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EnviroSep plans expansion
5/10/2008 | Today's Georgetown Times Online Edition
Published on 3/27/2008
By Tommy Howard
thoward@gtowntimes.com
Tim Tilley, president of EnviroSep Fluid and Heat Recovery Systems, told the Georgetown Times on Thursday that his company plans to nearly double its workforce and will double its building capacity over the next five years.
His comments came in the wake of action by Georgetown County Council Tuesday night to give second reading approval to the sale of 4.93 acres of land in the Airport Industrial Park to EnviroSep. One more reading of an ordinance is required before completion of the land sale, which is expected in early April.
Tilley opened his world headquarters in Georgetown in 2002 with 22 people. The company makes pumps for handling fluids of all sorts. But that's not all, they also design and build complete fluid handling systems on site.
In the years since EnviroSep opened its doors, the workforce has doubled from 22 to 45 people.
"We have been expanding our reach," Tilley said. "We're doing quite a bit of business on the west coast. We're doing more international work now."
Tilley said he had someone in Mexico on Thursday doing a start-up. "We're doing some work in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the United States government."
The company's pumping systems are being put in at embassies in different parts of the world. They are the distribution system for the embassy water supplies.
EnviroSep will build another facility on its existing 5-acre parcel, that will be between 30,000 and 40,000 square feet. Work on that building will begin within about a year. Within five years, Tilley expects his workforce will increase to 75 people.
The company has a territory manager in Phoenix, Ariz. He sells systems in the western part of the country, but the technical work is all done in Georgetown.
There was a chilled water system recently installed in Las Vegas, and the company put another such system in Cowpens in upstate South Carolina for a Canadian company.
"Typically, we set up the system here and make it 'plug and play.' It eliminates field work that would otherwise be required," he said. "By us doing it here, the whole business concept is to build a prepackaged, complete system here."
Staff members integrate the systems mechanically and electrically, so a skilled person isn't needed in the field.
The land sale by the county is simply exercising an option that was set five years ago, Tilley said.
"We will not actually build on it. That's just to keep us from being landlocked, so we will have room down the road for even further expansion."
Land prices vary
The price for the industrial park acreage was set in 2002 at $50,000, or $10,000 an acre. The existing EnviroSep facility is located at the corner of U.S. Highway 17 South and Aviation Boulevard. The property being purchased is on the side street.
Georgetown County Council gave second reading approval Tuesday night to an ordinance that will authorize sale of the land.
Hospital buys 10 acres
In looking at the county's Register of Deeds Web site for information on this land sale, it was interesting to see that a nearby 10-acre parcel sold for 10 times the cost.
Marhaygue LLC, owned by Guerry Green -- who also owns Screen Tight -- sold 10 acres of land to Georgetown Hospital System for $1,030,000 on Nov. 19, 2007. That's a private transaction not involving the county.
The edge of the land recently acquired by the hospital is just a little more than 500 feet away from the current EnviroSep facility. The price that Georgetown Hospital System paid is just over $100,000 per acre.
Ronda Wilson, spokesman for the hospital system, told the Georgetown Times on Monday that the hospital has no specific plans for the 10-acre tract of land. It is just a few blocks away from the hospital's existing laundry and materials management facility on Piper Lane.
The 10 acres "was purchased for whatever future needs may be identified. There are no short-term plans for utilization of this property," Wilson said.
Also, she said, the hospital has not yet purchased any land for its new campus. Staff members are still looking for land and to finalize a location along the U.S. Highway 701/S.C. Highway 51 corridor.
Once a new hospital is built, the existing facility on Black River Road in the City of Georgetown will be used for other hospital system operations and offices.
Economic development tool
Having land available is a key element in attracting economic growth in industry and business.
To that end, decades ago, the Airport Industrial Park was established.
About the time that EnviroSep decided to locate in Georgetown, the county had land at the industrial park appraised and set a sales price of about $10,000 per acre.
When the county also established the Andrews-area Georgetown County Business Center on U.S. Highway 521, it wanted to accommodate future industrial growth. Land there is owned by MeadWestvaco, with an agreement that the county will pay for the land in the 500-acre site as it sells parcels. A price for land in this industrial park was set at about $15,000 per acre.
