Safe Harbor wants new developer for Port Royal housing after pushback over rentals
The 2 1/2-year relationship between Port Royal and Safe Harbor Marinas over redevelopment of the town’s prized waterfront has looked at times like a marriage on the rocks, with the town threatening at one point to break it off after Safe Harbor didn’t change its ways.
But a potential move by Safe Harbor to switch residential developers for the housing planned on the shores of Battery Creek revises a previous path to build rentals. The old plan stirred up a hornet’s nest of opposition while the new one might go a long way toward easing the tension. The new plan will see a developer putting homes for sale on that land, not the initial effort to build rentals.
“We’re evaluating a couple of opportunities,” said Peter Clark, Safe Harbor’s Dallas, Texas-based chief development officer, told the Beaufort Gazette and the Island Packet on Thursday. “I can’t disclose much because we’re not under any kind of contract.”
The long-abandoned shipping port once owned by the South Carolina Ports Authority covers two miles of waterfront in Port Royal. For years, the property sat unused. The main components of the redevelopment are a new 140-slip marina and storage space for 150 additional boats, a few hundred units of housing and retail and restaurants, plus a public park and promenade. Safe Harbor bought the project for $20 million in 2021.
Safe Harbor originally partnered with Charleston-based The Beach Company to oversee the housing portion of the project and a packed house of residents, eager to hear the details, showed up at town hall in August 2023 when the plans were unveiled. They left disappointed after learning that 250 rental housing units, most of them townhouses, were planned for the property known as the Bluff Neighborhood.
But Safe Harbor is now working with several different development groups regarding the residential component of the project, Clark confirmed.
Town Administrator Van Willis also told Town council members on Wednesday that talks were underway between Safe Harbor and different developers about a potential purchase of the Bluff Neighborhood.
“I’m encouraged they are talking with some other developers,” Town Councilman Jerry Ashmore said. “We’ve actually had the opportunity to talk with one or two ourselves and I’m encouraged by the talks we had with them.”
It’s no secret the town was not happy with the original residential developer, Ashmore said.
“We don’t want 250 rental units in there because we feel that erodes the fabric of the community when you have so many rentals in there,” Ashmore said.
The Bluff overlooks Battery Creek, just to the north of Fishcamp on 11th Street and Shellring Ale Works.
A new residential development, Safe Harbor’s Clark said, would be “in line with the town perspective on the most suitable development to pursue.”
It only makes sense, Clark added, to “move the town in the right direction in terms of the residential component.”
“We bought land and are trying to recoup some of our investment,” Clark said, “and trying to promote the town.”
When the residential component would begin won’t be known until a contract is signed, Clark said.
It’s Ashmore’s understanding that Safe Harbor has a relationship with the Beach Company but not a contract with the company regarding The Bluff property.
“I know this is a long time coming and I know it’s frustrating for a lot of folks,” Ashmore said. “I’m hopeful we’ll soon have some news we’ll be able to share with them.”
State approves marina
In a second key development regarding the waterfront plan, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control issued a permit to Safe Harbor May 31 that’s needed to build the marina. “So that’s pretty exciting news,” Town Administrator Van Willis said.
Safe Harbor still needs a final permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin the work.
“I think we’re very close and as soon as we have that in hand we’ll start our planning process, which will take a bit of time,” Clark said of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit.
Marina construction, Clark said, will be done in phases, “which would look to commence in 2025.”
The marina work will include the reconfiguration of a previously permitted floating dock that will result in a total of 141 dedicated wetslips, 1,741 linear feet of side-tie dockage and 15 floating jet docks, according to the state permit. Floating jet docks allow boats to easily drive on and off the docks.
Once Safe Harbor receives its permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, Mayor Kevin Phillips said, “we will circle back with them on, ‘How do we move forward with construction of the marina.”
“They want this to be a jewel in their portfolio of marinas,” Phillips said.
Marina includes another drystack
In addition, a new drystack rack with a 150-boat capacity will be installed on the upland area. The site already has an existing drystack building with a 240-boat capacity. With the new drystack, the Safe Harbor will have the capacity to store 390 boats.
The permit also covers the town of Port Royal’s plan to build a new dock for local shrimp boats between Fish Camp and the Ale Works.
The most exceptional aspects of the marina location are its deep water and the fact it doesn’t have obstacles like bridges, which is why the company was eager to buy the facility, Clark said. The Port of Port Royal site was once a shipping port owned and operated by the South Carolina State Ports Authority
“We’re very bullish on the site,” Clark said.
Site has long history
The project was first prepared by a local development group called Grey Ghost Properties, which billed it as a development with deep-water waterfront homes, townhomes, restaurants, hotels, a mega-yacht marina, retail, businesses and other development opportunities.
Grey Ghost Properties bought the port from the state in 2017, after it had been sitting untouched on the market for over a decade.
It was announced in November 2021 that Safe Harbor Marinas, which manages marinas across the country, had acquired the project and 300 acres, including the former South Carolina State Ports Authority terminal and neighboring property, from Grey Ghost for $20 million. About 50 of the 300 acres can be built upon because most of it is marsh.
Troubles arise over other issues
It hasn’t been smooth sailing since Safe Harbor took over the project. Besides the concerns over the housing, residents have complained about heavy-duty construction on the property when Safe Harbor began building large floating docks that were not for use at the Port Royal marina. The situation boiled over in November 2023 when residents showed up at Town Hall carrying signs to protest. Then the town fired off a six-page letter to Safe Harbor in late December 2023 demanding answers and more transparency. The letter also threatened Safe Harbor with breach of the development agreement if it kept using the property to build the docks.
Following a February meeting between Port Royal and Safe Harbor Marina to air concerns, officials on both sides left that meeting hopeful. But just when the relationship appeared to be improving, Safe Harbor submitted new demands before it would grant an easement the town needs for the extension of the Spanish Moss Trail to the waterfront. One of Safe Harbor’s requests was a one-year temporary-use exception to continue building docks at the site.
The town ended up citing Safe Harbor over the dock building, alleging it was not an allowed use in the development’s “planned unit development” stipulations. Safe Harbor, however, disagreed. The town also sought a court injunction to stop the work.
At this time, Safe Harbor has stopped construction of the docks and is just operating the dry-stack boating operation, Mayor Phillips said.
Phillips says he remains positive about the development. “They are moving in the right direction,” he said.
Willis said the town is still trying to schedule a hearing on the citations to determine if the manufacturing and fabrication of the docks is an allowed use for the planned unit development for the property.
