Business leaders: Bourey is driven

By Cindy Landrum and April M. Silvaggio  

APRIL 22, 2010 11:15 a.m. (0)

Outgoing Greenville City Manager Jim Bourey is an ambitious, determined and motivated individual who attacks each new project with intensity and a focus on getting things done.

His hard-charging approach led him to play instrumental roles in the success of such projects as building Fluor Field at the West End, buying and renovating the Carolina First Center, creating the city’s trail system, developing Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research and landing the USA Cycling Pro Cycling National championships.

But that personality type and management style sometimes rubs people the wrong way, some local business leaders said this week.

“That would be the case by sheer definition,” said Henry Horowitz, the owner of Oxford Capital Management, who oversees real estate operations for six Marriott Hotels in both Carolinas and was the founding chairman of downtown’s Artisphere.

“I always found him to be extremely cooperative,” Horowitz said. “But I also found that he had a great sense of urgency when it came to problem solving and getting things done.”

Horowitz said his contact with Bourey was limited to his involvement with Artisphere and other nonprofit ventures. It is disconcerting though, he said, to see the city lose someone with a keen grasp of the importance of public-private partnerships, and who came across as very knowledgeable and capable of getting the big projects done.

“The truth is always somewhere in the middle,” Horowitz said. “Whether there were issues with the City Council or city staff, I don’t know. But I believe he has done a good job.”

That is the feeling among most community business leaders, said Ben Haskew, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce.

“I’ve been in chamber management for 37 years, and probably never worked with a finer city manager,” said Haskew, who along with working with Bourey on a professional level said he also considers the outgoing city manager a friend. “He is persistent, and always required there be metrics and outcomes for what we wanted to do together. I appreciated that.”

But Haskew acknowledged that kind of drive can often lead to conflict.

Robert T. Geolas, executive director for the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research, said he used to have lunch with Bourey on a regular basis, but recently he had worked more closely with Mayor Knox White, the City Council and individuals on the city’s staff.

“I will say I always found him to be supportive and engaging,” Geolas said. “From a personal perspective, when we had an issue to address we would sit down and discuss it.”

Bourey said he will depart from his job without completing several projects he had hoped to complete.

Those include developing the old Woolworth’s property at Washington and Main streets, expanding Greenlink into a bus rapid transit system, designing a new federal courthouse that is compatible with the rest of downtown, extending the downtown streetscape plan beyond Main Street and completing the development of Riverplace.

Prior to the City Council’s vote Monday to accept Bourey’s resignation, a group of downtown developers and business leaders ask the elected officials to reconsider, at least until a new city manager could be hired.

Bourey said he regrets not being able to retire as Greenville’s city manager, but said he doesn’t regret the way he did things.

“I think it is better to have pushed hard and hopefully accomplished something than it is to be too caught up in making mistakes,” he said. “I’m not reckless, but I think the more cautious you are and the less willing you are to take a risk, the less you get accomplished.”