Criminal Defense Attorney inJonesville, SC

Once an expanding boon for the Union County economy, the Belk Fulfillment Center in Jonesville is on a fast track toward closure.

According to an S.C. Works WARN notification report, the e-commerce hub is projected to close on April 30 this year, sparking the layoff of 310 employees.

The North Carolina-based department store also has retail locations in Easley, Greenville’s Haywood Mall, Simpsonville, Greer, Anderson, Seneca, Gaffney, Greenwood, Spartanburg and Laurens. After the closure of the Jonesville site, the last remaining distribution center in the state will be in Blythewood, near Columbia.

The decision follows the completion of Belks’ financial restructuring last February, which reduces its debt by $450 million and boosted new capital sources by $225 million, according to the company, which is owned by New York private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

The restructuring plan also extended maturities on all company loans to July 2025 as the company aimed to transition from a traditional department store into “full omni retailer” with a growing e-commerce presence.

"As part of an effort to further align our supply chain network with the needs of the company, the Belk fulfillment center in Jonesville, SC will be closing in the coming months," Belk spokesperson Jessica Rohlik told GSA Business Report in an email. "The decision was made after careful review of internal processes. We know the closure will affect associates at the Jonesville fulfillment center, and we are committed to working with them in the coming weeks to provide resources during the transition."

Belk first announced plans in 2012 to invest $4.5 million in Union’s 500,000-square-foot former Disney facility to launch a distribution and fulfillment center as an extension of the company’s existing Pineville, N.C., logistics operations. After a $9 million upfitting, the company said it would invest an additional $32 million by 2015 after the “rapid growth” of online sales.

In 2014, the company said it would invest a collective $47 million in the facility to grow its footprint by 50% at 345,000 square feet by 2015.

“Belk’s e-commerce business continues to grow, and with it the demand for increased distribution and fulfillment operations, John R. Belk, former president and COO of Belk said in the 2014 announcement. “Our Jonesville facility has been a key factor in our belk.com growth, and we are pleased to be able to invest additional resources in and to bring additional jobs to Union County.”

Charlotte-based Belk department store is laying off more than 300 workers starting next month and closing a South Carolina fulfillment center.

The Jonesville, S.C., fulfillment center at 3805 Furman L. Fendley Highway will close “in the near future,” according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification letter sent Feb. 28 to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.

The layoff of 310 workers is expected to run from April 30 through May 28, Tim May, general vice president of supply chain operations said in a WARN report filed March 9.

“All positions and jobs at this location will be eliminated,” May said in the letter.

Some employees may be offered employment at other Belk locations. “However, we do not know at this time which employees, if any, will be given this option,” May said in the letter.

While other stores including Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Amazon are adding fulfillment centers in the Charlotte region to meet distribution demands, Belk is cutting back.

The decision to close the Jonesville center meets the needs of the company’s supply chain network after review of internal processes, Belk spokeswoman Jessica Rohlik told the Observer on Thursday.

“We know the closure will affect associates at the Jonesville fulfillment center, and we are committed to working with them in the coming weeks to provide resources during the transition,” Rohlik said.

The Union County center filled thousands of online orders each day, according to a 7News report.

Two years ago, Belk said it would invest $2.5 million to upgrade its Blythewood, S.C., distribution center over the next five years, The State newspaper in Columbia reported. The facility employs up to 103 people.

It’s been just over a year since Belk, owned by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Feb. 23, 2021. It had a plan to restructure and eliminate $450 million of debt.

Belk emerged from bankruptcy protection a day later. At that time the company said it did not intend to close stores or layoff any employees.

Last summer, Belk promoted Nir Patel from president and chief of merchandising officer to CEO, replacing Lisa Harper. Patel’s background included e-commerce and marketing for Belk for five years.

In July, Belk said it would sublease its corporate office on Tyvola Road where about 1,200 employees work.

Last month, retail experts told the Observer the iconic, Charlotte-based department store hasn’t been doing enough since emerging from bankruptcy.

The 134-year-old company has nearly 300 store in 16 southern states. Belk has about 17,000 full- and part-time workers at its stores and distribution centers.

This story was originally published March 11, 2022, 10:00 AM.

Volunteer choral singers have begun rehearsing for the Community Chorus’ annual Christmas concert titled “Remembering Decembers.”

The concert, under the direction of Dell Morgan, and accompanied by Pam McNeil on the grand piano, will feature Christmas music, both sacred and secular, that recalls Christmases and Christmas seasons from our past. The Christmas Brass Ensemble will also perform. The concert will take place at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, December 15, at the Polk County High School auditorium, with proceeds to benefit the Rotary Club of Tryon Scholarship Fund.

Morgan, a native of Jonesville, SC, began his formal music education at age five and studied piano, trumpet and voice throughout his high school years. He received a bachelor’s degree in music from Gardner Webb University and has been involved with church music, theater groups and performing groups for more than 30 years as a performer, conductor and pianist. He has accompanied the Tryon Little Theater musical productions.

Morgan was the founder of a music ensemble at the University of South Carolina Union campus that continued for more than 10 years. He now works at Converse College in Spartanburg as the circulation/document delivery supervisor for the Mickel Library. He is in his 17th year as pianist and hand-bell director for Holy Communion Lutheran Church in Spartanburg.

Accompanist McNeil’s keyboard career started when she was five years old with a color-coded toy piano. When she banged out “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” her mother decided it was time for lessons.

Pam is a graduate of St. Andrews University and Western Carolina University, where she served as accompanist and had her first experience with the original Moog synthesizer.

McNeil has played for the Community Chorus, Tryon Little Theater, churches, musicals, parties, friends and (once) a foster sheep. She is currently the organist at her church.

The Community Chorus is made up of about 75 volunteer vocalists from Polk and surrounding counties in both North and South Carolina. Rehearsals are at 6:30 p.m. Mondays at Tryon Presbyterian Church, 430 Harmon Field Road in Tryon. It’s not too late to join the Community Chorus for its Christmas concert. No audition required.

For more information, check out the Community Chorus website at: http://www.carolinacommunitychorus.org/ or on Facebook: Carolina Community Chorus.

Submitter by Sandra Sibley

In recent months, residents along Jonesville Road have watched parts of their neighborhood — nestled between marshlands and trees laden with Spanish Moss, living symbols of Hilton Head’s unique environment — transform dramatically.

Construction is underway to introduce Bailey’s Cove, a new housing development of 147 units on 29 acres, to the area. The once thickly forested lot has since been cleared, and the town is reviewing two other potential developments now. If both are approved, 96 more homes will be built.

Last fall, Driftwood Stables owner Sondra Makowski learned she would have to relocate after her landlord sold the plot that her business sits on to develop one of the neighborhoods.

Area residents are concerned the rapid expansion could harm the area’s natural beauty and damage the identity of the historic Jonesville neighborhood. They recently formed the Jonesville Preservation Society, and at the Jan. 3 Hilton Head Town Council workshop, society president Daniel Anthony urged the town to consider a moratorium on development in the area until the town can strengthen its land management guidelines.

“Jonesville Road is a very unique area on the island. It has the historic district, it has a lot historic knowledge, and they’re going to destroy it,” Anthony said.

Anthony is reaching out to residents beyond the Jonesville area to establish a broader coalition of citizens to slow development on the island, he said, including residents near Folly Field Road who are once again voicing opposition to the planned construction of a timeshare resort.

Beyond natural and aesthetic worries, residents say the road simply can’t support the amount of new drivers that 243 units could introduce. Jonesville already experiences severe congestion during mornings and after work hours, Anthony said, and he’s skeptical emergency services could access the area promptly during peak traffic hours.

Anthony’s moratorium request was echoed by other speakers, and received support from Ward 4 Councilwoman Tamara Becker.

“We are getting their attention. We just need to get enough of their attention to force them to do this moratorium,” Anthony said, “and prove to them, ‘Hey, I know you guys have reservations about this and we’re not against you. We’re working for Hilton Head.’”

Ward 3 Councilman David Ames also recognized weaknesses in the town’s land management ordinance that have allowed developments out of line with what islanders expect Hilton Head to be, he said.

“The attempt to rewrite the LMO has its basis in understanding and appreciation of what Charles Frazier was trying to preserve,” Ames said. “Unfortunately, certain developers have come into this community and used their practices from other communities to develop here on Hilton Head, and those two are in direct conflict of one another.”

At the workshop, Anthony said he doesn’t oppose all development but hopes the town will step in to create codes that encourage “orderly” growth.

At the same meeting, Assistant Town Manager Shawn Colin announced the town is beginning work this month on a Jonesville District plan to assess the area’s zoning code, existing infrastructure and more to “establish expectations” for future development. That plan, which Colin likened to the recently completed Mid-Island Initiative, could take six to nine months.

“In six to nine months, an awful lot can happen in terms of submission of development plans, and once that happens we have issues that we can’t resolve,” Becker said. “I’m asking — as has been suggested by folks here — we find out how we can, if possible, institute some sort of moratorium.”

The Island Packet reached out to Colin and Becker for further comment for this article but received no immediate response.

Anthony and the Jonesville Preservation Society have been promised a one-hour meeting with town officials soon, he said, the date still undetermined.

According to the Municipal Association of South Carolina, towns may impose a moratorium on development through ordinance, with six months considered a reasonable best-practice length. In the South Carolina Court of Appeals case Simpkins v. City of Gaffney, standards were established that a town should then actively research desired changes to land codes during the moratorium’s duration — consistent with Hilton Head’s plan to revise the Jonesville district.

“(A development moratorium) it is not the monster, the dinosaur, the evil thing that the town makes it out to be. This does not kill Hilton [Head], it protects Hilton Head,” Anthony said.

This story was originally published January 9, 2023, 6:00 AM.

The Town of Hilton Head announced plans to purchase three land parcels along Jonesville Road — a longtime site of tension between developers eyeing empty land on the island and residents fighting to preserve the hub of a historic Gullah community.

Comprising 12.019 acres and valued at $7.6 million, the property sits just north of Jonesville Road, situated between Graham Lane and Paddocks Boulevard. The land was previously being considered for a housing complex of nearly 100 single-family units, part of a string of newly proposed developments that residents claimed would triple the population of the already crowded neighborhood.

“This council is committed to managing growth,” Mayor Alan Perry said in a press release. “When we learned of the opportunity to purchase this property, we took decisive action to remove it from the threat of immediate development.”

Although the town hasn’t specified its plans for the property, the planned acquisition marks a victory for the Jonesville Preservation Society, a young but fast-growing group of Jonesville residents and other islanders fighting to protect the historic neighborhood against excessive growth and preserve green space.

“I’m glad that they heard us,” society president Daniel Anthony told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

Anthony believes the town’s decision is a direct consequence of the community’s grassroots movement, whose support and influence has quickly spread beyond the Jonesville neighborhood. The group’s survey on overdevelopment, launched in mid-January, garnered 1,303 responses in only nine days, with 91.3% of responses indicating support for a sixth-month moratorium on development across the island.

The survey’s results were presented to the Town Council at the Jan. 26 Public Planning Committee meeting. Five days later, council members voted unanimously to enter a contract to acquire the land.

The 12-acre parcel was formerly home to Driftwood Stable, a well-known equine experience that was forced to relocate after the land was rezoned for residential use in September. The business’ Facebook page has teased the opening of a new location, but the owners did not immediately reply when asked whether they would return to the original location following the town’s acquisition.

Despite last Tuesday’s clear victory for the Jonesville Preservation Society, the neighborhood’s stand against growth is far from over. Construction is already underway for the nearby Bailey’s Cove, a 147-unit housing development whose 29-acre lot dwarfs the town’s recent 12-acre acquisition.

Formerly the home of thick forests and the island’s signature marshlands, the flattened construction site is a constant visual reminder of the long road ahead for Jonesville Road.

Although residents are appreciative of the town’s recent decisions, Anthony says the Jonesville Preservation Society will continue advocating for long-term solutions, including the establishment of an islandwide development moratorium and an updated Land Management Ordinance that limits the density of housing projects.

On a larger scale, town officials have also begun making plans to manage growth in the Jonesville neighborhood. In a Jan. 3 Town Council workshop, Assistant Town Manager Shawn Colin announced the creation of a Jonesville District plan to assess the area’s zoning code, existing infrastructure and more to “establish expectations” for future development.