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County Council was asked last week to bail out a public-private agency responsible for recruiting businesses to the area. The Lowcountry Economic Network bet $2.9 million that it could attract private investors into an industrial tract in northern Beaufort County, and it lost. It owes $2.4 million and will not be able to make monthly payments much longer. It wants the county to buy the Beaufort Commerce Park.
It seems the private sector is trying to tell us something, and County Council must listen. If the full-time staff of an economic development board, with guidance from local governments and business leaders, cannot make ends meet on this park, why would County Council consider this a good investment?
Three answers have been offered:
• "It's really the only property left of any size that's zoned industrial," Kim Statler, executive director of the Lowcountry Economic Network. "We're trying to work through how to best preserve that property."
On that front, the Hilton Head Island Town Council voiced its support this week for the county to purchase the park.
• The land might have other valuable uses for county government. County Council Chairman Weston Newton said it could have additional future use as a solid waste transfer station the county will need.
• The county would be at minimal risk because better times are coming and the private sector will eventually buy the land in the commerce park.
Those positive factors need to be weighed by a more detailed look at reality on the ground. County Council member Steve Baer of Hilton Head notes that it sounds on the surface like a good deal, but he asks for details on why the park hasn't succeeded on its own, how much risk the county would assume and where the money would come from.
The economic network also is asking County Council to consider building speculative space at the commerce park to attract industry. That should be a job for private enterprise, or the economic network. The county can't afford it.
County Council should bear in mind that governments already are contributing to the economic network. They do that for good reason, hoping it will help the private sector buy into Beaufort and Jasper counties as a good place to do business. It is a much-needed effort to diversify the local economy, increase the tax base and improve personal income levels.
But if government, after priming the pump, then finds itself to be the economic network's customer, something is wrong. We understand that in today's economy, a lot is wrong. But that only makes it more important that Beaufort County do its homework on this proposal and clearly show how the pluses would outweigh the minuses.
