Beaufort News

Lowcountry Economic Alliance votes to dissolve

By ZACH MURDOCK - zmurdock@beaufortgazette.com

Beaufort County's embattled economic development partner, the Lowcountry Economic Alliance, will dissolve this spring.

The group's board of directors voted unanimously Friday to disband the nonprofit organization after months of uncertainty about its ability to secure funding next year and alliance director Kim Statler's decision to take a new job at the S.C. Department of Commerce.

The decision means county leaders will again reevaluate their economic-development strategy, which has stumped a divided County Council all year and pitted them against the alliance board.

"I'm very frustrated at what we're having to do, but I cannot disagree it's the right step," said County Councilman Jerry Stewart, the county's representative on the alliance board. "It's an appropriate time to step back and take a deep breath. I don't care what our personal feelings are, (council members) have to keep the bigger plan in our focus."

Statler is set to become the new coordinator of the Lowcountry Regional Education Center within the S.C. Department of Commerce, which is designed to help match student training with local businesses in Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton and Colleton counties. She will start Jan. 2 at the center, according to a department news release.

Her departure left the alliance without a clear leader. Launching a search for a new director now, with so much uncertainty about the alliance's financial support, is simply not an option, board chairman David Tigges said.

"It really has made it virtually impossible to conduct business as I thought we would when I joined the board," he said.

Alliance staff members Jessica Bridges and Connie Hipp will receive $14,000 each in severance from the alliance. They have worked extensively with Statler over the past decade with the alliance and its predecessor, the Lowcountry Economic Network.

LITTLE TO SHOW?

The board's decision means attempted development of two publicly owned projects falls again to the alliance's government partners.

The alliance worked to secure a tenant for the county's planned 40,000-square-foot, $4 million office building in the Myrtle Park area of Bluffton. That prospect has signed a confidentiality agreement with the county but has not yet finalized a deal to move into the building, deputy county administrator Josh Gruber said.

Statler also has helped the city of Beaufort fill the Beaufort Commerce Park, but now Mayor Billy Keyserling and other city officials will have to market the property on their own, Keyserling said.

The city purchased the park out of foreclosure in 2012 from the bank that mortgaged the property to the Lowcountry Economic Network.

Statler asked the county to purchase the property because the organization was having little success selling off parcels and could no longer afford its mortgage. The county backed away from a purchase and the network folded. The city then bought the property and enlisted the alliance, which rose from the network's ashes, to help market it.

The alliance now suffers a similar fate -- no reliable source of funding and little to show for its efforts.

'A CAUTIONARY TALE'

Friday's vote gives Tigges and board treasurer Dean Moss until March 31 to formally dissolve the nonprofit corporation. Its three staff members' contracts end Dec. 31.

The remaining $128,000 in the alliance's bank account must be distributed to other nonprofits, per state law, Moss and Tigges said. They have asked County Council to decide how to divide that money and to whom by March 31. The council will consider it after the New Year, Stewart said.

Before Friday's vote, the alliance had only enough money to operate through next June after the council narrowly approved a $195,000 contribution to the group -- more than a quarter of its budget -- in October.

More than half the council members have raised concerns about the alliance's effectiveness and several pointed to two prospects touted by the group in the past year -- manufacturers EcoDual and DUER High Performance Composites -- that have since shuttered local operations. Now those council members are exploring a partnership with another economic development group that includes Jasper County, called the Southern Carolina Alliance.

Alliance board members counter the divided council has suffocated and micromanaged its efforts, which left its staff with little time and capital to use to attract businesses.

"I think this is a cautionary tale about political will and commitment," alliance board member Larry Hughes said. "I think it's just going to be pointed out by our competition as another example of dysfunction."

A change could take another turn for the better, though, some council members say.

"The question is what do we do now, and can we agree on something?" said Councilman Tabor Vaux, who has opposed the alliance this fall. "There's nothing personal about it; it's business.

"Sometimes a shake up is a good thing."

Follow reporter Zach Murdock at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach.

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This story was originally published December 19, 2014 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Lowcountry Economic Alliance votes to dissolve."

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