Greenville City Council voted to create the Greenville City Economic Development Corporation (GCEDC) — a nonprofit corporation similar to Greenville County’s Greenville Area Development Corporation (GADC).

What does this mean for Greenville?

The GCEDC staff will use public funds and private capital to recruit businesses and projects to the city of Greenville.

The goal? To maintain and expand the city’s economic vibrancy by:

Recruiting high-quality retail and restaurants to the city
Fostering higher-quality real estate projects
Advancing small and minority-owned businesses

The city hopes to collaborate more effectively with other regional economic development partners (think: the GADC and the Upstate SC Alliance).

What happens next?

Now that City Council passed this resolution, the city manager will write bylaws + prepare articles of incorporation (read: GCEDC’s governing documents), which will be approved by city council.

The resolution passed by city council creating GCEDC also says the board of directors overseeing the corporation will include 3+ members appointed by the city council — two of those members are expected to be the mayor and a member of City Council.

The Greenville Journal spoke with District 1 Councilman John Deworken, who brings economic development experience to his role and has been advocating for an organization like this since he was elected to council. Read how he says this move will create jobs and increased opportunities for you.