Staff Report
Published Nov. 3, 2009

Five commercial real estate firms are in line to market 495 acres that the S.C. State Ports Authority owns on Daniel Island.

State lawmakers passed a bill late in the 2009 session requiring that the SPA sell the Daniel Island land by 2013.

The land was targeted for the Global Gateway terminal, a port expansion project that later was killed. Expansion plans were diverted to the North Charleston naval base instead. The SPA owns a total of 1,300 acres on Daniel Island. It plans to retain the remainder of the property and use it for dredging-related activity from the construction of the new terminal in North Charleston.

After soliciting proposals from nine national real estate firms’ S.C. broker affiliates, the SPA received five responses by the deadline, which was Friday. Those firms are:

• CB Richard Ellis Carmody LLC of Charleston.
• Coldwell Banker Commercial Atlantic International Inc. of North Charleston.
• Colliers Keenan of Charleston (an affiliate of Colliers International).
• Grubb & Ellis The Furman Co. of Greenville.
• NAI Avant LLC of Columbia (an affiliate of NAI Global).

The SPA asked the firms to include in their proposals information about past experience selling similar properties, marketing approach and capabilities, team members, projected expenses and the proposed fee arrangement.
An internal SPA team will review the proposals. Finalists could be interviewed in the coming weeks. A recommendation to hire a firm would be forwarded to the SPA Board for approval.