Chester County is strategically located in the center of three large commercial centers - Charlotte, N.C.; Columbia, S.C., and the Greenville-Spartanburg metropolitan area.  Rail and highway transportation feeds each of these centers impressively and allows area businesses and industry to send and receive goods quickly and with high profits.

Although textiles served as the major industrial base for decades, Chester County has enjoyed a diversification of its industrial base over the past 20 years.  Although textiles remain a player in the area economy, other businesses and industry have found the workforce in Chester County to be reliable and productive and the infrastructure beneficial for their businesses.  Today the County produces textiles, plastics, steel, glass, fiberglass, paper, wood products, and several types of specialty chemicals.

A few of the strengths for the Chester Region include: 

• Available Industrial Sites: Over 3,000 rail-served acres. See maps under Site Selection of all available sites in Chester County.

• Inexpensive electrical power and natural gas service.

• Low cost of living: Chester is a rural county adjacent to the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill MSA.

• Excellent transportation access, including I-77, I-85, I-20, I-26, I-40 and I-95, along with two interstate railroads and one local railroad.

• Air Service: Only 40 miles from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.

• Nine county labor draw.

• Labor Availability: Approximately 4,729 people daily commute from Chester to other counties.

• Proximity to Port of Charleston with direct interstate access via 1-77 and 1-26.

• Large regional population within 45-minute drive time: 1.4 million people.

• Large regional labor pool within 45-minute drive time: approximately 670,000 people.

• Large unemployment rate in the region.