Is $29 million soft-shell crab facility coming to Beaufort? City may sell company the land
A seafood business is considering building a $29 million soft-shell crab facility that, if constructed, would use cutting-edge technology and create 48 jobs at the city-owned Beaufort Commerce Park.
The City Council on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a deal with Coastal Pride.
The agreement would give the company a six-month option to buy two lots. If the deal moves ahead, the $37,880 option would go toward a purchase price of $378,000.
The city still needs to give final approval and Coastal Pride still needs to arrange financing.
“It will be a big project — as long as it happens,” said Walter Lubkin III, president of Coastal Pride.
Beaufort-based Coastal Pride, a family-owned company that’s been operating locally since 1959, is a wholesale distributor of crab meat. It’s now a subsidiary of Blue Star Foods, a Miami-based international seafood company that purchased it three years ago. Blue Star imports, packages, and sells refrigerated pasteurized crab meat, and other premium seafood products.
Coastal Pride is considering building a recirculating aquaculture system that would include holding tanks for crabs, a recirculating application and additional cold storage, which is needed because of the distance of the proposed facility from the interstate.
The system, which Lubkin says will feature top-of-the-line and propriety technology, would, in effect, extend the soft-shell crab season, providing more soft-shell crab to sell throughout the year.
The soft-shell crab that would be produced at the facility would be blue crabs that have recently shed their shells through molting. Coastal Pride gets its blue crabs from up and down the east coast including locally but they are only available at certain times of the year.
The main reason the company wants to locate within the Beaufort Commerce Park is it’s closer Interstate 95, making it easier for Trucks to access, Lubkin said.
Beaufort City Manager Scott Marshall called the project “innovative.” “It’s the only one of its kind that we know of,” he said.
Coastal Pride is planning to invest $29.4 million in infrastructure, Marshall said. The facility would create 48 jobs with an average annual salary of $42,000, he said.
John O’Toole, executive director of the Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation, said Coastal Pride’s investment would be $29 million and create 48 jobs.
The 196-acre commerce park, which is owned by the city, is located off of U.S. Highway 21 and S.C. Highway 116 about 4 miles west of Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
The city bought the Commerce Park out of foreclosure for $1.8 million in 2012 from S.C. Bank and Trust. It had been owned by the Lowcountry Economic Network before it went bankrupt.
This story was originally published June 14, 2023 at 12:45 PM.
