In narrow vote, Beaufort Co. OKs $11M for USCB convocation center
In a narrow vote, the Beaufort County Council voted to set aside more than $11 million for a convocation center at the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Bluffton campus.
The venue, which will be next to Highway 278, has been marketed by the university as a space for graduations, indoor sports, job fairs, trade shows, concerts and even a shelter in the event of a serious hurricane. It would be the largest arena in Beaufort County, with the ability to seat more than 4,000 people.
The center is a major component of the university’s long-discussed Sandshark 20/20 project, which includes adding more fields to bring university sports back onto campus. The overall project is estimated to cost around $100 million.
So far, the university has secured $47 million from the state, but is still working with local governments to secure more funding. It is unclear if the university has secured funding from other nearby counties or municipalities in the nearly seven years the project has been in the works. County council members also questioned why the university has not sought out more private donations.
“We have been working on trying to find private donors. We are cultivating several. I don’t want to list the amounts and who they are,” said Landon Jones, the university’s vice chancellor of finance and operations. He added that much of the university’s alumni are not able to provide large private donations.
The county’s investment of $11.1 million will come from two main sources, the county council decided in a 6-5 vote.
About $9.5 million will come from funds previously earmarked for the county’s decades-in-the-making law enforcement center project, and more than $1.5 million will come from an increase in the budget for Beaufort Memorial Hospital and the Technical College of the Lowcountry.
County officials said that the law enforcement center project — which would be a “one-stop shop” for law enforcement located on a 97-acre property known as the “Cooler tract” at the intersection between North Okatie Highway and S.C. 462 — is still in the planning phase.
Council members in favor of the project viewed it as an economic engine for the university and community, and as an opportunity to attract and retain young people county-wide. But others were not on board with reallocating funds from other projects and using taxpayer dollars without direct voter approval.
“This is people’s money,” said Vice Chair Tab Tabernik, who suggested the council place a question on the ballot about funding the project. “We should ask them if that’s how they want us to spend it instead of just doing it.”
“I want to see USCB do it, but using taxpayer funds to do that when we have projects that we’ve promised the community that aren’t already done, that’s where our priority has to lie,” said Councilman Logan Cunningham, an alum of the university.
Before the funding actually becomes available for USCB, the council has to amend its own budget, which will require a public hearing and three separate readings.
