Treating development projects as catalysts

Members of the Redevelopment Commission sorted out ongoing and future projects for the city of Beaufort and took at look at which ones will spark other growth opportunities during the first day of their annual retreat Wednesday.
Not only do they want to focus on projects that serve as catalysts, members want to expand the commission’s role in the community with help from ad hoc members and better partnerships with residents and businesses.
There’s a pile a projects facing the nine-member board, which technically has eight members right now due to a vacant seat.
Those projects range from getting businesses into vacant buildings downtown, like the Von Harten Bros. building on Carteret Street, to developing the Depot to take advantage of the Spanish-Moss Rail Trail project to turning vacant city properties into housing. And tying it all together is having the public infastructure — roads, sewers, parks, etc. — and financial incentives — loans, grants, free/reduced price property, lower licensing fees, etc. — to support the development projects.
“That's our job, to be the central point for everyone to come together,” commission member Henrietta Goode said.
The commission does not only look at public projects, but also private development opportunities. And developers, commission member Patrick Kase said, want the best opportunity to succeed.
“Developers looking at our community, they’re not splitting hairs," he said. "They’re looking at it and saying, 'Is there incentive, yes or no? I don’t care where it comes from. Or who owns it.'"
Commission members agreed focus needs to be on projects that can be successful and serve as catalysts for additional development and community improvements. Residents and developers need to see successful projects so they have examples of what can be done, Goode said.
"There's no reason for my committee, that's the commercial committee, to take on a project we're not going to get in progress," Martin Goodman said. "So we need to pick the one or two projects that we can do and archive the rest of them."
City officials are working on a master list of all the public and private projects on the horizon for the next few decades. After Wednesday's discussions at retreat, that list is being expanded to include partnership opportunities with organizations such as the Lowcounty Housing Trust.
Another focus of the retreat was working on master planning and projects with nonprofits, residents, businesses and the three major institutions in the city — the University of South Carolina Beaufort, the Technical College of the Lowcountry and Beaufort Memorial Hospital.
Along those lines, commission members want to bring in more residents as ad hoc members of subcommittees who can assist with specific projects and serve as liaisons to their neighborhood associations and other community groups.
Thursday, the Redevelopment Commission meets again from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., and then from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a joint meeting with City Council.
City Council will then meet from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and return for the rest of the retreat from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.
The retreat is open to the public. The groups meet in room 104 of the Center for the Arts, University of South Carolina Beaufort, 801 Carteret St.