Chester County, South Carolina draws businesses, residents, and tourists alike, in the form of low taxes, pleasant weather, and a distinctive heritage. Located in the north-central part of the state, the county is bouncing back from challenging times and experiencing both residential and economic growth.
“I think we are at the front end of a renaissance for Chester County. We have continued to have fantastic success with economic development. We’re not that sleepy little place some people think we are,” says Director of Economic Development, Robert Long.
There were 32,182 people living in Chester County in 2024, according to Data USA, and the average age of residents was 42.4 years. Manufacturing grew 70 percent between 2010 and 2020 and now employs almost half the county’s private sector workforce. Healthcare, social assistance, and retail trade are also prominent employment sectors, states Data USA.
Meeting the needs of business
Leading companies in Chester County include Giti Tire USA, a tire manufacturer employing roughly 1,000 people; Gallo, one of the largest privately held wine and spirits companies in the world, employing 400 people; Boise Cascade Company, a manufacturer of plywood and building materials employing around 400 people; and Carolina Poly Inc., an advanced materials firm manufacturing polyethylene film products with about 700 personnel.
In addition to a pro-business mindset, Chester County offers prospective companies an abundance of large sites. “If you’re in an industry that needs 50 acres, 100 acres, 200 to 300 acres, 1,000 acres—we have these sites,” Long tells us.
Chester County is well-served by railroads, with a short line railroad—the L&C Railway—that is linked to the CSX and Norfolk Southern systems. Having an extensive rail network means lower freight costs for companies, and the county also benefits from its proximity to Interstate 77, connecting Chester with Columbia, South Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina as well as the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. On top of this, Chester County companies can count on ample natural gas, courtesy of the Chester County Natural Gas Authority and supportive government officials.
“Our goal is, ‘How do we help other people?’ We’re friendly and easy to deal with. We want you to come here. We want you to be a good partner. We’re going to alleviate roadblocks and bureaucracy as best we can, and we’re going to offer incentives where we can,” explains County Administrator, Brian Hester.
These advantages have led to some big moves of late. On March 25th of this year, IKO officially celebrated the grand opening of its two new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Chester, including a fiberglass manufacturing facility and a glass mat production plant, marking a transformative investment in Chester County and the area’s growing manufacturing sector.
“The project represents a capital investment of more than $500 million and stands as one of the largest Canadian foreign direct investments in South Carolina’s history. Located off Highway 9 at the site of the former PPG facility, the development brings new life to an existing industrial property while reinforcing Chester County’s position as a hub for advanced manufacturing.” Together, IKO’s two state-of-the-art facilities are expected to create approximately 200 to 250 new jobs, offering long-term career opportunities and contributing to the community’s economic growth.
Officine Maccaferri, an Italian environmental and land stabilization company, is also bringing 90 new jobs to the area and further strengthening the county’s growing manufacturing and industrial sector with a new facility in Fort Lawn, inaugurated June 5th of this year. This facility will serve as Maccaferri’s multi-technology production hub in North America, strengthening the Group’s manufacturing and operational presence in the region.
The facility marks a new operational milestone in the Group’s long-term growth path in North America, confirming the United States as a priority market for Maccaferri’s global development. Integrating almost the full range of Maccaferri’s production technologies under one roof, the Fort Lawn facility “is one of the largest production sites and the most technologically advanced one within its worldwide network. It reinforces the Group’s role as a leading provider of environmental geotechnical solutions for the infrastructure sector, at a time when demand in the U.S. is accelerating on the back of sustained infrastructure investment.”
Keeping quality of life affordable
In addition to attracting new manufacturers and industry, Chester County has become a magnet for new residents, particularly seniors. Seniors are often lured by the moderate climate—the yearly average temperature in Chester County is a balmy 60° Fahrenheit, with an average high of 71°F and average low of 50°F—in addition to the low cost of living.
Median household income in 2024 in Chester County was $52,458, up 2.43 percent from the previous year, while the cost of living was 3.8 percent lower than the U.S. average. Houses are reasonably priced, with a median property value in Chester in 2024 of $158,300 and newly constructed homes averaging in the $200,000s, according to Data USA.
As for property taxes, “We have not raised our millage rates in four years. We actually did a rollback in our millage rates last year, because of re-assessment, all the while expanding services,” says Long. A mill represents $1 of tax per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. The mill rate—or millage—is the amount of tax local tax authorities set on a property and varies depending on the neighborhood and surrounding area. The lower the mill rate, the less tax a property owner needs to pay.
When it comes to services, Hester proudly notes that the county recently raised salaries for deputies and hired full-time firefighters, and average response times for emergency medical services in rural locales have been slashed from over 40 minutes to just over 11 minutes. The county is served by the Medical University of South Carolina Chester Medical Center. “We were the first county in state of South Carolina to receive a grant for an ambulance,” he notes.
He is referring to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, run by the South Carolina Department of Commerce, which offers funds to local communities to enhance housing, living conditions, and economic opportunities. In addition to the ambulance, Chester County received a separate CDBG grant for a new firetruck, Hester adds.
Grants are one mechanism by which Chester County has been able to trim its budget while pouring millions into a capital reserve account; renegotiating contracts and cutting wasteful spending are other ways the county has saved taxpayers money.
Making moves
Major construction projects in the county include new residential apartments and a future facility in the City of Chester that will accommodate a courthouse, jail, and a center for law enforcement and first responders. There are also discussions about building a new hospital for the county, notes Hester.
Chester County officials recognize the importance of networking and promotion, and to this end, representatives maintain a robust social media presence, attend regional conferences, and are involved in the South Carolina I-77 Alliance. The alliance is a self-described “county-driven non-profit economic development organization,” made up of counties near the I-77 Interstate. Chester County officials have used I-77 Alliance connections to visit South Korea and several countries in Europe to tout the region and network. Chester County is also part of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, the 16-county, two-state regional group driving economic growth for the Charlotte region.
For his part, Hester was recently invited to speak at the Pendleton Farmers Society, a venerable agricultural organization founded in 1815 that counts state political and economic leaders as members. “They asked us to come and talk about what we were doing in Chester, about relationships with government and civic engagement and incentives for local producers,” says Hester.
Revitalizing the region
Certainly, county officials have not overlooked the importance of amenities to attract and retain residents. The newly expanded Rodman Sports Complex, a huge site with facilities for baseball, softball, and soccer, is one of the county’s most popular amenities. There are also ongoing streetscape initiatives to clean up litter and tear down decrepit buildings. Revitalization, with new retail, restaurant, and entertainment options, is top of mind.
“That has been a real strategic focus of ours: to take an area in our county—really, it’s centered around the City of Chester—and revitalize buildings and bring in restaurants. Our downtown is really starting to be a thriving area,” says Hester, speaking proudly of a historic post office which Chester County owns and plans to restore.
“It goes back to the overall quality of life. People want to live here and take [advantage of] job opportunities from companies growing and hiring here. It’s pretty amazing to see where we started a few years ago to where we are today,” adds Long.
A winding road into a bright future
Chester County was originally inhabited by members of the Cherokee and Catawba Nations, with European settlers arriving in the mid-1700s. The county was the scene of some major battles during the U.S. Revolutionary War, then experienced rapid growth after being connected to railroad lines in the 1850s. Union soldiers wreaked havoc in the county during the North’s sweep through the Confederacy during the Civil War.
By the late 19th century, Chester County had undergone a transformation from a primarily agricultural region to an epicenter of the textile industry. This faded in the 1980s, and the county went through a rough patch, with rising poverty and unemployment. Since then, says Long, “We’ve done a really good job on diversification,” and there are big plans to leverage the area’s heritage to draw more tourists.
“We need to take advantage of the tourism that can be generated from our history: the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, and some of the unique history that’s here in Chester County,” says Hester.
For all that, preconceived notions continue to be a challenge, admits Long. People who are only vaguely familiar with Chester County might dismiss it as a tiny, rural locale, instead of the dynamic community it has become. “When people come for a visit, hopefully they say, ‘Hey, those guys are a lot more sophisticated [than I thought]. They were on the ball,’” says Long.
Going forward, county officials forecast further economic and residential growth. Buoyed by major manufacturing players like IKO and Maccaferri, Long anticipates the population of Chester will hit nearly 40,000 people by the next United States Census. That said, county officials want to avoid uncontrolled growth and “cookie-cutter” sub-divisions, adds Hester.
There is also, of course, a strong desire to retain the best traits of Chester County, even as the community expands. “We don’t want to lose our rural character,” Long emphasizes. “We like that rural character.”
