Project Patriot, an economic development project, has not purchased nearly 300 acres at Hodges Corporate Park in Greenwood County.
It has, however, been given the right to try.
A May 20 agreement obtained by the Index-Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request provides one of the clearest public pictures yet of what Project Patriot actually holds in Greenwood County and what the company can do with the property and what happens if the project never materializes.
The agreement assigns Greenwood County’s existing purchase options on about 287.5 acres at Hodges Corporate Park to Patriot Land Holdings SC LLC, identified in the document as the company currently known as “Project Patriot.”
During a June tour the Index-Journal took of Greenwood County’s industrial sites, Economic Development Director James Bateman described Hodges Corporate Park as privately owned but publicly controlled, with the county holding the purchase and marketing rights to the property.
Those rights allow economic development officials to present privately owned land to prospective industries while the owners retain possession of it.
Bateman later described the most basic function of the county’s land options as establishing “price and availability” for prospective industries. Without guaranteed price and availability, he said, Greenwood would not be competitive for many projects.
Having control of a site also allows the county to conduct due diligence and pursue programs intended to make the property more competitive before a company commits to buying it.
“Without the public control, we can neither market it nor can we advance it,” Bateman said.
The assignment allows the company to study whether the site is feasible for its proposed project before deciding whether to exercise those purchase options.
It does not amount to a sale.
The agreement covers about 287.5 acres through five underlying land agreements and 11 tax map numbers. The county’s underlying options on those properties run through Nov. 2, 2030.
Patriot’s rights do not.
The land remains privately owned. The county holds contracts giving it the right to buy the property. The May agreement temporarily gives Patriot Land Holdings the ability to exercise those rights for its project.
A temporary assignment
Under the agreement, Patriot’s assignment lasts until the earliest of several events.
The company can exercise its rights and purchase the property, determine the Hodges site is no longer viable for Project Patriot, reach the end of its assignment term or lose the assignment if Greenwood County Council approves another qualifying economic development project for the property.
The initial assignment was anticipated to run through Feb. 28, 2027, about nine months after the agreement took effect. The agreement also provides for a possible one-time extension of up to 30 days.
If Patriot does not exercise the options during that period, its assigned rights automatically revert to Greenwood County.
The company also cannot use the assignment for an unrelated project. The agreement limits the rights to the economic development or industrial project presented to the county as Project Patriot.
Bateman said the arrangement gives a prospect time to determine whether Hodges is the best site for its project before committing to purchase hundreds of acres.
A company could be studying properties in multiple communities at the same time, Bateman said. Only the site that ultimately proves most suitable would move toward purchase.
No money changes hands simply because the county assigns its purchase rights to a prospect. Money would change hands if the company ultimately exercises those rights and purchases the property.
Hodges remains on the market
Greenwood County can continue marketing the property to other manufacturing projects while Patriot studies the site.
“During this assignment, the property is still on the market. The county can still market it. We’re not sitting idle for months,” Bateman said.
The agreement specifically allows the county to transfer the options or sell the property to another “Qualified Economic Development Project,” defined as a manufacturing project anticipating at least $250 million in investment and at least 250 new jobs.
“The Patriot assignment is non-exclusive,” Bateman said. “We haven’t tied ourselves to only Patriot for that amount of time.”
That distinction is important in understanding what the May agreement represents.
Greenwood County does not own the property, but it has agreements with property owners giving the county the right to buy the land. Those agreements allow the county to market the site to prospective companies without having to buy hundreds of acres before a company commits to locating there.
In Patriot’s case, the county temporarily assigned those purchase rights to a specific prospect so the company can more closely evaluate the property.
If Patriot ultimately decides to exercise the options, the agreement generally requires the company to purchase the full assemblage rather than select individual parcels.
The agreement says Patriot has no right to purchase fewer than all of the properties, with the parcels generally required to close concurrently.
If circumstances outside the company’s control prevent one parcel from closing at the same time, the agreement establishes a process for addressing that property while requiring Patriot to continue commercially reasonable efforts to acquire all 11 parcels.
The agreement also includes protections if Patriot purchases the property but the project does not proceed.
If construction on Project Patriot does not begin within the period required by the agreement, Greenwood County can demand that the property be sold back to the county or its designee at the same purchase price Patriot paid.
What is happening at Hodges now?
The Patriot assignment remains in effect, Bateman said Aug. 11.
There is already physical work underway at the Hodges Corporate Park, but that work predates Project Patriot. Bateman said the field work occurring at the site is part of Greenwood County’s own due diligence through the S.C. Department of Commerce Palmetto Sites program and certification. The work is intended to make the site more competitive for industrial prospects generally.
Due diligence can include wetlands delineation, environmental assessments, endangered species reviews, archaeological and historical studies and other work intended to determine how much of a property can actually be developed.
County officials said having that information available allows them to answer questions from prospective industries so potential site issues don’t eliminate the property from consideration.
The Palmetto Sites program also helps fund that work. Bateman said Greenwood County pays about one-quarter of eligible due diligence costs while the state covers the remaining three-quarters.
What remains unknown
What Project Patriot plans to build remains undisclosed.
The agreement contains an Exhibit B stating that Project Patriot, for purposes of the agreement and exercising the underlying land options, “must include” certain characteristics.
Those characteristics are redacted from the copy released to the Index-Journal.
County officials also declined during the Aug. 11 interview to say whether Project Patriot would be affected by Greenwood County’s recently adopted 12-month data center moratorium or whether the project could proceed under the county’s current zoning rules.
“I think the problem with answering that question, we’re going to need to stick with we don’t comment on active projects,” County Manager Toby Chappell said. “If we say one way, then that tells you it was something. If we tell you another way, it inadvertently tells you it was something.”
“I think it’s better for us just to say we don’t comment on active economic development projects,” Chappell said.
Asked whether Patriot could proceed under the county’s current zoning ordinance if it exercised its options and acquired the Hodges property, Chappell said, “Again, that’s just another way of answering the same question.”
Bateman added that uncertainty surrounding development in Greenwood could affect how quickly a prospect decides to spend money studying a site.
Architects, engineers, designers and other consultants cost money, he said, and companies want to know they have a clear path forward before committing those resources.
Bateman said the Patriot assignment remains in effect, but it could still expire or be terminated. “We still need that due diligence,” he said.
For now, Patriot has not purchased land in Hodges Corporate Park, the county continues preparing and marketing the site, and the clock on the company’s temporary right to pursue the property continues to run.