Out of patience: new Port Royal mayor and council send developer a letter demanding action

Port Royal’s new mayor has only been on the job for a week and he and the town council are already out of patience with the developer who promised to deliver a world-class waterfront transformation.

The town’s residents and leaders are frustrated with the lack of progress on the remaking of its treasured waterfront and drawing a line in the sand with the developer Safe Harbor Marinas. In a six-page letter penned Dec. 14 to the major marina operator, the town’s elected officials are demanding answers on why they’ve seen little progress in the two years since Safe Harbor purchased the property. The town is also threatening breach of the development agreement if Safe Harbor keeps using the property to build docks that have nothing to do with the Port Royal redevelopment.

The letter was addressed to Peter Clark, Dallas-based Safe Harbor Marina’s chief development officer but also sent to other top Safe Harbor brass. In it, the town outlines a host of concerns that reveal its frustrations with the pace of the project for the Battery Creek shoreline that some refer to as the front porch of the community.

Among the frustrations: The “impermissible” use of the Battery Creek property for manufacturing operations not tied specifically to the Port Royal development, continued development delays, missed deadlines and a lack of communication about the status of the work.

Those concerns aren’t new. Residents have been publicly complaining for months about huge cranes assembling docks on the property and plans for rental townhouses. Meanwhile, town officials and attorneys have been privately having conversations with Safe Harbor and among themselves in executive sessions about the status of the plans.

But the letter was the first time the town put all of its concerns in writing and placed Safe Harbor on notice that it expects better. It comes just more than a month after the Nov. 7 election that saw Kevin Phillips win the mayor’s seat after campaigning on more transparency, accountability and communication over the waterfront development. Phillips took office on Dec. 13.

“The letter is not in any way meant to be confrontational,” Phillips said. “We want to have a great relationship with Safe Harbor and we want them to be successful.”

Town Council members, Phillips said, just want Safe Harbor to work with the town on plans that will better fit the makeup of the town.

The letter, which was crafted by the Town Council and signed by Phillips, sets deadlines when the town expects answers from Safe Harbor to its questions.

“Your purchase of the Property was announced with great fanfare, and was viewed by the Town Council of the Town of Port Royal, as the governing body of the Town, and our citizens as a welcome change after years of wasted opportunity by the former owners,” the letter says.

It continues: “Despite initial momentum, the Town is concerned about the lack of quantifiable development.”

Safe Harbor’s Clark did not respond to an email request for comment.

Safe Harbor purchased the former South Carolina State Ports Authority property from Gray Ghost Properties, which had bought the land from the South Carolina Ports Authority for $9 million in 2017 on Nov. 12 2021, for $20.5 million with the intent of building a 300-slip marina, hundreds of homes and commercial properties. Town residents would like to see additional restaurants and services.

At the time, the town notes, Jason Hogg, Safe Harbor’s chief investment officer, said, “We look forward to working with the town of Port Royal to create a world class boating destination.”

The letter notes that Safe Harbor recently passed the two-year anniversary of the purchase and, to the town’s knowledge, no construction has occurred on the marina, the residential neighborhoods or other facets of the project. Safe Harbor has completed a considerable amount of site preparation work, including the demolition of the former South Carolina Ports Authority terminal and improvements to a large boat storage facility. It’s also working with state and federal permitting authorities.

In advance of the acquisition of the 300 acres, the town and Safe Harbor negotiated a revised development agreement for a unit development plan on July 14. Those documents set planning and construction deadlines that are either quickly approaching or have passed.

The first phase of the development schedule, from 2021-2023, provides that construction of the marina and the Bluff Neighborhood would begin. The park sites and pedestrian promenade system, designed to accommodate and link future phases of development, were supposed to begin that time frame too.

“To the Town’s knowledge, none of the construction for the infrastructure, the Marina, the Bluff Neighborhood or Ribaut Village have commenced,” the town writes. “Additionally, no action has been taken on the residential areas such that those parcels will be available for sale in 2023 and conversations regarding the Dock Facilities and the Seafood Facilities have stalled.”

To date, Safe Harbor also has failed to get approval for a master plan from the town, another requirement before construction can begin, the letter says.

In the letter, the town requests that Safe Harbor advise it on the status of the development timing of the various tracts in the property no later than Jan. 12.

Here’s the town’s top concerns, as outlined in the letter:

Stop manufacturing docks now

The letter is formal notice, the town says, that assembling docks at the site unrelated to the development in Port Royal violates the planned unit development, which anticipated light industry such as boat building. Docks are being assembled but shipped to other Safe Harbor properties.

The town has treated the dock building as a temporary use until now.

“However, given the scale, lack of substantive marina improvements (related to the Project) and continued manufacturing of other dock facilities, the Town demands that all such operations permanently cease and be removed by no later than January 12, 2024,” the letter says.

However, if Safe Harbor can provide written evidence that the regulatory approvals and permits for the actual development of the marina and the accessory dock facilities will be received prior to Jan. 31, the town is willing to discuss allowing the construction equipment to remain on the property to expedite the marina development.

Absent written confirmation of permit approval, the deadline for ending industrial activities will be enforced “as a material breach of the Development Agreement and other applicable Town ordinances.”

‘Unequivocally opposed’ to rentals

In August, Charleston-based The Beach Company, working with Safe Harbor on The Bluff housing portion of the project, unveiled a plan to build 205 townhouses on Battery Creek that would be for rent, not for sale. The town says in the letter that it is “unequivocally opposed” to those plans.

At the time, The Beach Company said a “perfect storm” of site challenges drove up infrastructure costs, requiring a pivot to rentals. It cited elevated levels of pollution in a former railroad bed known as the “Magnolia line” and a big grade change. The town’s eleted officials are skeptical that explanation and they don’t understand how the project is too contaminated for individual property owners, but not too contaminated for the proposed rentals. The town is asking Safe Harbor if and why The Beach Company is still involved and if Safe Harbor has talked to any other developers. It has asked for a written response to its questions no later than Jan. 12.

Talks stagnate on dock, seafood facility

The town also wants assurances that Safe Harbor will work with it to build a new shrimp boat dock and seafood processing facility near Fishcamp on 11th Street and that Safe Harbor will grant an easement needed through its property to facilitate an extension of the Spanish Moss Trail to the waterfront.