Briefs

by John Temple Ligon

Executive education

Friday morning at 9:30, June 15, at the Daniel Management Center inside the Moore School of Business, the executive education program's new offerings will be reviewed and illustrated in short sessions, concluding with a box lunch with the instructors. Visit www.learnmoore.com.

Hurricanes

Colorado State University researcher William Gray predicts 17 named storms this year and nine hurricanes, five of them intense. This month, the S.C. Legislature sent a bill to the governor pumping up incentives for insurance companies to cover the coast. Also, the bill prohibits insurance companies from cancelling policies during hurricane season without at least 90 days notice.

Prisons budget

The S.C. Department of Corrections has an annual budget of $381 million. Among its 29 institutions, the department has 6,000 employees and 23,000 inmates.

Newcomers

In S.C. the estimated number of illegal immigrants is 50,000, according to S.C. Senator Jim Ritchie, former chair of the Senate's bipartisan Immigration Study Committee.

In- state compared with out- of- state

The College of Charleston next year will charge out- of- state students $18,732 in annual tuition. Instate students will pay $7,778.

Bank notes

According to J.D. Power and Associates, Bank of America was ranked No.1 in customer satisfaction among banks in the Southeast. Wachovia was ranked second. Wachovia plans to build at least 300 "green" branches - environmentally friendly buildings - across the country by 2010.

Clemson cuts cost

Clemson University's Sandhill Research and Education Center is reducing the scale of its planned $10 million development. Plans for a 50,000- square- foot conference center were dropped recently. Value re- engineering is going into the 20,000- square- foot office complex after bids came back well above estimates. Whose estimates?

Clemson's gain

Claude Lilly, dean of UNC Charlotte's Belk College of Business, will leave his post to take over the business school at Clemson University. Lilly's areas of expertise include risk management, insurance- company operations, reinsurance, rate making, and self- insurance. Meanwhile, Dr. Hildy Teegan of George Washington University will be taking charge as dean at the Moore School of Business this summer.

Charlotte housing boom

For the first quarter in 2007, Charlotte posted 6,158 new-home starts, 8.7% higher than the 5,664 starts reported during the same period last year. Among existing home sales, however, the Charlotte area suffered a 5% drop in April.

Inside the top 10

The Urban Land Institute annually grants 10 Awards for Excellence, which identify and promote best practices in all types of real estate development. From a field of 170 entries, one of this year's 10 winners is South Carolina's Daniel Island.

It could happen here, hopefully

According to a survey by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, 57% of registered voters in Mecklenburg County are in favor of maintaining the half- cent sales tax for public transportation. On the other hand, 40% of those surveyed favored repealing the tax. And 3% were undecided. The half- cent sales tax was approved by voters in 1998 when five light- rail projects were estimated to cost $1 billion. Cost projections have risen since to more than $6 billion for the next 25 years.

Spartanburg Marriott perseveres, developer stumbles

The Spartanburg Marriott at Renaissance Park was developed with support from the city. Developed by Spartanburg's Arthur Franklin Cleveland, the hotel is partially funded through about $20 million in payments from the city over the next 20 years. This includes $4 million the city borrowed from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and loaned to Cleveland. Bridgeview Capital Solutions, which has foreclosed on the Marriott, is still owed about $23 million, according to the Spartanburg Herald . The hotel is not about to close, and it will continue to operate as a Marriott. Cleveland lost his headquarters office, the Montgomery Building, and his Converse Heights home at a foreclosure auction Monday, June 4.

S.C.'s own

West Ashley's Drew Putt is one of the country's few female bank presidents. She is head of RBC Centura, headquartered in Raleigh. RBC Centura is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, Canada's largest bank. As of June 2006, according to SNL Financial, RBC Centura is the 41st- largest U.S. bank based on assets. Putt is a 1985 graduate in finance from the Moore School of Business at USC. She joined RBC in October 2003. RBC Centura has a Columbia office at 701 Gervais Street.