Beaufort County offers $700K for vacant Parker’s lot in Port Royal. Here’s the plan
.jpeg "Beaufort County has approved the purchase of this lot at the corner of Ladys Island Drive and Ribaut Road, formerly a Parker’s gas station and convenience store, but the sale still needs to close. The county says it needs the land to facilitate improvements to the intersection.")
Beaufort County is on the verge of acquiring a vacant but key property that will figure prominently in the future reconfiguration of one of the busiest intersections north of the Broad River.
The property, a former Parker’s convenience store and gas station at 1451 Ribaut Road at Lady’s Island Drive in Port Royal, has sat vacant for more than a year prompting questions from residents about its future.
On Feb. 23, the County Council passed an ordinance to buy the land for $700,000.
Chairperson Alice Howard said Thursday the county is just waiting to close on the purchase.
The county is buying the land to preserve a critical corner of the Ribaut Road/Lady’s Island Drive intersection to support future intersection redesign improvements, Howard said.
About two miles of Ribaut Road, between the McTeer and Bell bridges, are slated for future improvements as funding becomes available.
The intersection is a bottleneck
The Ribaut Road-Lady’s Island intersection serves as a major gateway for vehicles traveling between Lady’s Island, the Sea Islands and Port Royal and Beaufort. In 2025, average daily traffic on Lady’s Island Drive between Meridian Drive on Lady’s Island and Casablanca Circle in Port Royal was 28,000 vehicles, according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
The congestion has turned the intersection into a bottleneck with vehicles typically backing up for long stretches on both Ribaut and Lady’s Island Drive during morning and evening rush hours, Howard noted.
“It’s terrible every afternoon,” Howard said.
County Council approves spending
Although the county doesn’t have the construction funding all lined up yet for the Ribaut Road improvements, it is proceeding with pre-construction planning.
On April 13, the County Council approved spending $151,205 to hire planning and design firm Kimley Horn to design a dedicated right turn lane for Lady’s Island Drive onto to Ribaut Road, including traffic signal modifications. The Parker’s land would facilitate this work.
Horn has already designed a similar right turn on Ribaut Road onto Lady’s Island Drive toward the McTeer Bridge and Lady’s Island.
The improvements are expected to reduce increased traffic volumes at the intersection.
Purchasing the Parker’s land will give the county options moving forward like adding more lanes, making accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists and improving stormwater drainage, Howard said.
“Acquiring the parcel at this time provides the county with strategic flexibility and reduces the likelihood that private redevelopment would constrain future improvement options or significantly increase acquisition costs,” county staff wrote in a report when the County Council voted to buy the land.
A for-sale sign was still standing on the property as of Thursday morning. The county hasn’t closed on the sale because it requires additional due diligence, Howard said. The property required a cleanup because it was formerly a gas station, Howard said.
This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 2:15 PM.
