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Upstate Banking Campus Planned: South Financial to Locate $100 Million Center In

Posted on: Saturday, 18 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Ben Werner, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Mar. 18--The South Financial Group unveiled plans Friday for a $100 million, 600-employee banking campus in Greenville. Tax and cash incentives kept the company from relocating in high-growth markets farther south.

Mack Whittle, chief executive, said the financial services company's fastest growth is in Florida. But the Upstate will remain its home thanks, in part, to nearly $18 million in county and city incentives, plus state tax credits.

"The future growth is in Florida," Whittle said. But Greenville's draw was simple, he added, citing "the availability of people, and we were already here."

Officials unveiled plans for a 375,000-square-foot banking campus off Interstate 85 near the International Center for Automotive Research.

"It puts us all in one place," Whittle said.

The new facility will be home to as many as 600 employees who are expected to be hired during the next 10 years. They will perform loan compliance, risk management, audit and finance work.

South Financial, parent of Carolina First, will keep its downtown Greenville offices where about 200 employees work.

The company's rapid growth in Florida, Whittle said, means more employees are needed to keep up with the business. As more workers are needed, more buildings will be added to the campus.

The pay scale for the new hires is described as being more than $54,000 a year -- twice the state's current annual per capita income of $27,172.

"Carolina First's announcement is another sign that our efforts to better the state's soil conditions for business growth are working to create more new jobs and raise income levels," Gov. Mark Sanford said.

Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor called the new headquarters "a major step forward in achieving this administration's goals to attract higher-paying, knowledge-based jobs and raise income levels for the citizens of our state."

As more employees are hired to work at the new facility and they are paid more than the average per-capita income, South Financial will be able to claim state tax credits, a Commerce Department spokeswoman said.

Since starting 20 years ago with its first Carolina First branch in Greenville, South Financial has grown by aggressively opening branches and undertaking a series of acquisitions -- about one per year.

All told, South Financial's subsidiaries have more than $9.2 billion in deposits. More than half of those deposits are held by Carolina First, the largest.

At the end of 2005, Carolina First reported deposits of more than $5.6 billion, making it the fourth-largest bank in South Carolina. The bank has 106 branches in South Carolina and coastal and western North Carolina.

In 1999, South Financial purchased two small central Florida banks. The company purchased Mercantile Bank in the Tampa area three years later. At the end of 2005, South Financial reported having more than $3.6 million in deposits at 66 branches in the Florida.

South Financial's closing stock price Friday was $26.14 per share, up 12 cents from the previous day.

Reach Werner at (803) 771-8509.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The State, Columbia, S.C.

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NASDAQ-NMS:TSFG,

Source: The State (Columbia, S.C.)

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