MELINDA WALDROP PROFILE

Initial S.C. unemployment claims topped 2,000 for the first time since mid-July for the week ending Sept. 11, rising to 2,393.   That represented an increase of 1,128 in first-time claims from the week before and the most cl... Read More

National automotive refinancing company ilendingDIRECT has opened an office in Richland County with plans to create 40 jobs.  The office is located at 1001 Pinnacle Point Drive, near Interstate 77 and Farrow Road.   ... Read More

Resource Financial Services Inc. has acquired 708 Lady St., the former location of Caroline Ale House, to be redeveloped into its new headquarters.   Bruce Harper, managing partner of Trinity Partners, represented the Co... Read More

As the National Small Business Week Virtual Summit winds down, a new report reflects growing optimism among S.C. small businesses, while another study points to a continued labor shortage in the state.   Following up on a Fe... Read More

The S.C. Department of Revenue has introduced a new tax and licensing guide for vendors, promoters and hosts.   The Events & Festivals guide is a resource for participants in state and county fairs, trade shows, festival... Read More

Frank Knapp sees one straightforward solution to the labor shortage facing many industries as the nation continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic: Make more workers available.  Three pieces of legislation currently before the ... Read More

Registration is now open for the 2021 Hire Me SC Employer Summit, to be held online from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 13.   The annual event, led by Hire Me SC and Able SC, provides resources for business managers, executives an... Read More

The University of South Carolina has been ranked the No. 1 public institution in the country for first-year experience in U.S. News and World Report’s annual undergraduate rankings.   It is the third straight year the ... Read More

The LOOK! Photography exhibit, featuring glimpses into the lives of children and young people living with a disability or chronic health condition, will celebrate its 2021 online premiere on Sunday.   The exhibit, presented ... Read More

Initial S.C. unemployment claims for the week of Aug. 29-Sept. 4 dropped by 50 from the previous week, with a total of 1,265 first-time claims filed.   Greenville County saw a state-high 222 initial claims filed, followed by... Read More

Rock Hill-headquartered 3D printing company 3D Systems is acquiring cloud-based Manufacturing Operating System company Oqton, based in Belgium, in a $180 million deal expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.   O... Read More

Longtime Midlands banking executive and community leader Mike Brenan will be honored as the Columbia Chamber of Commerce’s Ambassador of the Year next month.   Brenan, regional president for the South Carolina region o... Read More

Premium Peanut is investing $64.3 million to establish operations in Orangeburg County in a move expected to create 130 jobs.   The grower-owned peanut shelling company, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Georgia, has... Read More

The city of Columbia has unanimously voted to require city employees to be vaccinated by Nov. 1, with Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin saying there is a need to protect vulnerable citizens from the coronavirus.   With 20,767 CO... Read More

Southwest and Asian fusion restaurant Takosushi will open a Columbia location this fall in The Arcade building.   The Georgia-based restaurant features an eclectic menu including sushi, potstickers, nachos, quesadillas,... Read More

S.C. agribusinesses have until the end of this month to apply for a tax credit for increasing purchases of products certified as grown in South Carolina by the state Department of Agriculture.  The program provides a possible inc... Read More

Those searching for a different lunch option in downtown Columbia once again have a distinctive choice open to them for the first time in more than a year.   The McCutchen House on the University of South Carolina’s Ho... Read More

Almost $3 million in federal funding is available for projects aimed at reducing diesel emissions across the state.   The U.S. Environmental Program Agency’s 2021 State Diesel Emissions Reduction Act includes $294,000 ... Read More

The Grand on Main is adding a dessert and cocktail lounge to the bottom level of the restaurant and boutique bowling alley featuring the creations of New York-based pastry chef Rory Macdonald.   The Robinson Room opens today... Read More

Initial S.C. unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 28 fell by 233 with from the previous week, though Greenville and Richland counties each saw claims rise above 200. First-time claimants filed 1,315 claims for the week of... Read More

Global mining manufacturer Metso Outotec is investing $3 million to relocate its Richland County pump manufacturing operations.  The Helsinki-headquartered company, which also provides end-to-end solutions for the aggregates, min... Read More

Curious about the S.C. counties where residents make the most money? The folks at financial technology company SmartAsset were, and analyzed census data to find answers.   The study, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau&rs... Read More

Lexington garden and plant center Wingard's Market has partnered with Central South Carolina Habitat for Humanity to add a touch of home to as many as six new Midlands houses. Wingard's Market is donating plants, flowers and l... Read More

Nine new honorees have been added to Columbia's City of Women project.  The project, in its third year, shares the stories of women who have made significant contributions to the city's history, pushed boundaries and help... Read More

The Columbia Regional Business Report celebrated the 2021 Icons & Phenoms Wednesday at a luncheon at the DoubleTree by Hilton Columbia. Colleagues and friends joined the 24 honorees to recognize their many contributions to ... Read More

Dominion Energy has expanded its Small Business Energy Solutions Program, which provides financial incentives to energy efficiency improvements, to cover heating and cooling systems.  Since 2014, the program has offered tailored ... Read More

Initial S.C. unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 21 increased by 112 from the previous week, with Greenville and Richland counties again seeing the most claims filed.  For the week of Aug. 15-21, Greenville saw a state-h... Read More

The University of South Carolina's incoming freshman class features a record 4.4 average GPA and more in-state students than ever before.  The university welcomed approximately 8,050 new undergraduate students last week, the ... Read More

Columbia International University's School of Business will play host to two online international conferences next month.  The Faith-Driven Entrepreneur Live Conference on Sept. 8 and the Faith-Driven Investor Conference... Read More

In the 75 years Killingsworth has been providing assistance to women in crisis, the Columbia-based nonprofit had never had to buy supplies.  That changed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when goods such as toi... Read More

South Carolina's unemployment rate fell to 4.3% in July from 4.5% in June, with the leisure and hospitality industry gaining 9,300 jobs, according to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce's seasonally adjusted monthly h... Read More

The S.C. State Fair is gearing up for a 12-day return in October, with rides, food, exhibits and competitions set to return to the Rosewood Drive fairgrounds with increased safety precautions.  Nearly 70 rides and 90 food sta... Read More

Richland County saw 138 initial unemployment claims filed for the week ending Aug. 14, while Greenville County recorded 140 of a statewide total of 1,436.  For the previous week, the state saw 1,432 first-time claims filed. ... Read More

The South Carolina Philharmonic will use grants totaling more than $121,000 from the South Carolina Arts Commission to support its next three seasons and to fund a new music education program debuting in Richland County School District O... Read More

Richland County has adopted an emergency ordinance requiring face coverings to be worn in school buildings and day cares in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases spurred by the delta variant.  The ordinance is aimed at protecting... Read More

A beautification project in the Congaree Vista will add lighting, landscaping, sidewalks and outdoor seating areas on Park Street between Gervais and Senate streets.  The project, now underway, is scheduled to be completed by... Read More

Benedict College Women's Business Center is one of 14 recipients of up to $200,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration.  The Women's Business Centers Resiliency and Recovery Demonstration Grants will be ... Read More

Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp. is requiring all employees to be vaccinated by the end of the month, with owner and CEO Lou Kennedy saying she hopes other private employers in the state will follow the West Columbia-headquartered compa... Read More

Twenty-four community leaders, from a hospital CEO leading the charge against COVID-19 to a public servant helping fight homelessness, have been honored as 2021 Columbia Regional Business Report Icons & Phenoms. For the third year... Read More

The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce has received a second round of funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to combat cybercrime.  The $775,829 grant will be used by DEW, along with the S.C. Manufacturing Extension... Read More

The U.S. Small Business Administration is accepting new applications for its Shuttered Venue Operators Grant until Aug. 20.  The grant program, which provides economic aid for live entertainment small businesses, nonprofits ... Read More

Two Upstate counties and Richland County continued to see triple-digit initial unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 7, when first-time claims statewide increased by 91 from the previous week.  Greenville County saw a stat... Read More

The University of South Carolina is one of 33 nationwide recipients of U.S. Small Business Administration grants of up to $125,000 each to facilitate training, mentoring and technical assistance for research and development-focused ... Read More

Richland County's Office of Small Business Opportunity will play host to an online event focused on preparing small businesses for a crisis. Save My Business: Crisis Preparedness is the theme of the third annual Engage Richland Sm... Read More

Richland County residents will have the chance to learn more about the three candidates vying for mayor during an online program presented by Richland County Library.   The city of Columbia Mayoral Forum will take place from... Read More

The University of South Carolina has been selected as the only North American partner site of the Anne Frank House, becoming one of four such sites in the world to offer a permanent exhibition and educational... Read More

A Richland county woman has been arrested and charged with operating a business without a retail license.    Misty Rose Belton, 42, of 305 Brook Hollow Drive in Columbia, is the owner and operator of MA & Associates i... Read More

Diversey Holdings Ltd., a Fort Mill-based provider of hygiene, infection prevention and cleaning solutions, has agreed to acquire Tasman Chemicals, an Australian manufacturer of hygiene and cleaning solutions to the industrial and food a... Read More

Benedict College is working with its food service contractor, Perkins Management Services, to increase plant-based menu offerings by 5% through 2024. The partnership with Charlotte-based Perkins Management, which has signed the Forwar... Read More

Initial unemployment claims in South Carolina dropped to 1,341 for the week ending July 31, with three counties recording triple-digit first-time claims. Greenville County saw a state-high 136 claims, followed by Richland County with ... Read More

An international digital networks integrator has expanded into South Carolina, leasing space owned by Cleveland-based commercial real estate owner and developer Weston Inc. in Lugoff. Sterlite Technologies leased 168,000 square feet a... Read More

The S.C. State Treasurer’s Office has returned $35.3 million in unclaimed property to state residents in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Each year, companies transfer millions of dollars to the state’s unclaimed proper... Read More

The RiteDose Corp. is implementing engineering innovations to its Columbia production lines that the company says will increase production capacity by as much as 25% above industry standards. RiteDose, born from the inventors of Blow-... Read More

A new portal designed to speed relief to small businesses with $150,000 or less in Paycheck Protection Program loans opens Wednesday. The streamlined application portal will allow borrowers with PPP loans of $150,000 or less from part... Read More

St. Pat’s in Five Points will return for its 40th anniversary on March 19, 2022. The annual festival in the downtown Columbia merchant village did not take place in 2020 and will not be held in 2021 because of COVID-19 precautio... Read More

The S.C. Chamber of Commerce has hired three new leaders, including its first-ever chief diversity officer and chief revenue officer. Cynthia Bennett, a 22-year veteran of the chamber, has been named the organization’s chief div... Read More

Richland County has been awarded an additional $9.9 million in federal funding to help renters affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The county approved more than $10 million in aid requests through its Emergency Rental Assistance Progra... Read More

Magnus Development has leased 68,040 square feet of preconstruction space on its newest industrial development, 181,440-square-foot 321 Logistics in the Lexington County Industrial Park. Solar distributor CED Greentech, which has ... Read More

A record-low housing inventory in South Carolina and beyond, which has created a residential real estate market where buyers are purchasing single-family houses sight unseen and for tens of thousands above asking price, is having a t... Read More

Richland County Council has approved a settlement agreement with the S.C. Department of Revenue in a long-running dispute involving the county’s Transportation Penny Tax program. The settlement requires no payment by the cou... Read More

Cason Development Group has acquired a marquee corner at Harden and Devine streets in Five Points for future redevelopment. The Columbia-based company is evaluating long-term plans for the 5,200-square-foot property that currently hou... Read More

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the grant amount. The Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority will receive a federal grant to reduce vehicle emissions. The COMET will use the $2.9 million grant from th... Read More

The South Carolina Philharmonic is keeping its longtime music director for the next three seasons. Morihiko Nakahara has renewed his contract with the organization through the 2024-2025 season, according to a news release. Nakahara jo... Read More

Benedict College will offer a bachelor’s degree is Esports Administration this fall. The new major, spurred by the popularity of recreational gaming, will include required core classes in esports and sports management, according... Read More

The city of Cayce has won an achievement award for its use of mapping and analytics technology from a global location intelligence company Esri. Cayce’s Geographic Information System was one of 193 organizations from more than 3... Read More

A congressman, an executive and a brigadier general are being honored with the S.C. Chamber of Commerce’s annual awards. Rep. James Clyburn has been named the public servant of the year, while Sonoco president and CEO Howard Cok... Read More

Almost 2,500 initial unemployment claims were filed in South Carolina for the week ending July 10 as federal unemployment benefit payments began to disappear. The 2,490 claims filed from July 4-July 10 represented an increase of 317 f... Read More

Editor's note: This story has been updated with detail from today's news conference.  West Columbia-based Nephron Pharmaceutical Corp. is launching Nephron Nitrile, a new company that will produce three billion nitril... Read More

Retired U.S. Army Col. Alexander Conyers has been appointed acting president of South Carolina State University. Conyers has served as the Orangeburg university’s vice president for strategic alliances and initiatives since May ... Read More

Construction on a 17-story student housing tower at the corner of Assembly and Washington streets in downtown Columbia is now underway. CRG, the real estate development and investment arm of Chicago-based Clayco, and student housi... Read More

The 64,000-square-foot, $34 million entertainment venue and brewing production facility set to open on North Main Street next year is about more than beer. It’s about opportunity. Peak Drift Brewing Co., the latest project of... Read More

Coastal Carolina National Bank is celebrating the official grand opening of its new location in Five Points on Wednesday. Food, prizes and account incentives will be available following a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony. Visitors can ... Read More

The Capital City/Lake Murray Country tourism region has been named a top Southern Destination of 2021 by Forbes. The area, which encompasses Columbia and surrounding areas, joins Highlands, N.C., Dunwoody, Ga., Shenandoah Valley, Va.,... Read More

In the final days of federal unemployment benefits programs in South Carolina, 2,173 initial unemployment claims were filed in the state for the week ending July 3. That represented an increase of 501 claims from the previous week, ac... Read More

A new pork and poultry processing facility is expected to bring 292 new jobs to Kershaw County. Prestage Farms of South Carolina LLC, a division of Prestage Farms, is investing $150 million in a new facility at the Governor’s Hi... Read More

A virtual event hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration will connect technology entrepreneurs to the country’s largest source of early stage funding. The 2021 National SBIR Week begins July 19 and will connect small bus... Read More

A job fair for hospitality industry workers will be held Aug. 17 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. The job fair, free to job seekers, will be held from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. and include positions ranging from managerial t... Read More

Seven entrepreneurial businesses ranging from a meat delivery service to a Gullah farm cooperative have received funding from the S.C. Department of Agriculture’s Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship program. Te... Read More

Workplace strategy and office furnishing company Alfred Williams & Co., with S.C. offices in Columbia, Greenville and Charleston, has acquired Texas-based interior office design firm Workplace Resource. The deal, finalized July 1,... Read More

A settlement reached Friday in Dominion Energy’s electric rate case before the S.C. Public Service Commission would mean a typical residential rate increase of $1.81 per month and no rate increases for two years. The net 1.46% r... Read More

Jim Hudson, owner of Jim Hudson Automotive Group, and wife Sybil have donated $100,000 to the Lexington Medical Center Foundation to fund home blood pressure monitoring systems for high-risk patients throughout the Midlands. The gift ... Read More

After paying out $28.6 billion to more than 100,000 restaurants and other service industry establishments struggling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Restaurant Revitalization Program closed Friday. The fund, part of the Amer... Read More

Richland County residents can weigh in on how the county should spend its share of $350 billion in federal pandemic relief funding through Aug. 20. The county will receive an estimated $80 million through the American Rescue Plan Act,... Read More

As it gears up for its October return, the S.C. State Fair is accepting entries for this year’s competitive exhibits. Entries for exhibits showcasing the state’s finest examples of agriculture, arts, crafts, flowers an... Read More

In the final week of federal unemployment benefits programs in South Carolina, the state saw 1,672 initial unemployment claims filed, with 147 of those filed in Richland County. Greenville County saw a state-high 153 claims, while Cha... Read More

Harry Lightsey has been confirmed as the new secretary of the S.C. Department of Commerce after Tuesday’s unanimous vote of the state Senate. Lightsey, 65, brings a business background rooted in the telecommunications and automo... Read More

Columbia-based Rhino Medical Supply has been named the exclusive distributor of Deltapine cotton medical scrubs in an initiative created to drive demand for U.S.-grown cotton and revitalize an end-to-end U.S. supply chain. The Field t... Read More