With Giti Tire plant, Richburg interchange comes full circle
Hal Crenshaw remembers the days when Interstate 77 didn’t even make it to the York-Chester county line. The land along S.C. 9 was mostly farmland except for the giant Springs Industries’ Katherine textile plant as you approached Chester.
Crenshaw’s dad, Harold Jr., saw the potential of a future interstate interchange. He opened a combination truck stop and gas station, seeing the short-term gain being drivers heading east to U.S. 21 or west to U.S. 321 to reach Columbia.
The truck stop/gas station opened about 1977, one of the first businesses at the future interchange. It wasn’t until 1981 that I-77 reached S.C. 9. The interstate between Charlotte and Columbia was completed a year later after 17 years of construction.
While the Crenshaws waited for concrete to be poured, Hal, as country folk say, “took a likin’ ” to neighborhood dairy farmer Rogers Reid. More likely it was mutual friendship, as Reid, according to Crenshaw and others, was a “gentleman’s gentleman.”
Reid owned almost 1,000 acres, most of it pristine, hilly woodland. The younger Crenshaw was one of several people Reid allowed to hunt on the land. Crenshaw’s preferred game of choice was quail.
The Lancaster native was overwhelmed with the beauty of the land, once asking Reid if he would sell his farm. The price? About $1 million, Reid said, far too steep for the younger Crenshaw.
Scott Hill is Crenshaw’s neighbor in Richburg. Like Crenshaw, Hill is a transplant. He’s a Rock Hill native, a Bearcat class of 1974 member. Hill has operated the Country Omelet restaurant for the past 25 years, opening the 24-hour diner just 10 days before Hurricane Hugo unleashed its wrath on South Carolina.
Crenshaw and Hill have experienced the area’s economic ups and downs.
They were there when mill workers rushed in on their lunch break. At one time Springs employed as many as 4,000 workers at its Chester County plants.
They were there when the mills and other manufacturers closed; their businesses were reliant on I-77 traffic and loyal local customers.
Now Crenshaw and Hill are waiting for the interchange to come full circle.
That begins Thursday when Giti Tire officials and state and local politicians gather to break ground for the company’s first U.S. plant.
The Singapore-based manufacturer will start preparing 250 acres of the 1,152 acres once owned by Reid and others. An estimated 3 million tons of dirt will be moved. It’s the first step in building a $560-million plant that is expected to create about 1,700 jobs over the next decade and make passenger and light-truck tires at a rate of 30,000 a day.
L&C Land Holdings Inc., the real estate arm of the Lancaster and Chester Railroad, sold the property to Giti Tire officially for $1, according to county records. The assessed value of the land is $23 million. The state’s Coordinating Council for Economic Development gave Giti Tire a $37.8 million grant to buy the land and improve the site.
Each day, Brad Cole Construction moves in more equipment to grade the site. The machines arrive via lowboy trailers, which carefully make their way to the back of Crenshaw’s truck stop to unload. The size of the Komatsu equipment dwarfs the few pieces Crenshaw owns.
“They make my equipment look like Tonka toys,” Crenshaw said.
The excitement level is high in Chester County, but Crenshaw, Hill and others say no one truly knows the full impact of the tire plant yet.
“You can’t put a dollar figure on it,” said Mike Enoch, general manager for the Chester County Natural Gas Authority. Enoch has helped market Reid’s former farm – commonly called the mega site – for the past 25 years.
Even talkers such as Chester County Supervisor Carlisle Roddey stammered, “I don’t have words for it,” when asked how big the impact will be. One suspects, however, that Roddey will have plenty to say Thursday.
While the politicians prattle, Crenshaw, Hill, and other neighboring businesses are seeing some impact, and more is quickly expected.
Hill says it means a return the mill days of quickest service.
“I could add tables, but I can’t get the food out fast enough; that’s the bottleneck,” Hill said. Still, Hill was quick to praise his cooks, most of whom have worked for him for more than 20 years.
“Best in the county,” he boasted.
Crenshaw said it means a “raze and rebuild” for the truck stop. It also means development possibilities for the 100 acres Crenshaw owns on the north side of S.C. 9.
The now largely rural landscape will become more commercial, something some residents won’t like. But Crenshaw, Hall, Chester County economic development director Karlisa Parker and others hope that residents throughout the county embrace Giti Tire.
“These people around here are the salt of the earth,” Crenshaw said.
Most of all, it means the promise of local jobs. According to the U.S. Census, one out of every two Chester County workers drives to Lancaster or York county for a job.
And for people such as Crenshaw, it means memories. Driving the winding roads through what once was Reid’s farm on Saturday, Crenshaw wondered, “I can’t imagine what Rogers would be thinking of this.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2015 at 8:24 PM with the headline "With Giti Tire plant, Richburg interchange comes full circle."