Horry County leaders inching closer to buying land for rural civic arena
Horry County could have a site for its long-planned rural civic arena by the end of the summer, leaders said Thursday.
County leaders in recent months have been inching toward purchasing a piece of land for the complex. County council member Al Allen said Thursday that a land purchase isn’t likely in the next month, but could happen within the next six months.
“We’re shooting for a contract on land purchases as soon as practical for the county because this has been an ongoing thing for several years, and it’s time to get this train on down the track,” Allen told reporters.
The rural civic arena project is a planned large indoor and outdoor complex that could host events from weddings to rodeos to farm shows. County leaders have said they’re modeling the arena off of Clemson University’s T. Ed Garrison Arena in Pendleton.
It would be the first such agricultural complex in eastern South Carolina.
The county will have $2 million-$3 million to purchase property for the project, which is expected to take up at least 200 acres, according to county Parks and Recreation Director Paul McCulloch.
McCulloch presented a list Thursday of seven possible sites the county may purchase in western Horry County. Two of those sites are less than 200 acres in size and likely do not meet the county’s needs, McCulloch said.
“Two-hundred acres was kind of our baseline,” he said.
The other sites the county is studying include:
- 818 acres near the intersection of S.C. 22 and S.C. 319.
- 216 acres north of Aynor, along U.S. 501. This site is the former Rolling Hills Golf Course.
- 229 acres on S.C. 401, north of Baxter Forks.
- 1,138 acres on Hardwick Road, off of U.S. 501.
- 210 acres on Bay Water Road, off of S.C. 22. This site is also near the intersection of S.C. 22 and S.C. 319.
Allen said county staff will continue to conduct “due diligence” on the sites before the council votes to purchase a piece of property.
“Staff has got their assignment, and they’re doing a lot of due diligence because this will be a big project, an expensive one, and council wants to make sure that all of our i’s are dotted and our t’s are crossed,” he said.
Mock-ups of the civic center show the county would build several open-air arenas, a separate building for cattle, fields and paddocks for horses and other animals, parking lots, barns and office space. County leaders have said they’d like to include RV camping, shooting ranges and horse trails in the project as well.
The county currently has $2.4 million in the bank to buy land for the civic center, collected from annual $400,000 payments from Horry Electric Cooperative to the county. The county and the co-op are partnering on the project and the civic center’s main building would be large enough to host the co-op’s annual membership meetings. The co-op’s next $400,000 payment to the county could come before the county purchases land, meaning the county could have closer to $3 million.
County leaders have an additional $25 million in its budget to construct the arena.
“We’re still on track,” Allen said. “We just ain’t found a station to pull into yet.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Horry County leaders inching closer to buying land for rural civic arena."
