Port Royal Town Council to meet privately to discuss port’s sale. What we know — and don’t
Port Royal Town Council will meet Wednesday evening, first in private, then in a public meeting, to discuss the proposed sale of the Port of Port Royal. The meetings follow months of tense back-and-forth between town leaders and the group working to develop the long-vacant terminal on Battery Creek.
It will be the fifth time since August that the town council has met in private to discuss problems with Grey Ghost Properties and its adherence to a $9 million agreement signed in 2017 to develop the property. Town council has discussed the port publicly only once since August, when council members voted in October to direct town manager Van Willis to inform Grey Ghost that it was in breach of the development agreement.
The town has been frustrated with Grey Ghost Properties’ pace of development since the group bought the port from the state, planning to build homes and add restaurants and businesses. For more than a decade before that, the Port of Port Royal had been sitting idle on the market.
In the October letter, town leaders claimed Grey Ghost was in violation of a five-year agreement that outlined milestones for redeveloping the port’s 51 acres of high ground and 266 acres of tidal marsh. They argued Grey Ghost had failed to designate required open space, build parks or otherwise develop the property as directed three years ago.
Grey Ghost responded that it was not in breach of its agreement, that the timeline was fluid and that the COVID-19 pandemic had hurt progress.
Over the past three years, the port has seen the openings of the Fishcamp at 11th Street restaurant and the Butler’s Marine boat storage and sales facility. Developers also submitted plans to the town to create a residential neighborhood on the north end of the property.
But the town said that wasn’t enough, calling out the “abject failure” of Grey Ghost to develop the property otherwise. The letter called Butler’s Marine “a use that created minimal value and is aesthetically lacking.”
The town gave Grey Ghost a list of tasks to avoid defaulting on the agreement, including paying property taxes, committing to cleaning up the port, receiving approval for a master plan and providing a list of buildings in disrepair and a schedule for their razing.
On Sunday, Mayor Joe DeVito said he could not confirm whether the property had sold or was in the process.
“I have no direct information, other than it is our understanding that there is somebody interested in buying it,” DeVito said.
Whit Suber, a representative with Grey Ghost Properties, said Sunday it would be premature to talk about the sale of the property.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 3:59 PM.
