GEORGETOWN — A New Jersey developer insists he still wants to transform Georgetown’s waterfront, though it’s unclear how that will happen after an agreement to purchase Liberty Steel’s crumbling mill was scrapped this month.
"We believe in Georgetown, that will never change,” Warren Waters, founder and principal of River Development Equities, told a crowd of about 200 Sept. 24 at Winyah Auditorium. "You can take the contract away from us, but you’re not going to take Georgetown away from us."
Waters spent well over a year trying to acquire Georgetown's former steel mill site, but the deal unraveled when his team sought more time to finish its environmental analysis of the 66-acre property and secure needed zoning approvals from the city.
As the Liberty contract deadline arrived, Waters said he ultimately terminated the agreement after he couldn’t come to terms with the steelmaker on an extension.
"We have spent an inordinate amount of money to be able to get here, but we did so because we believe in Georgetown," Waters said. "We have not only spent serious money, but our professional team spent literally every minute that they had working on this project to advance it."
Last week, Liberty Steel said its contract with River Development had been canceled and it would be "actively engaged with other parties on a potential transaction." Just hours before Thursday’s meeting, the steelmaker indicated it was open for more negotiations.
But the River Development team was clear during the meeting that the two sides remain at an impasse.
"Unless we can come to some new agreement with Liberty Steel, we’re standing up here done," said Nathan Schutte, a principal at Charleston-based architecture firm McMillan Pazdan Smith, which is working with River Development. "We had a lot of things in motion. We had a lot of momentum, a lot of movement. We needed more time."
Relics of Georgetown’s storied industrial past still loom over the city, long after the powerhouse factories that fueled them have quieted — Liberty Steel’s concrete spires along Front Street and International Paper’s tower on the other side of U.S. Highway 17.
Waters’ team wants both properties as part of a grand vision: bringing in manufacturing, assembly and technology companies to the former International Paper site to help replace the hundreds of jobs that were eliminated when the paper mill closed in late 2024; and transforming the nearby former steel mill into a hub for tourism, hospitality and a newfound tax base that would pour millions into city and county coffers.
"Without getting this completed, we believe the loss of prosperity everybody would have shared would be irreplaceable," Waters said.
Although the steel mill has long been an industrial site, River Development officials have said they would like to see the property emerge as a bustling waterfront with shops, bars, restaurants, a hotel, an amphitheater and an extension of the city's Harbor Walk.
The company’s portfolio includes:
On March 11, River Development and state regulators finalized a for the Liberty Steel location, agreeing to environmental remediation in exchange for tax credits and liability protection critical for financing.
If River Development is unwilling or unable to complete the work, the cleanup contract would be terminated and the developer would not be eligible for the liability protections of the agreement, said Vanessa Diaz, a spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Environmental Services. Should another group want to buy the property for redevelopment, then a new cleanup contract would be needed.
City's rezoning moratorium raises concerns
Some of the speakers at Thursday's meeting were critical of the city's approach to development, specifically the moratorium on zoning changes that city officials approved earlier this year.
After the election of Jay Doyle as mayor last year, Doyle said the city needed to halt all zoning changes until a new comprehensive plan could be approved. The zoning moratorium he proposed received final approval in February.
"Capital goes where it's welcome," said Markus Kastenholz of the commercial real estate firm Colliers International. "And when a city knows what a developer's intentions are and the first thing we hear about is a zoning moratorium, that’s not exactly holding up a welcome sign."
Kastenholz said his firm had been looking for potential users for the steel mill site, including retail and medical options as well as a waterside brewery.
"Once they heard about a moratorium, the pencils went down," he said. "They just told us to let them know when we're ready. We're still waiting to tell them that."
He pointed out that last month the city extended the rezoning moratorium for another 90 days.
Like others, he expressed disappointment about the status of the project.
"Instead of talking about the excitement, we're sitting in an auditorium talking about how the most transformative project in the city's history has collapsed. It's pretty heartbreaking."
Doyle attended the meeting but left afterwards and couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
But emails The Post and Courier obtained through a public records request show how the mayor sought to shape the redevelopment.
"Our region is heavily reliant on the timber industry for many reasons, and any industry we can bring in that creates jobs using timber will be a huge lift for the entire region," Doyle told Julianne Dunning, River Development's executive director of project development, in a June 5 email. "Your development will be on the doorstep of a vibrant community with top notch services. Currently, our city limps along, relying heavily on the income of our utilities."
The messages followed an April trip that Doyle made to Finland with a group from Clemson University and the S.C. Forestry Commission in an effort to recruit businesses to Georgetown.
In another email to Dunning, Doyle asked that she join a conference call with the S.C. Department of Commerce about two timber-related businesses he was recruiting to the city: a biomass company and a manufacturer (The names of the companies were not identified in the records released by the city).
Doyle later wrote on June 5 that he had hoped to sit down with Waters to talk about the impact of the steel site redevelopment on the city.
By forming a partnership between River Development and the city, he wrote, "we can turn Georgetown into a world class city with your development as its cornerstone."
But the mayor also included words of caution.
"Without a vibrant plan to assist the city, getting the city to approve tall buildings on the steel mill property will be a tough sell," Doyle wrote. "This is not a threat; I know my city and how they react to anything new, or different. Just check Facebook."
‘Past tense’
For lifelong Georgetown County residents like Marilyn Hemingway, a reimagined Liberty Steel complex would be welcomed.
She stressed the importance of bringing high-paying jobs and investment in small businesses.
"We want to be intentional with a broad approach, so that all boats are lifted in this community," said Hemingway, CEO and founder of the Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce.
Cal Harrelson, a staunch supporter of River Development’s vision, said local officials were blown away when his company made the pitch.
"When y'all first came out with all of these plans, the city of Georgetown was more excited than it's ever been. ... (even) than we were when we ran the British out of here 250 years ago," he said.
Former mayor Carol Jayroe — whose administration ended a short time after Waters approached the city — noted the weighty tone he adopted Thursday.
“The city residents were more excited about this project than any I've ever seen in my lifetime," she said. "They are sad tonight that everything is in the past tense. ... Because it’s over. For now, it is over."
Despite the disappointment over the Liberty contract, Waters stressed that his firm still has plans for the community and is trying to chart a path forward, including with the International Paper property.
"We're not going anywhere," he said. "We're not disappearing."