‘Underperforming’ assets sold to consolidate resources

By MATTHEW FRENCH
Staff Writer

The South Carolina State Ports Authority, abiding by state law that will prevent it from building a port on Daniel Island, is selling off parcels of land in Cainhoy, once purchased to lay railroad tracks to the Daniel Island port that has never emerged.

The SPA bought the land in the late 1990s to provide rail right-of-way from Cainhoy to the Daniel Island facility. Many of the property owners sold rather than face possible condemnation proceedings, which could have meant the port would seize the land by eminent domain.

Now the port is ridding itself of “underperforming assets,” so the organization can focus its efforts elsewhere, namely in the port facility slated for the Charleston Navy Yard on the west side of the Cooper River and a potential port in Jasper County. The authority is also in the midst of closing facilities at Port Royal, which will also divert assets to new endeavors.

“Once it became clear and obvious that the Daniel Island port was going to be untenable, the board approved plans to sell the land back,” says Byron Miller, the port’s spokesman. “The board’s approval says that if the previous owner was an individual or a family, they could buy the land back at the same price it was purchased from them for. If the previous owner was a business, they could buy the land back at market value.”

A loft of the property was “family property.” While the ports authority was not legally obligated to seek out the original owners or their heirs, the deal to sell the land back was fair and the right thing to do, Miller says.

However, the property owners who repurchased the land that had been theirs or their families’ will have to pay property taxes at current market value, regardless of the price they paid for it, according to legal documents filed with Berkeley County.

But the port ran into many hurdles when it came to locating the previous owners.

“Many of them didn’t live around here or weren’t from here,” Miller says. “We took a lot of time, went two years beyond our originally planned time to try and reach everybody. We contacted everyone, cousins, churches, community leaders, and exhausted every avenue in our effort.”

The SPA will auction “about a dozen” parcels of land to potential buyers who must submit sealed bids. The properties, ranging from less than half of an acre up to nearly 23 acres, will be sold “as is” in a sealed-bid auction. The total amount of land available is nearly 45 acres, and interested parties must submit a 5% bid guarantee. The SPA’s legal notice says it  reserves the right to accept or reject any bids, or even to cancel the sale, “if it is the best interest of the authority to do so.” The SPA will be the sole judge as to whether bids submitted meet all of the  requirements. The deadline for the submission of the bids is April 15.

“The majority of the Daniel Island site is made up of either current or past dredged disposal sites. Who would be an ideal buyer of that property is an important and large issue and it will have to be addressed at the board level,” Miller says.

Much of the land is located on what appears to be prime real estate, just north of Clements Ferry Road, which has become a burgeoning industrial corridor in recent years. Others, such as a nearly 23-acre parcel, are in the middle of the Cainhoy Peninsula, between Route 41 and Interstate 526.

The land was purchased between 1997 and 1999. Judging by the parcels of land the ports authority bought, the rail line would have run adjacent to Clements Ferry road and then turned northeast, where it would have hooked up with the East Cooper and Berkeley Railroad, which is a short line railroad that serves British Petroleum and Nucor Steel.

The state law, passed nearly three years ago, has required the SPA to cease its pursuit of a port on Daniel Island. The state insisted the SPA look to build a facility on the west side of the Cooper River, and Daniel Island is on the east side.

“Daniel Island has long not been an option,” he says. “We’ve said it shouldn’t be included as an alternative to the Charleston Navy Yard with the Army Corps of Engineers study.”

Public opinion largely swayed the Legislature to pass the law banning the construction of a port on Daniel Island, with Daniel Island and Mount Pleasant residents opposing another port on their side of the river.

The Army Corps of Engineers is in the middle of an Environmental Impact Study to determine the best way to install a port facility at the old Charleston Navy Yard in North Charleston. The study results are due within two years.

Al Kennedy, spokesman for Berkeley County, says he is unaware of any effort from the county government or local developers to purchase the land.

Matthew French covers the ports, logistics, manufacturing and distribution.
E-mail him at mfrench@crbj.com.

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