Sec. 2-363. - Corporate headquarters and distribution facilities incentives.
(a) For the purposes of this section, the term:
(1) New job means any job created by an employer in the City of Charleston at the time a new facility or an expansion is initially staffed, but does not include a job created when an employee is shifted from an existing location in Charleston, Berkeley, or Dorchester counties to work in a new or expanded facility;
(2) Full-time means a job requiring a minimum of thirty-five (35) hours of an employee's time a week for the entire normal year of company operations or a job requiring a minimum of thirty-five (35) hours of an employee's time for a week for a year in which the employee was initially hired for or transferred to the Charleston facility and worked at a rented facility pending construction of a new or expanded Charleston facility;
(3) Corporate headquarters means the location where corporate staff members or employees are domiciled and employed, and where the majority of the company's financial, personnel, legal, planning, or other business functions are handled either on a regional or national basis and must be the sole such corporate headquarters within the region or nation.
(4) Staff employee or staff member means executive, administrative or professional worker. At least eighty (80) percent of an executive employee's business function must involve the management of the enterprise and directing the work of at least two (2) employees. An executive employee has the authority to hire and fire or has the authority to make recommendations related to hiring, firing, advancement and promotion decisions, and an executive employee must customarily exercise discretionary powers. An administrative employee is an employee who is not involved in manual work and whose work is directly related to management policies or general business operations. An administrative employee must customarily exercise discretion and independent judgment. A professional employee is an employee whose primary duty is work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning. This knowledge is characterized by a prolonged course of specialized study. The work must be original and creative in nature, and the work cannot be standardized over a specific period of time. The work must require consistent exercise of discretion:
(5) Region or regional means a geographic area comprised of either:
a. At least five (5) states, including South Carolina; or
b. Two (2) or more states, including South Carolina, if the entire business operations of the corporation are performed within fewer than five (5) states;
(6) Corporate office facility means the location where corporate managerial, professional, technical, and administrative personnel are domiciled and employed, and where corporate financial, personnel, legal, technical, support services, and other business functions are handled. Support services include, but are not limited to, claims processing, data entry, word processing, sales order processing, and telemarketing;
(7) Distribution facility means an establishment where shipments of tangible personal property are processed for delivery to customers, but the term ("distribution facility") does not include an establishment which operates as a location where retail sales of tangible personal property are made to customers. A distribution facility includes establishments which process customer sales orders by mail, telephone, or electronic means, if the establishment also processes shipments of tangible personal property to customers. The terms "retail sale" and "tangible personal property", for purposes of this definition, have those meaning as contained in Chapter 35 of Title 23 of the South Carolina Code 1976, as amended. Certification of the required investment and the number of new jobs which are full-time and which are created must be provided by the South Carolina Department of Revenue and Taxation to the appropriate local tax officials.
(b) There is hereby established an exemption from municipal ad valorem taxation for a period of five (5) years for all new corporate headquarters, corporate office facilities, distribution facilities and all additions to existing corporate headquarters, corporate office facilities, or distribution facilities located in the City of Charleston for a period of five (5) years from the time of establishment, construction or being placed in service if the cost of the new construction or additions is fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) or more and seventy-five (75) or more new jobs that are full-time are created in the city, has a comprehensive health benefit package and pays an average wage rate of seven dollars ($7.00) per hour.
(Ord. No. 1999-88, § 1, 7-20-99)
