Port Royal suspends shrimp processing operation at 11th Street Docks. What’s next?
The town of Port Royal is taking a break from its money-losing shrimp processing operation, 15 years after it “stepped into the breach” in an effort to preserve the industry with deep roots in Beaufort County. The move leaves its future unclear.
Council members voted 5-0 Wednesday to suspend shrimp processing during the next fiscal year, beginning at midnight June 30.
In making the recommendation, Town Manager Van Willis cited large financial losses in operating the 11th Street docks.
“Where we stand right now is obviously we have lost substantial funds due to processing,” Willis said. “We are currently occupying space we need to rent. To be quite honest with you, we’ve lost a fair amount of money throughout our participation in the processing or operation of the docks since 2006.”
The docks and processing plant are leased from developer Grey Ghost Properties, which purchased the Port of Port Royal for $9 million in 2017.
Port Royal taxpayers have poured $2 million into the docks to keep them running since 2006, fighting to preserve the cultural heritage of the industry, Willis previously told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet.
The operation has always been a “financial loser” for the town, which recouped only part of that investment through shrimp and fuel sales. Net losses have totaled between $300,000 and $400,000, Willis said.
It’s in the town’s best interest to take a break from processing next year, until the dock and processing building can be improved and a qualified operator can be found to run the operation, Willis said Wednesday.
“So the town no longer incurs a negative, but has a zero, and we respect the cultural and iconic industry that shrimp processing is,” he said. “But right now, in the current configuration, it is just problematic.”
Town wants improvements
In the meantime, efforts to obtain state and federal funding to improve the docks will continue, Willis said.
Seafood at the dock is iced, packed and sold to restaurants and wholesalers by several long-time town contractors, Joey Morris and his son Luke Morris, with occasional help from another relative, Keith Morris.
The contractors, operating under the name 11th Street Seafood, are paid hourly by the town, and all sales run through town accounts.
In March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited Port Royal to investigate alleged racial bias at the town-operated shrimp dock on Battery Creek.
The decision for the hiatus was made in the midst of the shrimp processing season, town officials noted. Swordfish boats also will be using the dock.
Even after the city suspends its shrimp processing operations July 1, boats still will be able to offload at the docks, but owners will be responsible for packing the product, arranging for fuel, ice and boat maintenance, Willis said.
The Town of Port Royal has operated the docks on Battery Creek since 2006, leasing the property for years from the South Carolina Ports Authority after the agency evicted the previous owner.
The town “stepped into the breach,” with town officials always expecting its involvement in operations to be short term, Willis said.
The development agreement with Grey Ghost requires the developers to transfer ownership of the facilities to the town, but the land swap hasn’t happened yet. It’s caught in negotiations over the reconstruction of a seafood market at the end of 11th Street that burned down only three weeks after opening to the public in 2015.
But “we ultimately will own the dock,” Willis said.
Boats that are tied to the docks but not shrimping and three sunken boats in the vicinity also concern town officials.
The town is pursuing grants to remove the sunken boats, and Willis said he should have an answer on the funding by early June.
“That’s progress,” Councilman Jerry Ashmore said.
The town could take the owners of inactive boats to court and possibly get ownership in exchange for back rent, but Willis also noted that it would cost $5,000 to $10,000 to remove the boats. An auction also is possible but Willis cautioned that some components of the boats, not the entire boats, might be valuable.
“It is an as-is sale,” Willis said.
This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 12:00 AM.
