COASTAL OBSERVER

Two electric utilities are part of a bid for the former International Paper Co. mill in Georgetown, officials said this week.

Georgetown County, which has an agreement to share information with the utilities, says it is not part of any bid to acquire the site.

But the parties had a different view earlier this spring.

“I want you to understand why we’re the best group to take ownership of these properties,” Rob Ardis, chief executive of Santee Electric Co-op, wrote in a customer newsletter in April. “We aren’t profit-driven developers looking to ‘flip’ a property. We want to invest in the place where we live, work and serve.”

Ardis said this week that was “written with the blessing of all parties involved.”

State Rep. Lee Hewitt last week raised concerns that a bidder for the mill site that he introduced to local officials wasn’t aware of the “memorandum of understanding” the utilities and the county had signed in March. He said learned of it after meeting with Ardis and other officials at Santee Electric.

Hewitt’s unidentified bidder has a contract to buy the Liberty Steel mill site on the Georgetown waterfront. The county owns the former state port facility that sits between the two mills, which ended operations last year.

County Council Chairman Clint Elliott issued a statement last  week to address “speculation” that the county had agreed “to support or join Santee Cooper or Santee Electric in the purchase of the IP property. This is not true.”

The memorandum concerns “sharing information only.” It does not “obligate the county nor any resources,” according to the statement.

“They’ve come out and said they’re not a bidder,” Hewitt said this week, so he assumes the county wasn’t sharing information about competing bids. “I feel as good as I can, now that the county has clarified its position.”
“Now the ball’s in IP’s court,” he added.

Ardis used the same expression in an email clarifying Santee Electric’s position about the IP property.

“At their request, one letter of intent was submitted (on behalf of several interested parties) by Santee Cooper. I won’t speak on behalf of anyone else, but SEC is definitely one of those parties,” Ardis said.

The mill site is not in the co-op’s service area, but other IP property is. Santee Electric wants to develop that as an industrial park, Ardis said.

“We are also very interested in Santee Cooper managing the canal, because maintaining a good raw water source is critical for growth in the county and the city,” Ardis said. 

The 27-mile long canal from the Pee Dee River to Georgetown is among the IP property identified in the memorandum. So are two parcels the county is interested in: one by the former seaport, the other next to the airport.

“Santee Cooper has submitted a nonbinding proposal related to the IP property,” Nicole Aiello, the state-owned utility’s communications manager, said in an email. “Santee Cooper and our team have been part of the Georgetown community for decades, and we will continue to support Georgetown however we can.”

Stephen Goldfinch, a lawyer representing bidders who want to expand the mill’s existing biomass power plant, said he had not heard about Santee Cooper acquiring anything other than power from the IP site.

To buy IP assets, “Santee Cooper would have to come through me in multiple capacities,” said Goldfinch, who is also a state senator. 

Securing control of the IP canal would be a different matter, he said, but “we’re probably a year away from having that discussion.”

Goldfinch added that county officials had not shared any information about competing bids with the partners he represents. In addition to expanding the mill’s existing power plant, he said they plan to use the site for a sawmill, a data center and two other wood products companies.

Because the site requires extensive environmental cleanup, industrial uses are the only ones that make economic sense, Goldfinch said. A successful buyer will need to sign a “voluntary cleanup contract” with the state Department of Environmental Services to limit liability for existing contaminants and ensure they are removed.

The bidder who has a contract on the steel mill wants to make sure that future uses at the paper mill site don’t include smokestack industries, Hewitt said. The bidder plans a mixed-use development for the steel mill property.

Opposition to the biomass plant is being led by a group called Citizens for Georgetown, which has started an online petition to show support for redevelopment of the IP site without smokestacks.

Tom Swatzel, a political consultant and former County Council member, chairs the group and is its only publicly-identified member.

He said the petition, which has over 600 names, will be sent to International Paper’s realty division.

“Should International Paper decide to go forward with the Santee Cooper option, Santee Electric Cooperative will be part of the solution,” Ardis said, adding that the co-op “wants what’s best for the community and will support any successful bidder in any way we can.”

Correction: This article was updated from the print version to correct a typographical error. The word “not” was omitted from the paragraph, “Georgetown County, which has an agreement to share information with the utilities, says it is not part of any bid to acquire the site.”