Mobile Home Sales in Chesterfield, SC

Tourism is the main driver of South Carolina’s economy, accounting for about 10 percent of jobs in the state and an estimated annual impact of $29 billion.

The University of South Carolina helps keep this economic engine humming by preparing graduates of the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management to take on key roles in a variety of businesses and by helping those businesses adapt and grow.

“It’s about getting our students jobs, but it’s also about getting into these businesses and organizations for research then using that research to provide help to the industries,” says Robin DiPietro, director for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. “We need industry and, in reality, industry needs us to provide great employees and to provide cutting-edge research.”

That dual mission starts with hiring faculty who have the right educational background and the industry experience to provide students with the perfect balance of coursework and out-of-the classroom experiences to learn the business.

“Most of our faculty come from the hospitality and tourism industry. That's where we started,” DiPietro says. “Not only do faculty need the academic credentials, but they need to have some experience in our field, because that's the primary way it will benefit our students.”

USC’s work on both fronts is essential to the industry’s success. But there also is a learning curve, especially for parents who are looking for a return on their investment in their child’s education.

“I think that’s one of our challenges, trying to overcome this ‘burger-flipper’ image that we sometimes have with parents,” says Duane Parrish, director of the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism.

Meeting workforce needs

Parrish, a 1981 USC business graduate, has more than 40 years’ experience working in hotels, including when he was a student at USC.

“I graduated in one of the worst times economically,” Parrish recalls of his USC days. “It was ugly in terms of finding a job.

“But I had been working at a Holiday Inn and I really loved it. My general manager took me under his wing and taught me the hotel business,” he says.

Parrish has been an instructor in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management and serves on the college’s industry advisory board. His agency hosts HRSM interns every year and several of those interns have started their careers with the state department.

He says part of what the advisory board works on is helping students with that “kitchen table” conversation with their parents — convincing them that hospitality careers are more than waiting tables.

“If your child comes home and says, ‘I want to work in hospitality or in a hotel,’ that's a tougher sell for the child,” he says.

Parrish says hospitality wages are up more than 20 percent since the pandemic.

“I don't believe many at all in our industry are making minimum wage anymore,” he says. “We've come a long way in terms of pay, but we still have that reputation nationally as a ‘burger flipper,’ I'll call it. But we've come a long way from that.”

Different roads lead to hospitality

For 2002 biology graduate Laurie Savidge, it was her parents who suggested a return to school to earn an advanced degree in hospitality.

“My introduction to working in the hospitality industry was at Charleston Place Hotel. And how could you not fall in love with hospitality there?” Savidge says. “My parents gave me the great advice of, ‘You might want to consider continuing your education and learn more about the business of hospitality.’”

So Savidge returned to USC to earn her master’s in 2005 in international hospitality and tourism management.

“That's where I really learned the fundamentals of the business of hospitality,” says Savidge, who is director of operations for Marriott’s Grande Ocean resort in Hilton Head Island.

But it was two visiting professors from Australia that Savidge says laid the groundwork for her interest in corporations’ environmental and social responsibility to the communities they operate in.

To that end, Savidge partners with local purveyors — farmers and fishermen — who provide produce, seafood and other products from areas like the Port Royal Sound for the resort’s guests.

“Marriott International and Marriott Vacation Club have a firm foundation in corporate citizenship and giving back to the community our resorts exist in,” she says. “I've been fortunate to support our organizational sustainability initiatives since the early stages of my career.”

Savidge has also taught hospitality classes at USC Beaufort and some of her students have gone on to be employees with Marriott Vacation Club.

“We provide tours to hospitality students who want to learn more about the business and see a resort, see the front of the house, see the back of the house, and we do a Q&A,” she says.

“When I was teaching introduction to hotel management, I had a student who went on a tour, then he became an hourly associate and now he's one of my managers.

“I love being able to see their careers grow and see how their degrees have helped them be successful leaders.”

Education and experience

Darron Kirkley began his hospitality career at the age of 18, working as an event planner for his hometown Pageland, S.C., Chamber of Commerce. He worked there while he was earning his first degree from USC in math education (2007).

“I just fell in love with the industry,” he says. “I think that's one thing a lot of people don't think about, the necessity of the education and the training behind festivals and events. So that’s sort of where my life changed.”

But getting deeper into the industry without a hospitality degree was not so easy.

“I literally applied for a job straight out of college and my undergrad wasn't in hospitality and tourism, and I was told point blank that I didn't get the job because I didn't have the degree,” Kirkley says. “The industry experience mattered, but there are definitely those employers out there that value education.”

Kirkley returned to USC to get his master’s in international hospitality and tourism management and later a second master’s in sport and entertainment management.

Now Kirkley serves as Chesterfield County’s tourism coordinator, where he is responsible for sales, marketing, advertising, social media and all other aspects of getting people to come to a destination.

He says working while he was in class helped him make the connection between what he was learning and how it applied in the real world.

“I then could instantly go and apply those strategies, theories, those future trends, future topics that we were taught in class and see that actually happening in real life, which was definitely unique,” he says. “But it goes back the other way, too. In class as we had those discussions, I could bring in those real-life experiences of what the industry was facing.”

Kirkley also gets to put his undergraduate degree to use as a teacher — by day at Central High School, where he teaches a hospitality class, and by night, as an instructor in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management.

“I serve on multiple committees and boards that are tourism-related, so when our students come out, they are very well versed in what the current trends are, what's going on, what the state is experiencing,” he says. “I think that has made a huge difference for our students having those connections.”

Those industry connections don’t just help the students, but they help professors and researchers in the college learn even more about the industry.

One such USC research project is funded by the Economic Development Association to create an online training tool for the post-COVID hospitality industry.

“It's through our industry connections that we are able to collect surveys or collect data that helps enhance our research,” DiPietro says.

“We really need those industry connections for student success, which is No. 1, to get them jobs, then secondarily, getting relevant research data and being able to provide it back to industry partners.”

Thompson Street Capital Partners, a St. Louis-based private equity firm, has invested in a clinical data management business.

TSCP said last week that it has made a "growth investment" in OpenClinica, which developed a cloud-based software platform to speed up and simplify clinical research. Terms of the investment weren't disclosed.

Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, OpenClinica's platform lets users automatically capture data from electronic health records (EHRs) and produce comprehensive electronic case report forms for clinical trials.

Established over 15 years ago and used in over 10,000 studies worldwide, the OpenClinica platform serves biopharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, academic institutions and government agencies, officials said. OpenClinica Unite is a large network of connected health systems that can automatically share EHR clinical data for clinical trials, registries and chart reviews, which eliminates manual data entry and source verification, according to a press release.

“Thompson Street Capital Partners and OpenClinica are united around a shared vision for overcoming the challenges of data collection and enabling more efficient clinical research through data management and automation,” Cal Collins, OpenClinica's co-founder and CEO, said in the release. “It was critical that we found a partner aligned with our goals and values, and we are thrilled to partner with TSCP to expand our offerings and reach.”

Ben Baumann, co-founder and COO of OpenClinica, said in a statement, “In conjunction with our leadership team, TSCP's considerable experience in life science and technology will be incredibly beneficial in helping deliver greater value to customers, and help us grow our Unite network."

“OpenClinica provides the tools, automation, and resources to facilitate significant opportunities for clinical researchers and make it easier to bring the next iteration of therapeutic and biotechnology discoveries to market,” stated Matt Scherrer, managing director at TSCP, who has served on the boards of a number of the founder-owned life sciences businesses in which his private equity firm has invested. “TSCP is proud to back Cal, Ben, and their management team to advance their growth and leadership position in eClinical technology, and we look forward to working with them to drive the company’s next phase of growth.”

Thompson Street Capital Partners, founded by Managing Partner Jim Cooper, primarily partners with management to invest in founder-led middle-market businesses in the health care and life science services, software and technology services, and business services and engineered products sectors. It has acquired more than 150 companies and has managed more than $3.6 billion in equity since its founding in 2000.

Earlier this month, TSCP acquired Sabai, a Chesterfield-based provider of regulatory review and biosafety consulting services. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

One of St. Louis' largest privately held companies, Thompson Street Capital Partners reported 2021 revenue of $1.1 billion.

Ranked by Revenue Volume 2021

School district officials confirmed that 24 students were on the bus at the time of the accident. The eight students that were hospitalized were sent home.

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — The driver of a Chesterfield County school bus has now been cited by the South Carolina Highway Patrol after the bus overturned Friday afternoon.

According to SCHP, the driver of the bus was driving too fast for conditions along a dirt road, leading to the bus turning onto its side. Officials with the Chesterfield County School District said 24 students were on the bus at the time, and eight were sent to the hospital. All eight students were eventually released and back at home.

School district officials later confirmed that students from New Heights Middle School and Jefferson Elementary School were on the bus at the time of the accident. The bus overturned along McCaskill Road near the intersection with Angelus Road.

MORE NEWS: More than 4,000 CMS students could be without stable housing this year, district says

“Next thing we know, we just hear 'boom' and then we all fall onto the ground," Kylee Hatchel, 11, who was on the bus, said, "And we were rushing to get out the exits.”

Aside from bumps and scratches, Hatchel is okay. Eight other students were taken to the hospital with injuries, officials said.

"[On] one of the little girls they had started cutting up her pants -- I guess something was wrong with her legs," Ashley Cobb, Hatchel's mom, said, "There was a little girl that had a neck brace on and something like a brace on her back."

Cobb said she is relieved her daughter is okay and concerned about the other children on the bus. She doesn't, however, fault the bus driver for what happened. While authorities have not said what caused the crash, Cobb believes it's the dirt road the school bus was driving on that contributed to the crash.

“When I got to the scene, I could hardly walk the road, that’s how slick it was," Cobb said. "I was slipping."

Neighbors said it’s been a problem for years, and not just on McCaskill Road.

Resident Ethan Foard says there are many unpaved county-maintained roads in Chesterfield County.

“When it gets a little bit of rain on it, it turns into peanut butter," Foard said.

While officials have not released a cause for the crash, Foard and others want this to be a cautionary tale.

“These dirt roads are so bad that every year, buses have trouble getting up and down them," Nicole Simpson, also a resident, said. "That just happened to be one of the worst things that happened.

The condition of the eight students is unknown.

Credit: Nicole Simpson

Inside the tipped-over Chesterfield County school bus

WCNC Charlotte viewer Nicole Simpson shared photos with reporter Indira Eskieva that showed the bus on its side. Simpson also got a look inside the bus before it was brought back on its wheels. A wrecker eventually towed it away.

Chesterfield County school bus being towed away

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A building under renovation near downtown Aiken soon will be the home of a shop selling fine Belgian chocolates.

Plans also call for the office of a real estate firm based in the Charleston area to be located in the structure.

In addition, there is room for another business.

“I decided to give it a new look, a fresh look,” said entrepreneur David Meunier, who purchased the 2,576-square-foot building on Chesterfield Street South for $240,000 two years ago.

The sellers were Evelyn Kim Cato and Keith Lamar Cato, according to Aiken County land records.

“It was an eyesore, a little bit. That’s what I like to do, take places that are not too good and improve them,” Meunier said. “I do a lot of my buildings in Miami the same way. I like to dress them up with wood, mix wood with concrete to give them warmth.”

Meunier doesn’t believe he will have a problem finding a tenant for the unclaimed space in the structure.

“It’s going to be rented in no time,” he said. “I’ve gotten so many inquiries because of how the building looks.”

The structure is next to Meunier’s La Parisienne, a French restaurant and bakery that he launched in 2020.

Meunier also owns La Bourgogne Club de Polo on Coleman Bridge Road between Aiken and Wagener, and he has purchased a variety of other properties locally in recent years.

The chocolate shop in the refurbished Chesterfield Street building will be called La Bonbonnière and is scheduled to make its debut in March.

The owner, Bebette Smith, also operates a La Bonbonnière store in Augusta at 231 Furys Ferry Road, Suite 206B.

She founded her handmade chocolate business in Georgia in 2005 after graduating from the Wieze Chocolate Academy in Belgium.

Smith, who was born and raised in Belgium, also has attended numerous workshops for chocolatiers in her native land and the U.S.

“My chocolates will continue to be made in Augusta, and then they will be brought to Aiken just to sell,” Smith said.

She decided to establish a South Carolina branch of La Bonbonnière because the Aiken residents who visited her shop asked her to do so.

“Many times, I heard people say, ‘Why don’t you open in Aiken?’” Smith said.

She met Meunier because he was a customer.

One day, Smith recalled, they had the following conversation:

“He said, ‘You know I have a place for you if you want to open in Aiken,’ and he said, ‘I bet you it would work.’ I said, ‘Okay.’”

To begin with, the operating hours for La Bonbonnière in Aiken probably will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

“Aiken is a weekend place,” Smith said. “People take walks then. They also shop, go to restaurants and do things like that.”

For more information, visit labonbonniereaugusta.com or the La Bonbonnière, Augusta, Ga., page on Facebook.

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Aiken may be a few months away from hot weather but development on the city’s northside continues to be red hot.

The second and final reading of an ordinance approving an agreement with Beazley Development Company to provide water service to a new residential development along Wire Road is on the agenda for the 7 p.m. Monday meeting of the Aiken City Council.

Beazley Development Company is an Evans, Ga., based residential home development company. Among the company’s developments are Bergen Place West, the Retreat at Storm Branch, Gregg’s Mill, Summerton Village, Danbrooke Village and Clearwater Preserve.

According to a development agreement attached to the ordinance, the company is under contract to purchase a property along Wire Road on March 1.

The property is currently owned by D&M Partners LLC of Allendale. D&M purchased the property from Edaphos Land and Timber LLC for $963,720 on Aug. 17, 2022.

City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh said in a memorandum to the city council the property is 240.93 acres.

The terms of the March 1 transaction are unknown.

Bedenbaugh said the original plan to provide water service to the development was from the adjacent Summer Lakes neighborhood but after the change in ownership that plan was no longer viable.

“After reviewing other possibilities to provide water to the property the only sustainable long-term solution was to provide a new water transmission line to be located along Wire Road,” Bedenbaugh said.

He added the new plan is to extend service from a large diameter line along Gun Range Road to the new development.

“This route and line will add resiliency to the overall system on the northside and provide the opportunity to extend the service area north of the city with possible future expansion of large acreage tracts and ultimately connecting to exiting service lines located at Beaver Creek Dam Road to provide additionally resiliency,” Bedenbaugh said.

He added the initial extension would be 9,100 linear feet (1.72 miles) of 12-inch water line to the development. Bedenbaugh said the next phase would be to connect the new line to the city’s existing system along Beaver Dam Road. He said additional phases could extend the water line along Wire Road to Exit 29 on Interstate 20.

In the development agreement, the city would agree to reimburse Beazley Development up to $985,679.12 of the project cost. Beazley would be responsible for $311,357.58 of the cost.

The new development is one of several residential developments planned for the city’s northside including

Also on the agenda are second and final readings of ordinances:

On the agenda for first reading are ordinances to annex and zone:

Petitions and requests to be considered are:

Appointments to be considered are:

The meeting is scheduled to take place in the council chambers on the third floor of the Municipal Building located at 111 Chesterfield St. S.W.

An executive session to discuss an unspecified lawsuit will be held at 6 p.m. The executive session will be held in Room 315 of the same building after the city council meets and votes to go into executive session to receive legal advice.