepreneurs, established companies, universities and tech schools partner and collaborate.” He believes doing so would “leverage our position as a financial transaction and manufacturing hub.”

6. DEVELOP DIVERSITY INITIATIVES

William Morgan, employee event planner for employee engagement & diversity with Aflac, was impressed by the “intentional, active purpose” of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce’s minority business acceleration program.

This program, Morgan said, “builds business development in the minority market by working with the business owner to provide coaching, leadership development, comprehensive business assessments, brainstorming with other business leaders, strategic referrals and introductions, and growth plans.”

He especially liked the fact that Greenville minority business owners are visiting local high schools to encourage business ownership.

The Rev. J.H. Flakes III, senior pastor of Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church, said Greenville appears to have “intentionally developed a culture of inclusion on all levels,” and believes Columbus can learn from this.

“There needs to be a shift of paradigm regarding who we allow at the table in the city,” he said.

7. HAVE A GOOD ATTITUDE AND WORK HARD

Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson summed up Greenville’s success this way: “They have benefited as a community and as a regional economy from believing they can achieve big things.”

Krieg describes it another way: “They are restless in working to continually improve their community. Once a project or development is complete, they don't sit still — it is on to the next one that continues to build a better business and residential climate for the citizens.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Greenville offers a waterfall of ideas for Columbus."