A new VA clinic is coming to Beaufort or Port Royal. Where, when will it be built?
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is considering three sites in Port Royal and Beaufort to construct a new outpatient clinic that’s promising better access to state-of-the-art health care to Beaufort County’s thousands of veterans and the addition of 100 jobs to the area.
Public records detail that the VA is looking to enter a “build-to-suit” lease agreement with a private developer to build a clinic ranging in size from 48,000 square feet to roughly 70,000 square feet, two to three stories tall with 500 parking spaces. The VA would then lease and operate the facility for 20 years. They have requested $24 million in the 2024 VA budget for the project.
The location, design and developer haven’t been chosen, the VA says, but the agency expects to award the lease in a matter of months. Construction would take 18 months to two years once the developer has its permits and approvals in place.
The $24 million dollar question is, where will the multi-million health care facility be located?
Three sites eyed in Port Royal and Beaufort
VA is considering offers it received from three private entities that have proposed sites and conceptual designs for the clinic.
The draft environmental assessment says the three sites under consideration are:
▪ 28 acres at 708 Robert Smalls Parkway in Port Royal, on the northwest side of the road. The property is owned by Harold Trask Jr., according to Beaufort County property records. The wooded land consists of two vacant parcels. The Shadow Moss subdivision is located to the north.
▪ 16 wooded acres at 301 Robert Smalls Parkway, just within the city limits of Beaufort, north of its intersection with Goethe Hill Road. Its southern point is near a small group of residences. The land is owned by Myrtle Bush Farms LP, according to property records.
▪ An 11-acre plot off of Ribaut Road in Port Royal includes parcels owned by several parties: 1844 Ribaut Road (Beaufort Construction of South Carolina); 1830 Ribaut Road (Sea Island Apartments owned by property manager 303 Associates); and 1807 Rahn Lane (Scoggins All Terrain Clearing). The parcel is flanked by residential neighborhoods to the west, north and east. A small residential neighborhood sits behind the businesses.
Where are the current VA services?
The clinic will replace a much smaller and older VA primary clinic located within the Naval Hospital Beaufort, 1 Pinckney Blvd., Port Royal, a 127-acre secure military base with a history that began in the 1940s. The new facility is part of an expansion of community-based outpatient clinics by the VA’s Veterans Health Administration, which operates 170 VA hospitals in addition to 1,193 smaller outpatient sites nationwide.
In an environmental assessment of the new clinic, released in June, the VA said it expects community support for the new health care facility because it will improve timely access to state-of-the art health care services for veterans.
About 17,000 veterans live in Beaufort County, or roughly 11% of the population, compared to the state average of 8.1%, according to Census Reporter. The county is home to three major military bases, including U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Station Parris Island, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and the Naval Hospital.
What services would be offered?
The VA says the clinic would bring better services to veterans at a time of growing demand.
“Specifically, workload for ambulatory services and procedures and mental health services is projected to increase over the next 20 years,” the VA says in a lease prospectus.
The new facility, which will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be easier to access and will allow the VA to provide comprehensive primary care, mental health, ambulatory care to veterans “in a right-sized facility in a timely manner.” In addition, there would be an eye clinic, physical and occupational therapy, prosthetics, dental care and a lab and pharmacy.
The current space at the existing lease at the Naval Hospital is inadequate and undersized for the current and projected veteran workload demand for services, the VA says. The “net usable square footage” at the hospital for the VA is 8,453. It would be about 71,663 at the new facility.
About 100 new staff would be hired to work at the new clinic.
What’s happens next?
The project is in the “procurement phase,” said H. Wayne Capps, chief of stakeholder relations, public affairs and congressional relations for the VA’s Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System Charleston. Additional details, Capps said, won’t be shared until after the lease has been formally awarded.
“Leasing proposals have been submitted and are under review, with an award expected by the end of September,” Capps said.
Although the site has not been selected, whatever location is chosen would be cleared and graded for the new clinic, the VA says. The private entity would be responsible for designing and constructing the clinic, whose final design still is uncertain.
The current cost of the VA’s annual operating lease at the Naval hospital is $432,774. It would be $4.6 million at the new facility. The current least at the hospital expires Jan. 5, 2028.
What’s the future of the Naval Hospital?
The hospital provides general medical, surgical and emergency services to Marines at Marine Corp Recruit Depot Parris Island and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort as well as all retired military personnel and dependents residing in the Beaufort area.
Veterans can get primary care and some specialty services at the VA clinic within the larger hospital.
In its environmental assessment of the new clinic, the VA says the closure of the VA services “will result in no adverse effect to the operational hospital.”
Local officials are wondering about the future of the landmark hospital between Ribaut Road and the Beaufort River in light of recent developments.
In 2022, business leaders and community leaders convened a task force and hired a consultant to study potential future uses of the Naval Hospital. That move came after the Veterans Affairs Administration started shopping for land in northern Beaufort County to build the new outpatient clinic. About that same time the Navy announced plans to build a $150 million medical clinic at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
This story was originally published July 24, 2025 at 12:38 PM.
