A Promising New Economy

All by itself, the dramatic change in the residential landscape bursting on the New Neck would put it at center stage in the region’s growth. But there are even more reasons for optimism. Just check out the fast-expanding business development and federal investments in the zone formerly occupied by the Naval base.

“Shipyards are notoriously poor in converting from public to private,” says Richard Gregory of Charleston Marine Manufacturing Corp. “They’re old, and usually have a history of a lot of manufacturing so there’s contamination.” Nonetheless Gregory and his associates went after the old shipyard industrial complex, with its industrial piers and dry docks, as soon as it became available.

The firm now known as CMMC set out to create a marine cluster of businesses. The plan became reality, and today they have 36 tenants ranging from the large operations of Detyens Shipyard to a design center for high-level furniture. Of course there’s Teddy Turner’s Boat Repair, but also an emerging major manufacturer of mine-resistant vehicles. Filling the spaces are mostly small companies, with CMMC playing a kind of incubator role.

And just south of the shipyards are the properties that once held the old Naval base. The Navy closed the base, but former Senator Fritz Hollings made sure that the federal government didn’t disappear. In addition to the passport center for the eastern half of the United States, there’s a cluster of buildings dedicated to law-enforcement training programs, plus the Naval Weapons Station and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR).

Most fascinating is Project Seahawk (its more pedestrian name is Charleston Harbor Operations Center). Authorized by Congress after 9/11, Seahawk is aimed at developing and testing systems to detect and prevent terrorism. It also might be a model for intergovernmental cooperation — combining the U.S. Department of Justice with the Coast Guard, the Immigration and Customs divisions of the Department of Commerce; these federal agencies are matched with staff from state, county and city level law enforcement agencies. They sit side by side, share the same data and attend the same meetings.

The still-expanding Seahawk programs include software and devices to monitor all incoming ships and detect any nuclear or radiological content in the millions of containers arriving each year. They’re working on ways to increase security at every point of handing off cargo until it’s on a rail car or truck headed for its destination.

There are 354 ports in the United States. Every one of them has a vital interest in the pioneering work of Seahawk. Deputy Director Frank Gutierrez says his phone is rarely idle these days. And Congress continues to debate the means and timing of spreading what’s been learned to other ports, especially those considered most strategic to the daily flow of goods.

So significant is Seahawk that when Angelou Economics completed a study of the region’s economic prospects, one major cluster of future economic activity cited was Advanced Security. Already a multibillion dollar industry nationally, it can only get bigger in this century — from advanced surveillance techniques to biometric access tools to more sophisticated intelligence software.

Charleston has the right laboratory, having the sixth-largest port, the remaining Navy and Air Force installations, along with low electric energy costs and competitive salaries. Plus, the vaunted reputation for good living continues to draw a crowd, many of them highly educated professionals. With the right investments in education at home and creating better access to graduate engineering programs, the region could be poised for national leadership in security. Another marker in the map of the New Neck.