Group wants $500,000 to market new port in South Carolina

The Lowcountry Economic Alliance wants to market the area around the port.

The Associated Press

9/5/2008

BEAUFORT, S.C. — A public-private nonprofit group wants to secure funding from the South Carolina Department of Commerce to ensure the area is ready for business when a new Jasper County shipping terminal opens.

The Beaufort Gazette reports Friday that the Lowcountry Economic Alliance wants the $500,000 to be used to market the area around the deep-water terminal for business development.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority agreed in July to purchase more than 1,500 acres of land to build the $500 million shipping terminal. The agency's counterpart in Georgia also agreed to buy the land on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, just downstream from Savannah.

The two states plan to split the $7.6 million cost of the property.

Another portion of the funds would be used by the Savannah River Maritime Commission, which represents the state in navigability and dredging matters on the Savannah River, to hire staff dedicated to the bi-state port.

The hope is that a full-time staff and the marketing efforts would push the port opening date from 2017 to 2014 to coincide with the widening of the Panama Canal.