With money issue settled, Port Royal’s focus shifts to becoming waterfront destination
Port Royal will give up one pot of money in order to avoid a fight over a larger one that will help shape the town as a waterfront destination.
The town has agreed not to pursue its share of proceeds from the sale of the former state port terminal last year.
In turn, the S.C. Ports Authority won’t fight for $1.8 million in insurance proceeds the town received after a 2015 fire that destroyed a seafood market on the port property along Battery Creek, town officials said.
The agreement seems to signal a truce between the town and maritime agency, allowing the state to close the door on more than a decade of real estate dealings in Port Royal and the town to use the insurance windfall to help reshape its waterfront as a prime Beaufort County destination.
“We just felt it was in the best interest of the town to avoid any potential lawsuits and just keep moving this thing forward and for it not to bog down,” Town Council member Jerry Ashmore said.
Port Royal has used the insurance money for road and drainage work on the port property, to help repair the former Dockside restaurant and has set aside much of the rest for a new shrimp market the town plans to build near its shrimp docks off of 11th Street. The transformed restaurant is scheduled to reopen next week as Fishcamp on 11th Street, a new road is underway and Port Royal in the coming months plans to look for a private operator for the docks and market.
As part of the state’s $9-million deal to sell the port property to private developers, Port Royal was to receive a percentage amounting to about $435,000 for public projects related to the development.
On the advice of a town attorney and state Sens. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, and Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, Town Council unanimously approved the agreement Thursday giving up the $435,000 to avoid a fight for the larger amount.
“I thought that was a reasonable compromise,” he said.
Developers plan a waterfront neighborhood with a community dock, a 225-slip marina and the possibility of condos, shops and restaurants on the 51 acres of high ground.
In addition to the new restaurant, Butler Marine is operating a boat storage and sales facility on the property with plans to add an office and showroom.